My Buddy

UT to MD to NH to VT to NY to VT to NY to UT

Holy traveling Batman!

After a week of being away, Sam and I have safely returned home! We had such a fun time with all of our East Coast friends! We returned with lots of photos, bug bites and fun memories.

Over the weekend we headed to my friend Shannon's (some of you know her as Sister Harmon) house on Lake Champlain. Within an hour of arriving Sam was in the water. As you can see, I barely got his shorts off. Eventually we got him stripped to a swim diaper. He must have been in the water for an hour and a half. I think we have lots of swimming ahead of us this year. :)

Lovin' the Ladies

Sam likes girls.

Yesterday I took photos of our friends and Sam was flirting with little Miss C.

Apparently we need to work on his skills with the ladies. His big move to get her attention was to sit on her lap.

Seriously dude? Be a gentleman.

Why I Love Extra Buttermilk

Every once in awhile extra buttermilk pops up at our house. My mom or I will make something that called for buttermilk and we end up with a ton left. Apparently I was brainwashed at an early age by my mom, grandmas, and great-grandmas because the only thing you can POSSIBLY do with extra buttermilk is make Texas Sheet Cake.

I love me some Texas Sheet Cake. So does my husband, my mom, my dad, and my siblings. My bosses love it now because I made them Texas Sheet Cake cupcakes. It is DELICIOUS! It literally disappears when I make it. Tonight my mom brought me some buttermilk she had leftover from making ranch dressing. She knew what was going to happen. I think she's hoping that some will make it to her house.

Because I'm feeling especially nice and because I'm on a sugar high resulting from eating the frosting (its like fudge on a cake), I'm going to give you the recipe that my mom uses. WONDERFUL!!!

Texas Sheet Cake

Ingredients

1 cup butter (2 cubes)

4 tablespoons baking cocoa

1 cup water

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs 

½ cup buttermilk

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Bring butter, cocoa, and water to a boil. In a separate bowl, mix, flour sugar, and salt together. Pour hot mixture over the dry ingredients while beaters are going. Add eggs, buttermilk, soda, and vanilla. Batter will be very wet. Pour into a greased and floured cookie sheet and bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes. Make frosting just before cake is done.

Frosting

Ingredients

½ cup of butter (1 cube)

6 tablespoons milk.

4 tablespoons cocoa

Dash of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 (1 lb) box of powdered sugar

½ cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

Bring butter, milk, cocoa, salt, and vanilla to a boil. Pour over the powdered sugar, and beat until smooth. Add nuts if you want. Pour over cake 10 minutes after removing from the oven. Cool completely.

Note: If you don't have any buttermilk, you can substitute milk. Simply add 1 TBSP of vinegar to 1 cup of milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes.