This is my go to company cake. I usually have all the ingredients on hand, and it is pretty easy to whip up (especially with child labor). Plus, it is delicious. Anything with a pound of butter is good. Real good.
Million Dollar Pound Cake
(Recipe from Southern Living)
1 pound butter, softened
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs (at room temp)
4 cups all purpose flour (sifted)
¾ cup milk
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Beat butter at medium speed until creamy. The butter needs to turn a light yellow color. I usually leave it going in the stand mixer for about 8 minutes. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat on medium until fluffy and white. The longer you beat it the better (at least another 5 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until the yellow yolk disappears.
Add flour to the creamed mixture, alternating with milk. The recipe says that it is important to begin and end with the flour mixture. Not sure if it makes the cake taste better or just gives the Southern Living gods a good laugh that we actually do it. Beat at a low speed after each addition until lumps disappear. Stir in extracts.
Pour into a greased (shortening or butter) bundt pan. Grease it good. You didn’t take four years off your stand mixer’s life to have the cake stick to the pan.
Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 40 minutes, or until a pick in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 to 15 minutes before removing from the pan, then cool completely on a wire rack before serving.
Truth be told, I don’t particularly like sharing this cake with company, but it does prevent me from eating the entire thing. Anything with a pound of butter is bad. Real bad.
I don’t want to be one of those people but thank God it is Friday. This week about did me in. Nothing in particular or particularly bad, just the same “too busy” as everyone else. The load always feels heavier the first few weeks of school, doesn’t it?
And it doesn’t help that Graham decided he is ready to call it quits. “First grade would be fine if it wasn’t for all the work.”
It’s going to be a long (hopefully no more than) twelve years.
Friday Four
1. Ice Ice Baby
I like to keep our outside freezer stocked with popsicles so the neighborhood kids think I’m cool. This past spring I picked up Wyler’s Italian Ices instead of the usual Fla-Vor-Ice. At some point over the summer I tried one and immediately hid the rest on the top shelf. They are so good. Like, can’t stop eating them, hide all the wrappers good. I’m not really a popsicle person so I thought it might just be the 100 degree temps getting to me. Nope. My friend Keena texted me and told me I needed to try them while I was eating one. She confirmed what I already knew and we devised a strategy to purchase all remaining boxes in the metro Jackson area.
You think I am kidding.
I sort of wish I was. Wells and Graham got embarrassed when I climbed up the Walmart shelf to get the boxes at the back.
I also cleaned out Big Lots in Laurel. Wells told me he thinks I have a problem.
Popsicles are seasonal, people. I have to stock up now or I won’t make it through the winter.
And no, I do not share these with the neighborhood kids. Or my own kids.
2. Hope these Birks are still Enstock
After ordering two pairs of the same sandal (in different colors), I promised myself I would lay off the Amazon Prime shoes for the summer. I broke it like a boss the second I saw these Birkenstocks.
They got me with the gold fringe. I tried to find a photo wearing them but this is the best I could come up with…
Ninety nine percent of the photos I am in look identical to the one above. What am I looking at? Why doesn’t the person with the camera give a little warning? Why are my nostrils flared? Why doesn’t someone make me wash my hair?
I will say the shoes are a littttttle noisy. That fringe clangs and sounds like a gypsy woman in a belly dancing class.
But they are cute and comfortable. (Just don’t try to sneak up on anyone while wearing them.)
3. Philodendrons are the New Fiddle Fig
I love a fiddle leaf fig as much as the next person. They look fabulous but are hard to keep happy. I’m too high maintenance to have house plants that are also. I got this split leaf philodendron at Home Depot and I love it. It’s so pretty and doesn’t lose leaves if I raise my voice or look at it funny. I think we are going to be very happy together.
4. Apples are Overrated
The boys like to give their teachers a happy when they meet for the first time. You’ve heard enough about my kids to know this isn’t a bad idea. I usually send a bud vase filled with spray roses, but they wanted something different this year. I filled a little Peter’s Pottery (made in Mound Bayou, MS) punch cup with gold paperclips.
I definitely wouldn’t mind having one on my desk. Not that I would be able to see it for all the popsicle wrappers.
I’m linking up with A Liz. and the gang for Five on Friday. Um, even though I am one short.
A couple of weeks ago I introduced Wells and Graham to The Parent Trap. I never went to summer camp, unless you count pretending to be at Camp Inch for three summers straight. (I also pretended that I had a long lost twin, but I’ll save that for another day.) Before I started the movie, they told me they’d already seen it. I explained that we were watching the original and that Lindsay ain’t got nothing on Haley Mills. Wells loved it, but Graham lost interest when he realized Lohan wasn’t in it.
“Why do they look like boys, Mama?”
Because they are wholesome, Graham. That’s why.
To fulfill my childhood dreams, both boys go to summer camp. Graham went to day camp during June. He wasn’t very excited.
He signed up with his best bud Keaton. The camp is called Twin Lakes, so it just felt right.
#twinning
One morning on the way to drop off, we were discussing healthy choices. Graham said, “Whatever. I see you smoking cigarettes in the garage while dad is inside eating brownies.”
I promise I don’t smoke. You’ll have to talk to SK about the brownies.
(The other night I told him it was bedtime, but he didn’t want to go to sleep. I explained that I was really tired and needed to go to sleep too. He said, “Mama, when I go to bed you stuff ice cream in your face and watch movies. You do. I saw you.” There is no telling what this kid shares with his teachers.)
Last year, Wells came home from camp wearing only one shoe. This year, Graham came home one day wearing someone else’s shirt. His was in his bag. He really felt bad for the shirtless kid.
oops
The last night of day camp is a sleepover. Last year, Keaton and Graham declined and slept in their own beds. This year, they decided to stay.
We took Wells out to dinner. When the waiter asked what we were celebrating Wells responded, “being the only child for a night.”
Graham survived and even managed to come home with his own clothes.
He also came home with four dollars in quarters plus the money we sent with him. When we asked him where the extra came from, he told us he sold his snacks for money.
“They were begging for food. I had to do it.”
We told him he could’ve just shared his snacks. He said he didn’t think of that.
being a hustler will wear you slap out
In July, Wells went to overnight camp. He had been to day camp for three years prior, and was ready to stay the week. I, however, was not ready. After several discussions about hygiene, ticks and sharing vs. selling snacks, we dropped him off at camp.
After Hayden showed me his full size can of Axe body spray, I felt much better about the hygiene situation.
I spent most of the week pretending Wells was in the bathroom. We couldn’t talk to him while he was gone, but we did send him letters every day.
And we waited patiently to receive one from him. Patient like a mental patient rocking back and forth by the mailbox. I was so happy to finally hear from him.
The camp did post pictures once a day, so we got to see what he was up to. And that he was still in one {shirtless} piece.
We were so happy to see him when we picked him up from camp. But G was especially happy.
Wells had a great week and managed to bathe, change clothes and wash his hair. He came home with zero dollars. When we asked him what he bought, he said he paid to cut in the “super long” cotton candy and popsicle lines.
Oh, and despite my warnings, he came home with a tick. In his hair.
