key lime cake, chocolate chip cookies, quinoa salad & cheddar jalapeno muffins = birthday picnic

i made the cake!
photo below. i added a layer of lime curd instead of frosting and frosting in the other layer.
the lime curd was great. i had extra whipped cream and frosting and an extra cake layer so please note the extra, sloppy cake in the background.
it tasted great.

it was a smashing success. one person told me to become a professional baker, and many others ate this cake even when they were not looking to eat a bunch of sugary stuff.

i served them at a picnic with these chocolate chip cookies from Joy of Cooking. a recipe from the 40s. it is, in my humble opinion, the best chocolate chip cookie out there.

and this quinoa salad which was yuuuuummy. it also got gobbled up.

but the biggest hit overall were these muffins. do not go another week without making these muffins. they were a huge hit.

tada!

it's foggy here in new york which means i'm happy snappy. i love fog and miss it so much. every foggy day here is a good for me.

Hot in the city! Hot in the city tonight! Tonight! (New York!)

Well, I have the flu again. It's so tedious I won't go into it. Seeing my dr and hopefully getting rid of this blasted thing once and for all.

BUT.

I have gotten time to organize my home a bit more which is always good. And I thought I'd share with you Jon's and my dinner last night - we got to enjoy the fruits of our labor... literally! Ooh- my humor is too good, too good. ... Sigh.

We had a Caprese Salad with plum tomatoes and basil from our garden, and fresh mozzarella cheese from NYC which is always a treat. Oooohhh-wee it was delicious. Fresh basil... right from our garden! Kind of amazing.

And I had to snap a few photos of my darling, Yoda, who always helps me organize and sew. His specialties are: 1) eating while we're asleep (apparently, since he is quite large and I almost never see him eat); 2) lounging; 3) snuggles. He does all of these with all of the sincerity he approaches life, which is quite noticeable.

Summer is a pain in the ass. I am NOT looking forward to taking the subway to the dr's... but hey, in a few weeks the temps will start dropping and I will be THE HAPPIEST person in the world. Because then the best weather in the world is on its way - Fall.