Let Them Eat Cake....

Adam and I celebrated our 5th anniversary this weekend. Technically, its the friday after Thanksgiving (and it's technically not our "official" anniversary) - but we'll be in Wash, MO that weekend and busy, so we decided to celebrate a little early.

It was a humble celebration - a nice dinner out and cake. I asked Adam friday evening what kind of cake he'd like as his gift. As I scrolled through the food blog I read regularly, he spotted a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake recipe. This is what he picked. "Are you SURE?" I asked as I read the ingredients and steps involved. "Yep". Well, let me tell you it was worth every ounce of energy and every last calorie.

First of all, credit where credit is due. Smitten Kitchen puts out some fabulous recipes. Find this cake here.

I'm kind of new to double layer cakes and frosting and all that jazz, so its definitely not as pretty as I'd hoped, but DO NOT BE FOOLED! It is the most amazing cake that will ever pass your lips! Behold:

The chocolate deliciousness on top is a layer of ganache. It is almost too much. Almost.

How do we keep our slim figures while eating stuff like this? Well, me - I don't think I'm keeping my slim figure these days. But Adam continues to do his cyclocross racing. Here are some nice shots from today. I guess I could possibly work off like one of those tiny crumbs on the plate by running around taking pictures of Adam racing his bike.

It looks like somebody ate that cake a little too fast.... Oh, wait its just mud.

Apples and Salmon and Pumpkins - Oh My!

I know. It's been a while. But there's a very good excuse: missing camera cord. I have several blogs worth of pictures and stories to share, but I think I'm just going to condense the last month for you all.

The first story includes our venture to the Heirloom Apple Festival in the Mt. Hood Valley. It was filled with a delightful barbeque lunch, a demonstration cooking of apple butter in a huge cooper kettle and, of course, apple tasting. This sounded like a harmless, even healthful activity for myself to enjoy. Well, let's just say after about 15 out of 80 varieties were tasted, I couldn't really feel my tongue anymore, much less taste apples. Oh, and it's not so great on the tummy either. However, it was very interesting to read about and see that many varieties of hundreds of years old apples. We bought many many pounds and, of course, MADE STUFF (applesauce) with them.

Next on our adventure list is a nice hike through Eagle Creek (another worthy Gorge hike listed in our handy-dandy Curious Gorge book). We thought we were just going to stretch our legs and hike a couple of hours, but we were pleasantly surprised that there was an incredible salmon run going on up the creek. I have never seen anything like this before.... This was definitely the last stop for these salmon. It was very eerie, but interesting!

Punchbowl Falls

Eight months here. The turkey timer is saying it's almost time!

In other worthy news, David Ruether came and visited us over Halloween weekend. It was quite a treat to have a visitor! He was very good company, and we definitely won over our street with he and Adam's pumpkin carving skills. I must brag that our jack-o-lanterns were the very best on the block. Good work guys. Also on all-hallows-eve, the boys made another batch of home brew. Adam went with an Irish Chocolate Stout this time, as his English Style Porter is almost gone now. This should be ready to go right about the time the baby is here.  I made sure I put my two cents in on what kind it would be since it's ME who hasn't gotten to partake in any libations recently (or for 8 months actually). Needless to say, I'm excited to have a drink every once in a while again.

Aren't those guys handsome?

We also got to do some exploring out of Horsethief Butte - great views!

Looking out over the Columbia into Oregon.