Playing Around

with our precious Layla and the camera...

Yummy

I made this last night. We ate it today at work. It is fabulous. It's a cake without tasting cake-like. That's good news for me because I don't especially like cake.

Caramel Apple Cake
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Vanilla or French Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
1 cup water
3 eggs (as directed on cake box)
1/3 cup oil
3 green apples, peeled, coarsely chopped
20 KRAFT Caramels -or- Caramel Topping sauce in a jar
3 Tbsp. milk (not needed if you use caramel topping)

HEAT oven to 350ºF. GREASE and flour 12-cup fluted tube pan or 10-inch tube pan. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, water, eggs and oil in large bowl with mixer on low speed until blended. Beat on high speed 2 min. Stir in apples. Pour into prepared pan. BAKE 50 min. to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan 15 min. Loosen cake from side of pan; invert onto wire rack. Gently remove pan. Cool cake completely. Transfer to plate.

MICROWAVE caramels and milk in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 min., stirring every 30 sec. until blended. Cool 10 min. or until slightly thickened. Drizzle over cake.
-OR-
MICROWAVE caramel topping in bowl, drizzle over cake immediately.

Makes 16 servings

Sweetness

Last week I came from an exhausting day at work and found this on our entryway mirror...

And then this...

My husband is truly the sweetest man I've known. He thinks of these things all on his own and surprises me at just the right time with them.

That night I had the most relaxing bubble bath while John did the dishes and the laundry. Hands off ladies, he's mine. :)

Grad School

Monday night was the first session of my first class at Grad School. It was so crazy to be back in a classroom. It seemed just like college, except all the students are "older" and more professional looking. I think I was one of the youngest in the room. I sat in the front row, because I actually want to learn...and it never hurts to be friendly with the teacher. (I taught my husband that.)
I'm taking Forensic Accounting. Very interesting. It's all about fraud and financial crimes. Forensic Accountants were used in cases such as Enron and Worldcomm, and more recently in the Bernie Madoff case.


And since I know this is really interesting to you too, here are some articles that highlight Forensic Accountants...


NJBiz


Business First


Planet JH



And just because, check out the FBI's most wanted terrorist. The reward is $25 million if you provide information that directly leads to his apprehension. Maybe I should quit my day job and try and find him. What do you think?

Kitchen Before and After

This is what our kitchen looked like BEFORE we moved in:


And here's what it looks like TODAY:

Paint on walls: Ralph Lauren "Cotswald Breeches"
Paint on cabinets: Behr "Black Silk" (I think)
Additional console: Ikea
Black & White outlet covers: Lowe's
Dog bowls: Petsmart
Kitchen Utensils: Bed, Bath & Beyond or Crate & Barrell