Milky Way Cake

We just got back from a nice BBQ at Aunt Kathleen's house. One of the items we were requested to bring was "Milky Way Cake"

It's basically diabetes in cake form, but here is the recipe for anyone interested.... and yes this link does go to Glenn Beck's website. The reason being, it's where I heard about this magnificent cake recipe. I can't remember if they mentioned it on air, or I noticed it on the website, but I saw it somewhere in one Glenn Beck's media outlets, so here it is.

Milky Way Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
1 stick unsalted butter
6 regular sized Milk Way candy bars [cut into 1 inch pieces]
melt the butter and candy bars together in microwave, stirring occasionally.  Mix well.  Prepare the cake mix as directed.  Stir in Milk Way mixture.  Bake as directed in a bundt pan.

 Pretty simple, I recommend getting the cheap store brand yellow cake, it need be nothing fancy, the 6 milky way bars, and the stick of butter make it super moist. This recipe is a real winner, and it's basically idiot proof... well sort of, I managed to ruin the cake I made on Saturday, I tried to take it out of the pan to soon, and part of the cake got stuck and broke off.. I was attempting to fix it but rocky got a a few licks in when we weren't paying attention so we scrapped it and made a new one at 9 this morning.

For the icing... I think (and i can't even remember, but I think) I made a simple vanilla sugar icing the first time i made this... this time we felt we needed to add even more Milky Way, so I found this milky way icing recipe, also super easy. And it seemed to work pretty well. I thought it tasted like confectioners sugar, but for some reason, I get that taste with anything I make that uses confectioners sugar. Everyone else seemed to like it.

Milky Way Icing

4 tbsp. butter
2 MILKY WAY® bars
2 tbsp. vanilla
1 c. confectioners sugar

Melt butter an candy together as you did for cake. Beat in vanilla and sugar. Spread while still warm.

The cake should also be warm when you spread the icing. I tried to drizzle it, but it was a bit to thick so i spread it on, it melted a little and had a nice finish, if a bit uneven. It didn't harden as much as I'd have liked so I may look for another recipe or experiment a bit.

Also made the first pepper harvest today... got some nice ones, but my jalapenos are always so tiny... not like the ones at the supermarket.

 

If anyone is asking, no they were not added to the cake... they are earmarked for another batch of hot sauce. I froze them, and will probably do that once I have a couple of pounds (hopefully I get a couple of pounds worth by the end of summer)

Fish

Another "legendary" piece of home video...

This particular gem is from our Kindergarten graduation in 1986. The guy in the middle is our good friend Bobby. The story behind this, I believe is that Joe and I for whatever reason could not remember the song that we were supposed to sing. Through all the practice sessions during class, we could not remember. I believe it had to do with ducks, and two other kids had to end up singing that song. So we got this mindless little number about catching a fish, and since Bobby was in our group (as i recall he had no trouble with the original song) he got stuck with the simple counting exercise too!

It should comfort everyone to know, that this is about as far as I got in math education, I've been faking it pretty well since 1986, calculators are a miraculous invention.



I will have some more clips from this day to post on the other blog at some point, but the tape keeps coming up as "copy-write" protected as I transfer the video. I have a work around using a screen recorder but it's a pain, so I'm going to keep trying to get it to work. To the in-laws... thanks so much for the loaner VCR, it's working wonderfully.

And Rob... if you stumble across this blog post... apologies in advance for posting it, I couldn't help myself!

Lazy Sunday

Sunday was a real nice lazy day in our house... probably should not have been, since the heat broke, and I probably should have mowed the lawn, and changed the oil on the Impala, but I guess that can wait til later in the week. The lawn, is basically in no growth mode because I don't water it, and there is no serious driving to be done this week.

Friday we spent a nice afternoon/evening at the grandparents house in Waldwick, and Jackie and the dog got to have an overnight up there. Saturday they both came back down with Aunt Lauren and Aunt Maryellen who babysat for us and the Gillespie's while we headed out for game night with some other couples in PA. We had a very nice time, played a few rounds of The Settlers of Catan, which is a pretty fun strategy type board game for those that don't know what it is.

So our lazy day at home was spent catching up on the The Game of Thrones an HBO series, and watching Jackie do cute things....

Since this post involves nerdy board games, and nerdy HBO television, I thought Jackie might like to join the nerd parade with the nerdiest Star Wars onesie imaginable and her stuffed Ewok. 

Can I Have The Purple One?

This is something that is going to get cross posted up at the family history blog trynosky.blogspot.com because it is a legendary piece of home video.

I just wanted to stick up here because I am the patriarch of my part of the Trynosky family and I am in the video, and because it demonstrates the doodad that I had to buy to convert the family home videos and other things to digital form.



This other piece is interesting because Joe blows out the candles... in the first video I attempt to do the same.



If anyone is interested the little doodad i picked up. It plugs from the VCR to a usb port on the computer, and comes with some simple video editing software. You can control it from the control panel in the software or through a toggle switch on the device itself to start/stop recording. Pretty neat and simple, and there doesn't seem to be much lost in the conversion.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YGJLWU


Hmm... my dad's been threatening to send this to America's Funniest Home Videos for something like 20 years. It's pretty simple to upload stuff over at the ABC website... no need to mail a tape or anything.

Pre-Cruise Baby Fun

Grandma and Grandpa are going off to cruise on the high seas. They will have a much more luxurious stay on board the vessel than I used to have when I was in school, and much better than my friends that are still sailing the seven seas (although those guys will get paid to do what they do, and my parents will be paying).

Anyway, the folks decided that they wanted to spend some time with the Granddaughter before they set sail from sunny Redhook Brooklyn NY for 9 or 10 days of Caribbean Canadian delights, and sumptuous feasts. The price for this baby time was a nice dinner, and a park to walk the dog in. We accepted!

Now my parents have a very modest pool for the baby to swim in, much smaller than Alison's parents, or even the Gillespie's neighbor's who shared their pool with Jackie during this hell week. But they made do, and Jackie didn't seem to mind. She had a ball, and once she was done, Rockie had the worlds biggest dog bowl to drink from. I think he might have gotten some pee, but he eats his own poop, so somehow I don't think he minds.

On to the photodump!

Easing Jackie into the pool

slowly

this is fun!

Tugboats...yum

Playing catch with Uncle Joseph

Drying out a little

Back in the pool

Climbing out of the pool!

Baked Ziti and Meatballs are yummy!

This bread end is yummy too!

Exploring the living room!

I think that was a lot more pictures that usual, and there were even more, but that would have been even more repetitive than what we had already. But who can get tired of such a cute baby? It was such a nice day, and Jackie was so pleasant to be around. Everyone had a good time, and it was a nice way to send Grandma and Grandpa off on their adventure.

7/25 Update - I had to edit this post because apparently the cruise was to Canada, instead of some place warm. In light of last weeks heat, Canada was probably a good choice.

One of Those Days....

Saturday was just one of those days, every time we let go of Jackie for a second she was falling down... the trip at the pool, a few more times at the house during the afternoon, and then at night as we were getting ready to leave from a nice visit with friends. The last one was the worst, Jackie was creeping around climbing, holding her self up on a table leg, and then lost her balance and busted her lip...blood, gore... tears... well not much of the first two, but enough to say... I've had enough of this day! Time to go home!

Aside from that, we had a nice visit with friends, we hadn't seen Charlotte in a few weeks, she's really getting so big, and is now crawling, and we were told she was found standing in the crib the other day... how time flies!

We've got Charlotte's tool box, let's go build something!

Let's get to work.. first we dump the tools!

Then we get bored and move on to the next project!

If I spill these things, Mommy will have to pick them up! Hooray!

"Yeah, I want cheesy poofs!"

What's up here? An abacus?

Our friend Kathy from work was over for a visit to meet Charlotte

Someone tell Mike, Charlotte is going to be a dentist, not an engineer.

In Fair Lawn with a scanner...

We're up in Fair Lawn today visiting Grandma and Grandpa Trynosky. Jackie is napping, and I've got all the old family photos and a scanner, so it's time to start work on the side project blog.

Some interesting old pictures and things going up over here today.


Days Gone By...

I've also liberated some old home movies, that I hope to convert to digital form when i get home, for upload to you tube. We'll have some great things going up like the entire Beat Retreat from 2000, graduation ceremonies from Kings Point, Acceptance Day at Kings Point, and a bunch of other stuff.

I'm just getting started!

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A sad postscript... after liberating a number of video tapes, I got home and starting tinkering with the computer. Two hours in, I realize that the video card I have is not compatible with the new computer. This is after I had to MacGyver it into the new Dell Inspiron with tin snips, and voided the warranty of a brand new computer.

Damn you Windows 7 64 Bit!!!!

So there will be some delay in the video updates as I acquire a newer better one. Check the nice pictures we uploaded at the other blog anyway, and please feel free to visit our sponsors while you're over there. I swear to you it will translate to real money. I'm amazed at the totals we've got with just a few clicks in my adsense account.

I've got Dad, and Joe hopefully set up to make updates on the other site, so in time I hope we can really start filling the internets with our family adventures. Come along for the ride.

Some Recent Pictures

As always we're amazed at how fast shes growing and the new things she learns to do. The knows how to move her arms to get out of the harness in the car seat and high chair once it's unbuckled, she seems to be running when holding on to railings and things, it's quite a thing to watch.

Here are some other photos we took recently, now that we seem to have the camera setting under control.

Making a mess in the living room... 

 Getting ready to bite Mommy... one of my new favorite hobbies... nom nom nom

Climbing up the couch!

 So sleepy....zzzzz

Rafting mission in the pool

Get that camera out of my face!

BORING!

Hmmm.... lunch time for the dog I guess

Let me out of this crazy house!

Not for another 20 years or so my dear...

I can root for both teams during the all star game!