Hubby's Birthday Cake, Lemon cake with lemon mascarpone filling and vanilla bean butter cream frosting

Check out the awesome cake I made for Matt. Funny story, it's not really the one he wanted, but I chose to exercise my better judgement (meaning better than his) and make it anyway. He wanted the cake his mom makes. Chocolate with white frosting. But I wanted to make this, so I did. What kind of a person does that make me?

The meal my Dad said was the best food he'd had in all of 2011

Courtesy of Paula Dean...y'all. (that girl is COUNTRY!)

Paula serves the oysters on the steak with the hollandaise drizzled over the top of it all. It was so fabulous, I will probably double the hollandaise next time.

Ribeyes with Hollandaise, fried oysters, and garlic mashed potatoes.

Hollandaise sauce:
½ stick butter
4 egg yolks, whisked
Tasso ham (lean cut of cured pork with Cajun seasoning), chopped
½ cup heavy cream
Pinch sugar & salt
Juice of 1 large lemon
1 Tbsp white vinegar

Melt butter in double boiler. Add egg yolks, cream, sugar, salt and lemon juice. Whisk until thickened, then add ham. Remove from heat; add vinegar.
**don't be scared of the tasso. I couldn't find any, so I used 4oz of packaged cured pork with some kind of seasoning. Next to the prosciutto in a similar package.

Big Pete

Big Pete arrived in the mail! I feel everyone's judging eyes when I talk about him, but he makes me so happy. I love how heavy the glass is, and how I can hold it with one hand, but it feels so much more comfortable using 2 hands. I can cup it like a chalice, or a goblet. I can drink 8oz and not see a dent.