My Son's Two Years Old

Wow,  has the time flown by this last year. The first year seemed to be a lot longer than his second. We had a wonderful birthday party for him and I made a triple chocolate shih tzu dog cake for him. We have three shih tzus and he just adores them. I had a bear cake pan from a garage sale I bought a couple years ago. So I decided it was time to use the pan and here's the result.

I think now I should of left off the little dark patches that our dogs have but oh well. The cake flavor turned out awesome but had a little sunken part in the center because it was so moist but frosting covers almost all faults. The recipe used brewed coffee and was so yummy. The frosting was from an older Hershey's cookbook and was great. The white centers are just melted white chocolate with semi-sweet. We couldn't stop eating it.

Yum!

I also made these cupcakes with sprinkles and chocolate chips on top. The cookies behind were no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies and were a huge hit too! In the picture is what was left from around 9 dozen cookies.  I had about twenty people of family and friends. I made a salad I just love and it was completely gone, by the end people were picking at the bottom for little bits to eat.

So here is the recipe:

I use seasoned rice wine vinegar Nakano if I spelled it right about 1/2c or more to taste

A really good extra virgin olive oil, which for people who aren't really sure is a first cold pressing olive oil. It will tell you on the package front if it is cold pressed and first pressing. I use about 1/4 c to 1/2 c. Heavy on the pepper. For about 6 c lettuce I use iceberg and mixed greens. Try and find a great blue cheese that you like, there are a lot of blue cheeses and it's worth taking the time to find the type you like. I like an Amish or Gorgonzola. Then I mix in 1/2 c or more dried sweetened cranberries, 1/2 c or more of toasted nuts. I like pecans and it is worth the time to roast them for 10-15 minutes in the oven on 350 degrees till they get a nice light brown and very toasted taste. Then I crumble them for the salad. That is the basic and then you can add from there what you like. Examples would be tomato, some people like bacon cooked crisp. I like a little ground flax seed and maybe sunflower seeds with boiled, diced egg and avocado. Mix it well and serve. We make a meal out of just this salad.