A Piece of Cake, a Bit of Snow, and a Ball of Yarn

There is no better way to celebrate a birthday than to indulge in a piece of good chocolate cake. With ice cream, of course. For my mother-in-law's birthday, I made this Double Chocolate Praline Fudge Cake. The recipe is in my very favorite cookbook, the Gooseberry Patch Christmas Cookbook. Sure, I also found the recipe online, but there are so many other recipes in this book that are not online. Every recipe I've made from this cookbook has become a family favorite. I had planned to make cinnamon ice cream to serve with the cake, but, lacking energy, I picked up some Häagen Dazs Five Brown Sugar ice cream ... my favorite. Perfect with this cake.

As I returned from the store with the Häagen Dazs, snow began to fall. In earnest. As I watched the snow accumulate on the deck, I started to have doubts about asking the seventyandeightysomething in-laws to venture out on I-5. So the birthday party was delayed and the cake went into the refrigerator, much to Ben's dismay.

With an afternoon now free, I sat down with the yarn I bought in Tübingen and started a scarf. Knitting and falling snow just seem to go together.