Cookouts, cooking, and baking - oh my!

Yes, yes we are. I love cookouts. We are having several other couples over tonight. We all met in college, and I haven't seen some of these people in quite a while. Most of us have had kids and some of those kiddies I'll be meeting for the first time. So it should be a fun and slightly chaotic time.

We invited them to our house, and we are all sharing in the cooking duties. So everybody is bringing something (thanks!). My friend, Beverley, is bringing brownies, and thank goodness for that because her daughter has an egg allergy and I wouldn't know how to make brownies without eggs! But we were at lunch, and Joshua looks at me and pipes up, "Mommy - will you make one of your famous cakes?" Now what was I supposed to do with that? How could I not make a cake for him? So guess what is in the oven right now? Yep - homemade yellow cake (that I can't help but notice really looks white each time I've made it).

I love cooking. But I really love baking. Sometimes I wish Joshua liked my cooking more. I think I make a pretty mean mac n'cheese (something we are having tonight, in fact). But he won't eat it! He does certainly eat any cake, cookie, or other dessert though, so I guess it's something. At least he likes the stuff I like to make best. It doesn't help that I like to make all those scrumptious desserts though. Those yummy things are not nice to my waistline - at all. Oh well.

I think I like cooking so much because I always felt like my mom was a really great cook (now she's really good at going out to eat, and that actually really pleases me - why should she have to cook anymore???). You could just feel the love oozing out of her recipes. I have, of course, gotten several of my favorites and make them now for my family. I also asked my mom last Christmas sometime if she would make copies of a bunch of recipes - well actually I asked her to hand write them for me. Because when I make them in the future, I think it would be really cool. I would still feel the love ooze from the paper, I guess. And she started doing that little project. I know it will take a lot of time, but it means so much.

Oh and by the way, I had no idea that my cakes were famous. I guess as long as he thinks they are famous is all that counts. Maybe one day he'll ask me for hand-written recipes. Then I'll hand him MiMi's cookbook. And one from his mommy too. Double the love. Maybe even triple.