Apron Strings and more...

On Tuesday, January 19, 2010, I met our granddaughter, Madison for the first time in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. (Our daughter, Erin is holding her in the lobby of the Grand Hotel.) In just two short weeks, she has brought so much joy to our lives and as you can see, she is taking after her Auntie Kelly when it comes to talking on the telephone. In fact, I tell everyone, it's a good thing Kelly was only 3 pounds 13 ounces because it would have been a hard delivery with that telephone attached to her ear!










We returned home on Friday, January 29th and while going through my mail, I came across the new Williams-Sonoma catalogue. Well, right there was a new cake pan that I had to have...a Giant Doughnut! I've had a love of doughnuts (as I suspect most people do) since 1962. I remember the year because my grandmother passed away and a new tradition was started in our family. My Dad would pick my grandfather up every Tuesday to bring him to our home for dinner; my grandfather brought a box of a dozen doughnuts! They were assorted and we all had our favorite. Mine was the cake doughnut; if it had chocolate glaze and sprinkles, that was even better, but for me simple was satisfying. I couldn't help but think...what better way to indoctrinate Maddie into our family than making her a giant cake doughnut for her belated first birthday (which was November 29th). I made the recipe that came on the back of the box for the unique pans, but I'm already thinking of trying my own versions. Maddie had her first slice of cake and if you could see the look on her face...it was priceless! She kept saying, over and over again, "Yummmmmmmm." Well worth the $19.95 for the cake pan when you get that kind of response.