Day 12 was a Good Day!!!!

To quote Ice Cube, "Today was a good day."  Between a new car (new to us!), the kiddos' first soccer games, hanging with the family and making some good food, I would put this Saturday in the "great" category.  Plus, my mom bought me a tube pan (very exciting since I need one of those to make angel food cakes), and I discovered that the Christmas Tree Shop sells spices and extracts at a hugely reduced price.  These are the types of things that make me beyond happy these days...

The first recipe I made tonight was spaghetti and tomato sauce 101.  It was a great pasta dish using thin spaghetti and very light, homemade tomato sauce.  The fresh basil leaves in the sauce gave it a little "something, something," and I think that cooking the pasta and sauce together in a skillet really blended the flavors together well.  Just saying...

Spaghetti and tomato sauce 101

The next recipe I made was a gingerbread snacking cake, and let me tell you, it is glorious being in our house tonight because the cake smells sooooo good!!!!  When I was mixing together the batter, the smell brought me back to my great-grandmother's house in Wilton, Maine.  My Special Grammie Waugh used to make molasses cookies to die for, and this batter smelled just like those.  I'd like to give a shout-out to the Rapoza Family for letting me use ground cloves so that I could finish this recipe!  Thank you!  Dan is bringing home real whipped-cream to go along with this cake...the gingerbread cake will get yummier, ladies and gentlemen!

Gingerbread snacking cake

So, I've made 32 recipes in 12 days.  That means that I'll have to make "7" recipes tomorrow to catch up with my 3-recipes-a-day goal.  Can I do it?  I'm going to try!  May the cooking angels hear my pleas (numerous pleas) for help!

MELISSA