Family dinner last night; paint your own pottery fest this afternoon. (Don’t worry, only Miss M and three of her friends–all sweet four-year-old girls whose families we know well.)

I have a cold, and Miss M has a croupy cough and sounds like Darth Vader. At least she’s sleeping; that makes one of us.

Highlight of dinner? If you have the Moosewood Restaurant New Classics cookbook, open to page 414. Caramel layer cake.

OMG.

So good.

Totally my Paula Deen moment. My mother-in-law said, “Wait, you had half-and-half and butter in the house? At the same time?” Yes. And yes. And both were included. Whoa. So much for my rationale that if it’s in Moosewood it’s healthy.* My weight-conscious (though not dessert-skipping) stepmom had two pieces, even though she has a broken ankle and will not be able to exercise for another three weeks. Yeah. It was that good.

If I could breathe I so would have been at the gym this morning.

 

* Overall I think that’s a pretty true statement. Maybe not way back to the Enchanted Broccoli Forest (not the revised edition), which is liberally sprinkled with cheese. But taken as a whole.