Lazy days

I feel a bit guilty about this past weekend. I barely did a thing. I normally stay active on the weekends, but this one, well, I took a bit of time off and apparently it was much needed. I feel refreshed.

We celebrated Gary's birthday on Saturday night over a gigantic burrito bar in my kitchen (at Gary's request), and of course there was chocolate death cake.

He asked for some sort of chocolatey peanut buttery goodness, so I made Barefoot Contessa's chocolate cake and added crushed peanut butter cups in the middle layer. Whole cups on the top were an obvious necessity.

Serve it up with some peanut butter cup ice cream and you've got a winner.

I highly recommend this cake to anyone who loves to bake. You'll surprise people...it's an impressive cake, believe me. It's simple to make, really, but it's a tad bit time consuming. If you're afraid to try it yourself, let me know and I'll make you one. Maybe.

I think Gary liked it. As a matter of fact, I think we all liked it. The cake was gone.

And as if we didn't get enough sugar in our systems on Saturday, Mike and I cranked out a gigantic batch of snickerdoodles this afternoon. My mom gave me this book for Christmas a few years ago, right around the time I got married. Her grandmother gave her a copy when she got married and she still has it. The recipes, like this one, are a bit outdated, but a little creativity and good ingredients can make them go from amazing to fan-freakin'-tastic. Let me know if you want the recipe. These are so good.