4th of July Weekend

I made and wrote a bunch of Thank You notes

all you need is colorful inexpensive cards from Paper Source, along with a Thank You stamp and an ink pad.

the state of my desk on Sunday morning. I kinda like the chaos for once. There's that ink pad.

Sky and I went away for one night--something on my list of Things I'd Love to do Before Baby arrives. We stayed on points at the St Regis Monarch Beach, which feels a bit like Vegas, but the beach is sublime. That's really what I wanted: to be on a beautiful beach away from all my lists. Huge Vegas hotel or no, it was heaven.

photo from here

We also picked up baby's rocker from Sky's mom. Pics of nursery coming soon.....

One of my best friends had her second baby!

and named him Kiran, which I love.

4th of July we spent the afternoon at Brock and Kristina's.

Kristina made peach creamsicles, over which Dash and Sky had many a bonding moment

I wore a beach coverup as a dress, since at 37 weeks (as in full term! yay baby!!!) that feels pretty freaking good on a hot day

and made my great-aunt Jennie's apricot upside down cake. She's been gone for a while; I got the recipe from my aunt Chris, and wow, did it make me miss Jennie. Like all good Italians, her desserts are easy on the sugar---not a sweet bomb, this one. More of a delicate torte, and you can make it with pineapple, coconut, apricots, or, as I did, half plum, half apricot. The beaten whites make a really light batter, and the "top" gets nice and caramelized. The plums turned out far more tart, so if you want a sweeter fruit, I'd go all apricot. I used a 10" cast iron skillet (Chris' choice); you can use a 9-in square baking pan as well.

Jennie's Apricot Upside-Down Cake

4 T butter

1/2 c brown sugar

about 16 apricot halves, or 1/2 plum, 1/2 apricot, or pineapple or coconut to cover bottom of pan

5 egg yolks

5 egg whites beaten stiff (do this first so you don't have to clean the beaters)

1/2 c sugar

1 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350

Melt butter and brown sugar in bottom of pan. Place fruit skin side down

Beat yolks until thick

Add sugar slowly

Add lemon juice and whites on low speed. When partially mixed, gently add flour mixed with other dry ingredients

Add vanilla and pour over fruit

Bake 45-60 minutes til light golden brown

Cool 10 minutes and invert on serving plate

Hope you had a beautiful sparkly weekend!