Cupcake "Rhys" Car

For my sweet nephew Rhys's 10th birthday (pronounced "Reece"), I made him this racecar out of cupcakes. He is an extraordinary kid and would have been fine with just a plain extra-chocolately cake, but I thought I would try my hand at something from the "What's New, Cupcake?" book.

I modified it a bit to suit Rhys's taste-- I the cupcakes were chocolate mint with chocolate frosting instead of vanilla with red frosting like the recipe calls for.  And to make it as authentic as possible, I subjected the race car to a wreck on the way to the birthday party so it looked NOTHING like this when the poor kid blew out his candles. But like I said, he's an extraordinary young man, so it didn't faze him at all-- he just shot me one of his signature grins along with a quiet but sincere "thanks, Lala" and I melted like the #10 melted in the wreck.  

Rhys, for this and many more reasons, you are my favorite double digit nephew!

A Texas Reuben

It's hard to find two things better than farmers markets and reuben sandwiches. So it's not shocking that the gorgeous round of rye I found at the farmers market on Saturday led to a stack of beautiful reubens after church on Sunday.

But these were not your mother's reubens.

I knew I had some sauerkraut on hand, but I sure didn't have any corned beef or pastrami lying around. (Corned beef would never make it to the "lying around" stage at our house since all three of us love it, along with most salty, fatty meats.) But like any self-respecting Texan, I did have some leftover brisket and pepperjack as well as some spicy brown mustard to stand in place of the thousand island that my husband would not let past his lips if you had a gun to his head. Out came my trusty griddle, and the Bbq Reuben was birthed in my kitchen. Or should I call it the Bbqben? Or the Reubq? Whatever you want to call this crunchy, tangy, spicy delight, it was a crowd pleaser and has not made its last appearance in this Texas kitchen.