Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday was my birthday and Big Monkey got it just right! In the morning, while I was in the shower, he strategically placed a small box on top of my towel and inside I found a wonderful pair of gold earrings from my favorite New Orleans jewelry store, Symmetry. I have been wanting some simple earrings I can wear everyday and these were perfect.

Then, for lunch, my dad drove up from Baton Rouge and took me and BM out to lunch at The Praline Connection. We all split a plate that had awesome fried chicken, gumbo, fried catfish, dirty rice, red beans, and bread pudding. It was delicious!
Then, for dinner, BM took me to one of my favorite restaurants in New Orleans, Mat and Naddie's. It is in this little house right on River Road and has, literally, one of he best filet mignon's I've ever had. We sat outside and we were in luck, because our friend's trio, The Courtyard Kings, was playing that night.
The whole day was just wonderful and it made turning 33 that much less painful!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I made these monkey cupcakes and cake for LM's recent first birthday. The cupcakes turned out great, but unfortunately the cake ended up looking like a soggy piece of poop! You cook the cake in a large bowl, and thanks to our sorry excuse for an oven (you notice that I don't blame it on my cooking skills), I burned it. So, I ended up peeling off the burned layer and icing over the inside of the cake. It tasted pretty good and I would recommend trying it. Check out the link, because it looked a lot better when Martha made it.