I've been pretty much glued to the Olympic games these past two weeks - cheering on the Americans like come-back kid, Bode Miller; Shaun (don't call me the flying tomato anymore) White; and Lindsey Vonn and that other American alpine skier who likes to pretend she's a princess. Now that the games have come to a close, I'm left with this thought: Why can't we Americans have a rousing sing-a-long kind of anthem like the Canadians? I got a big kick out of watching Canadian athletes belt out their song, especially skater, Scott Moir, who, head thrown back just sang his little heart out. The Star Spangled Banner is too hard to sing. Wonder what Canada would think if we borrowed their song:

Oh U.S.A. we stand on guard for thee

Oh U.S. A we stand on GUARD FOR THEE!!!

See - isn't that better?

The Book Babes met last Monday night, here at the house to discuss the book, The Help by Kathryn Stockett. We loved, loved, loved this book and highly recommend it to all of you out there. The setting is Jackson, Mississippi in the very early 1960's. If you've read this book, you know that both caramel cake and chocolate pie figure into the story, so I wanted to serve one or the other to my Book Babe friends. For reasons you'll be able to guess (again if you read the book) I opted for the caramel cake, even though I've never tried my hand at baking one before.

I found Paula Dean's recipe for caramel cake online, but I almost backed out when I read some of the negative comments posted by people who had tried the recipe -most of the complaints were about the dryness of the cake and the fact that the filling became sugary. But, no, I decided they might just have been inept bakers, so I forged ahead. I liked the cake, but yes, the filling did get sugary, mainly because you're heating butter and sugar and, well, that's what it does when it cools. This cake contains five (5) sticks of butter and five (5) count 'em, cups of sugar. Here's what it looks like after stacking and applying the filling.

And here's the finished product. A little hard to frost, because again, the frosting firms up on you and you have to add more cream to get the cake frosted. I think the Book Babes thought the cake was a little much, and I think Bob thought the cake was a little much, but I'm standing by it and I'm going to make it again. And here, courtesy of Paula Dean, is the recipe:

Caramel Cake

For the Cake

1 cup (2 sticks ) butter - room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

3 cups sifted self-rising flour

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

For the filling:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

2 cups packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

For the frosting:

1/2 cup ( 1 stick) butter

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/3 cup heavy cream or more, if needed

1 16-oz box powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour 3 (9 inch) cake pans.

Cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed. Divide batter equally among pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 to 4 inches above counter and dropping it flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

For the filling

While cake is baking, in a saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar, and milk. Cook and stir over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Remove cake layers from oven and allow cake to remain in pans and you prepare to stack and fill. Remove first layer and invert onto cake plate. Pierce cake layer with a toothpick over entire surface. Spread 1/3 of filling mixture on cake layer. Top with second layer, repeat process. Top with last layer and repeat process.

For frosting:

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat and stir In brown sugar and cream. Bring to a boil and transfer to a mixing bow. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat with electric mixer until it reaches spreading consistency. you may need to add a tablespoon of cream or more, if the frosting gets too thick (Boy Howdie)

Happy Valentine's Day and President's Day from the Vegas Strip! Here we are enjoying our family time together, celebrating the holidays and Rob's twenty-first birthday. Lori took this picture on Saturday night. The weather was great - high of about seventy degrees, but cool at night. We took on the famous buffet at Bellagio- over one thousand different choices, and on Valentine's Day ate at Battista's Hole in the Wall. We checked out Freemont Street on Sunday evening, and on Monday night we four girls, (Lindsey, Lori, Candace, and I) went to Cirque du Soleil, the Beatles Love Show. AND WE LOVED IT!!!!

The water fountains at Bellagio.

Dan and Lori

Brent and Lindsey

Candace and Rob

Here are my desserts at Bellagio. Yes, I ate all of them.

Just a short little something to let you know we're still out here livin' the dream. This upcoming week will be the last of my high school English teaching gig. The maternity leave is over and I'll be looking for other ways to amuse myself. Bob and I chaperoned the snowcoming dance last night at the high school. Here I am pretending that I don't know who these two cats are, but I really do. The theme for the dance was something about Hollywood and they had a red carpet at the door and walk of fame stars with the names of student council members on them positioned in the hallway. Bob and I were in charge of monitoring the hallway (as dancers made MANY trips from the cafeteria to the bathroom and drinking fountain) and we were supposed to take pictures of the kids with these cutout stars. But nobody seemed too interested in paying two bucks for a picture. They're going to raffle them off this week, so that might bring in some money. They did have a huge turnout for the dance. Here's Bob, also posing.

Rob turned twenty-one of the 30th of January. On the 29th we attended the Ducks Unlimted sportsman raffle night at the fairgrounds, where Rob worked one of the booths, taking tickets for some wonderful gun. I can't believe he's twenty-one. We will be celebrating this milestone this coming weekend when we (Bob, Rob, Candace, Lindsey, Brent, Lori, Dan, and I) all travel to Las Vegas for Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend. We're looking forward to it.

There's nothing like blooming bulbs to add some color to winter. I promise to get back to better blogging next week. And, P.S., Hickory Hill Hans did not budge from his cozy hole on the 2nd, but then again, why should he? There's no pressure here in the Hickory Hill Hood - no paparazzi. Sleep on Hans!