Halloween Themed Cupcakes

Quick post here tonight, partially because my brother made me feel bad about not posting more. Trust me, i've got pictures of food and stories to share, but you'll have to be patient.

Tonight i present to you a picture of some lovely cupcakes my wife made last Halloween...


We got some mummies and monsters here... but even slightly more important, we got some yummy cupcakes!! They were moist and delicious, and they looked very cool.

Coconut Flavored M&M's

A few weeks back i was in Bellingham with my friends Mike, Dan, and Amos and we stopped off at a 7-11 to get some delicious American snacks. This trip, for me, was all about buying some Arnold Palmer's (i'll be writing about this tasty beverage soon) and some Combo's (pretzel and cheese snack). As i'm at the counter with more beverages and snacks than i can carry, and therefore looking like i've got a major case of the munchies and some serious cotton mouth, I notice a package of M&M's that looks really different than what i'm used to seeing. Could my eyes be deceiving me? COCONUT FLAVORED M&M'S!!!

Needless to say i bought a bag (not sure why i didn't buy more). I'm a big fan of coconut flavored things. I probably like fake coconut flavored things more than actual real coconut.

And the verdict is.... DELICIOUS!! I'm pleasantly surprised at how tasty these are! The coconut flavor is strong, like way stronger than i thought they would be. And the package is great.. it's got a lady M&M looking all sexy on the beach while the dude M&M is falling out the tree with a pair of binoculars. hahahaha.... the dude M&M is a creep & a pervert.

I'll be in Seattle in a few weeks and will be searching out some more of these.

My Mom's Chocolate Cake

Everyone loves chocolate cake, right? If you don't love, or at least like chocolate cake than i have to ask... "what is wrong with you?"
Let's cut to the chase here; My mom makes the best chocolate cake in the world. That's right, the whole freakin' world! I'll fight you to prove my point. She's got a recipe that everyone should use. but chances are if you used this recipe it still wouldn't taste the same as my mom's. I can't explain why that would happen, maybe the little bit of love that my mom puts in each cake changes the taste.
Let's break it down as to why my mom's cake is the best;

-- The cake itself is moist, but yet dense. But not too dense, nor is it too moist. It's science, i don't get it. But trust me, as you put it in your mouth your eyes roll into the back of you head and you can't help but mutter "god damn!"

-- the icing. Chocolate icing. It's not one of those whipped icings, but it's also not one of those super thick dense ones. It's somewhere in between. Once again, it's a science i can't comprehend. The chocolate isn't too overpowering, or rich. And it's not too sweet. It's just perfect!!

When we were younger one of the highlights of our birthday's was Mom would make a cake and put money inside. When you're 10 years old, the feeling of finding a quarter in your piece was about the equivalent of some old prospector finding gold in the Yukon back in the 1800's. The funny part.... well, maybe not everyone will find it funny but me and my parents had a good laugh about it on the phone the other night.... the funny part is that they didn't wrap the coins in anything when they put them in the cake!! And even funnier... or grosser... is that they didn't wash them either! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...... We'd get our piece of cake on the plate in front of us, spin the plate around checking it out to see if any coins were sticking out slightly, and then attack the cake with our forks. When we'd find a coin we'd suck all the cake & icing off it.... making sure that our new found wealth was nice and clean. Oh, the glory days when everyone didn't live their lives in fear. Those were the days when kids could run around the neighborhood until the sun went down, you didn't have to wash your hands after touching a door handle at the grocery store, and it was still proper etiquette, and perfectly safe, to shake someones hand when you met them.

Here's some pictures of my Mom's cake... and a bonus picture of my Mom making some red beans & rice when i last saw her in the fall.