ice box cake, Mississippi Mud Bars, dinner out, kitty video

Michael left before 8 AM on Saturday (6/23) for golf and I was glad to have him out of the house as I had lots to do.  When someone is visiting, usually I send them an email to ask if they have seen anything in the blog they want to eat, to please let me know.  Susan & Charlie (Michael’s sister & brother-in-law) are coming to visit and Susan requested an ice box cake.  Since I haven’t made one in quite awhile and really like them, that was an easy request to fulfill and was first on my plate for Saturday morning.  I made the pudding….

no boxes here…sure, it takes a bit longer but in my opinion is infinitely better, with less chemicals (https://www.melskitchencafe.com/the-best-vanilla-and-chocolate-pudding/) then layered it with graham crackers:  

I’m sure you know that if you don’t want a ‘skin’ on the top of your puddings, you need to put the plastic wrap directly on the top, touching your pudding:  

The last time Sue & Chas visited, we had people over for dinner and played cards.  They seemed to like that, so we’re doing the same thing tomorrow night….we’re nothing if not consistent (boring??)  I made cole slaw so it had time to meld, 

and figured out my recipe for quasi-jambalya before heading back to the basement.  I had a lovely and long talk with Mary Jo and got caught up in some of what she is doing and then started working again.  I cleaned the downstairs bathroom (mostly it just gets dusty), and got the remaining quilt tops off of their guest room bed, and switched out the fall/winter quilt for the spring/summer one.  I read my book a good bit in the afternoon because it just seemed like too much trouble to go downstairs and sew for such a short time.  

When Michael went to Pinehurst with the guys, I sent along goodies for them to have each night.  One of the things I made were Mississippi Mud Brownies (I used peanuts instead of pecans, and Michael said he really liked the saltiness of the peanuts in this recipe)  (https://www.melskitchencafe.com/mississippi-mud-bars/), and Ralph said they were the best things he had ever eaten in his life.  Since Ralph and Candyce were picking us up for dinner and then theatre, I decided to whip up a batch to spoil him!  

Once those were done, Michael was home from golf with one birdie and an 89, and he also ran some brownies over to the birthday boy Jim, just before we got picked up.  We went to an Asian fusion restaurant and both of our meals were outstanding!!!  

my honey using his chopsticks

Good thing we took a cooler though because we both brought home 1/2 of dinner.  After that it was off to Actor’s Theatre for THE 39 STEPS….a totally silly, totally fun play that Michael starred in several years ago.  We were home just after 11 PM and read our books for an hour (yikes!!) before heading to bed.

And a dose of cute from the kitties: