The Day The Cows Cried....

I suppose this post could be titled either

"The Day The Cows Cried"

OR

"The Day I Wanted To Kill Animals!" (except for my baby - but he's not really an animal, right?:)

So - I am continuing on my baking jag. And the longer I continue on this trip the more I find I have to stock the fridge with all things dairy. Last night, for instance, I bought so much dairy that I think I heard a cow whimpering somewhere. It was a sad little sound that gave the idea of exhaustion. Mooo--rrrreee milk -- Nooooooo.

The one recipe I did called for 3 sticks of butter, 1 lb of cream cheese, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1/2 cup milk and half a tub of sour cream. And that was just ONE recipe!

My mind has been whirling around with crazy cupcake ideas so the first one that I started the day with today was, what I am calling, my "Chocolate Monkey-cakes".... you can guess what it is :)

I started with my amazing banana cake recipe and made them into little cupcakes. Then I took my WONDERFUL cream cheese frosting recipe and added chocolate ganache to the frosting..

Then I topped off those cute little monkeys with that deliciously decadent delight! They are so so YUMMY!

And see my creative streak :) I bought these Tiffany blue cupcake boxes and now I can share my little beauties.

I redid those mint cupcakes and this time I put straight mint in the buttercream, no vanilla - a big improvement! I'm still working on the name for the cuppies, but I'm thinking "Aunt Dee's Mint Cakes"... Ok, I don't have an Aunt Dee, and even if I did, she didn't have anything to do with my recipe, but if you say the name fast -- well, get it? Aunt Dee's Mint Aunt Dee's Mint... get it? I don't know, I might need to work on that name...
And now to the gardens.... :) That sounds so uppity - the gardens.

My gardens consist of basically pots... But see how those pots are flourishing? Little Cal is outsized by that rosemary and those tomatos.
If you look close at the tomato pot down on the patio - I have some nice little red tomatos! Yay!

But here's my anger.... Those stupid stupid Japanese Beetles! Dad's roses were doing so well but the beetles were starting to sneak in when I left on Tuesday. Now, the roses are non-existent because they open and those beetles eat them. I sprayed them down again today. Its almost like I have to spray them everyday. I do think Debbie was right as well with the suggestion that it was Japenese Beetles eating my basil - I sprayed that as well. It said the spray was good for spinach and stuff so I figured it was ok on basil. I WANT TO KILL THOSE BEETLES! (not the band)...
And then when I went out to look at things this morning, I found that some little critter had been in the tomatos that I had that had been growing. SO angry! I want to kill it! And to boot - I found that I think it sat in the little green pot on the side of the plant that the tomatos were in because I found little bits of red tomato on the soil in the green pot.
If I had been there, that little varmint wouldn't have gotten this far away. And Calvin didn't go to bed until about 1 so that thing waited until then to nab a ripe one!
Have a great Saturday! Wish I could share my little cupcakes with everyone!