Citrus Pantry Pound Cake

Emerson rarely lets me do her hair these days, not even to put a hair clip in. But today, she actually said yes when I asked her! And once she agreed, she specifically asked for a green hair bow. So green it was!

And she looked absolutely beautiful this morning!! Just like always, of course…

I’m flying through audio books all of a sudden, so I started another new one this morning on my way to work, after dropping off Tater Tot at school.

Delicious coconut curry chicken ramen soup for lunch, half a piece of naan bread, and some more library book reading.

And it looks like she asked Miss Jessica to do her hair again once she got to school this morning!

When I picked her up from school, she had three little packs of stickers that Miss Jessica gave her. When I asked why she gave them to her, she said, “Because I love you” So that’s a good enough reason for me! 🙂

When we got home, we did some sticker stuff in her notebook, and shared some of this trail mix. She doesn’t like the raisins, but she has finally discovered she likes almonds and cashews.

While I was making the easiest dinner, I asked Jeff and Emerson to go out and pick one of the last few oranges on our tree. There are still some up in the very middle at the very top that are tricky to get, but Jeff was able to snag me one.

Jeff thought it was weird to have canned pears with our grilled cheese and tomato soup, but I thought it was really yummy! Haha. How many of y’all eat fruit with dinner?

After dinner, we took on our next baking adventure! We made citrus pantry pound cake, from a New York Times recipe. And my sweet little girl was such a great helper again tonight! She’s actually very calm and gentle when helping me, and very curious about what I’m doing and what all the ingredients are.

She especially loved smelling the vanilla. She kept asking to smell it over and over again, like three or four times. She loved it! (This is our special Mexican vanilla we got on our 5-year anniversary cruise in 2018, and it’s almost gone, and that makes me sad.)

Once we got the cake in the oven, we started getting Emerson ready for bed. We did a quick video call to see Nana & PopPop, and then we read a book about all the animals in the ocean, and her mermaid book. I was trying to get a photo of her crazy, post-ponytail hair, but you can only sorta see it…

The cake finished baking while I was singing Emerson’s lullabies, so Jeff pulled it out of the oven for me. When I walked out of her room, the whole house smelled amaaaazing. I let it cool down in the pan while I washed up tonight’s dishes, and then turned it out onto my cutting board.

And you guys, it’s delicious!!! The recipe called for the zest of orange, lemon or lime (so obviously I chose orange), and either buttermilk, plain milk or sour cream (I chose buttermilk so I could use up more of that), and then nutmeg was the one thing I didn’t have. I Googled substitutions, and the top answer was cinnamon, so that’s what I went with. And once again, I was so proud of myself for having all of the ingredients on hand already, and for trying another new baking recipe!

I just ate a piece while I blogged, and really, super enjoyed it. I loved the little hint of orange in it, and now I’m wishing I would have made a mug of hot orange tea, because that would have been perfect with it. But now I know what I’m doing for tomorrow night’s evening snack for sure!