So much craziness, so little time...

Saturday started out great. I woke up pretty early for the weekend and went with my sister to a monthly farmer's market (indoors, it's freezing outside these days). It was absolutely packed and because of the free food samples, a bit crazy. We bought some yummy cheese, fresh baked baguettes, very pretty apples, homemade champagne pasta, and lamb Italian sausage and pretty much got a free lunch by patiently wading through the mob and trying the different local farm themed foods served up by local restaurateurs. I think next time I'll get there early to shop and then come back and take some pictures to share. When we got back home I made some coffee and used the fun little frother thingy my dad got me for new years...maybe it's time to pull the espresso maker out of storage? I spent the afternoon shopping with a friend and running little errands getting ready to make a cake for my grandma's b-day on Sunday. Having what I thought was everything I needed, I started making the lemon curd. I got a bit carried away with juicing the lemons, so I ended up making more than what was needed, but it's delicious, so no one will care. Here it is before I turned it into frosting:


I started collecting everything for the cake and realized that I'm out of eggs, so I put my shoes back on and trudged back out into the snow get some. 20 minutes later though I was back on track. It was about 11pm and with the cakes almost ready to come out of the oven and I was just finishing up with the dishes as I got a call from first my mom and immediately after from my dad saying that my grandma wasn't feeling well and that my dad was on the way there, but since I'm closer if I could head over as well. Not good. I pull the cakes out, put my shoes back on and headed out. She was not doing well at all and I'm glad I showed up when I did, but to cut the story short I spent the next many many hours with my grandma and dad in ER and they still don't know what happened. I crawled back home around 6am, having stayed until she was looking better and was moved out of ER and into a room, and saw the unfinished cake on the counter. To sleep or to finish the cake? Hmm... Now any sane person would probably go to sleep, but I guess this is yet another testament to just how crazy I am: I stayed up and finished the cake. Now it's no masterpiece, but it was finished and when I came back to the hospital that day after having had a few hours of sleep with my sisters and my dad it was looking like just the thing for the occasion. My grandma was surprised that I had time to make it and I was happy that we didn't get kicked out of the hospital for bringing in a knife (to cut the cake), lighting candles (near my grandmas oxygen tank), singing "happy birthday" (with other people in their rooms nearby and us being not exactly quiet) and feeding their patient cake (definitely not hospital food-like).


Despite it's somewhat sad appearance, it was delicious and was very appreciated by my family and the nurses that I left most of it with as thanks for not kicking us out and for being so nice to my grandma. Boy, do I wish for a nice relaxing weekend.