Spring Cleaning

Despite a disappointingly cold week,  the first signs of spring are peeking out in Portland and I couldn't be happier.  Not that I have a lot of complain about -- it was a mild winter around here, a large chunk of which I spent enjoying the Arizona sunshine.  Still, I'm a warm-weather fan and am basically just super excited about the summer.

Plus, (not to be too cliche) in general spring can be such a time of renewal and this spring in particular I need to get reorganized and back on top of things (especially fun things, like blogging).  And man, am I behind on blogging -- I have an entire surprise party for my mom I threw almost two months ago to write about (a fact that you, Mariana, are well aware of especially since you helped me prepare for it!)  This current post has been has been started, but not finished for about the same about of time.  This long overdue post isn't what will one day be the comprehensive post about the party, but it is about two of Mariana's recipes that I made for the party.  Two recipes which were basically awesome.  First (and my personal favorite) were the crackers you made for your own mom's birthday:

I made these for my mom's celebration and totally loved the tastiness and versatility of these crackers.  For her party I used gouda as the cheese (I skipped the anchovies).  I also prepared them for the Super Bowl (using manchego) and my visit to my dad's (using feta) but can imagine a million different flavor combinations and a million different situations in which to serve them.  They could make an appearance at my thesis defense (assuming such a thing ever happens).  If I can get my act together, I might even make an Irish cheddar flavored version for St. Patrick's day (a holiday which I admittedly haven't celebrated in years).  But I may celebrate this year, especially if it means I get to eat these crackers.    

I also made your angel food cake, which turned out well.  So well that some rascal got his hands on the last piece before I could photograph it:

I'm definitely not an angel food cake master yet, but this recipe was very easy to follow.  I think that the moral of this quite wordy post (sorry to my mom, who doesn't like my wordy posts) is that I should make your recipes more often.