I know, I know.  I normally do my weekly re-cap on Tuesday.  I was writing it, but my browser decided to crash before I could post it.  I thought about doing it on Wednesday and calling it Wednesday Whines...but I don't suppose anyone would really want to write that so I waited until today.

1. Wedding last Saturday was beautiful.  I always love to see people sharing love, laughter and joy.  I am so happy for my friends N and J.  Their story is rather cute.  They met in high school, and were friends early on.  During junior and senior years, they were a couple--doing activities and going to prom together.  After graduation they decided part ways for college, but they were friendly and occasionally contacted each other.  After 5 years after graduation, they started hanging out again and that lead to dating.  After a year, he proposed.   Awww.

2. I normally cry at weddings anyway, but this one was a bit different.  The father of the bride went up on the dance floor during the reception with a special message for his "little girl."  "I Loved Her First" by Heartland was played and he signed.  The bride works at an elementary school and a community college as an American Sign Language Interpreter.  She was really surprised, he had learned just for her reception.  How sweet is that?  I was balling my eyes out in the back.  'cause that's how I roll.  Their religious ceremony and reception happened on May 5, but they were legally married on May 4, on Audrey Hepburn's birthday, who is someone the bride idolizes.  I love their personal details, from getting married at church where the bride's parents got married 32 years ago, she borrowed her parents' cake cutter and handmade cake topper.

3. My curling iron broke last week, I wanted to curl my hair for Saturday so I went on a mad hunt for a new one.  My friends were split on curling irons with clamps or curling wand.  My friend M and I went to Marshalls and found a 1" curling iron with a clamp that went up to 430°F.  Wow, that is hot.  Thankfully, I can curl my hair with that particular iron like as if I were using a curling wand over the clamp.  Best of both worlds and not too expensive!  My kind of hair tool.

4. My husband and I had an early movie date on Sunday.  We went to see The Avengers.  Personally, I loved the movie for the eye candy (Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr, no particular order ) and action.  As you may or may not know, my husband is a comic book fanatic--he was very satisfied with where the movie makers are taking this.  He was extremely critical of previous Spiderman and X-Men endeavors (films prior to X-Men First Class), and felt that they were only making commercial films rather than staying true to any of the story lines from the actual comic books.  I can understand their reason for making them the way they did, after all this is business and they wanted to make money, not appease the life-long comic book fans.

5. I have 2 new cake orders for next Saturday.  I am going to be knee-deep in cake next Friday!  A basketball cake, 48 cupcakes and 48 cake pops for a baby's first birthday and a small first communion cake.

6. I watched a foreign film called "Ocean Heaven" starring Jet Li.  No, it is not a kung fu movie.  It is the farthest thing, actually.  Jet Li's character is a terminally ill widower father of a 22-year-old autistic man.  He was only given months to live, so he struggled to quickly teach his son the basics of living life, and to find a facility where his son could live a normal life but yet receive support if needed.  I do not know a whole lot on the topic of autism, but you cannot deny a parent's love for his child.  Even though the son was chronologically an adult, he had child-like tendencies.  We've all seen movies with Jet Li as some butt-kicking, sometimes cocky action hero, and you might even have seen him in humorous films of the past, but this is the first time I have seen him in a serious dramatic film.  His character was so vulnerable, real and honest.  It was a refreshing thought.

7. I can't believe how fast this year is flying by!  Wedding and graduation season is upon us already.

8. My Tres Leches cake for Cinco de Mayo was well received.  I doubled the cake recipe to make on to bring to work and one for Mr. W to take to work.  The recipe stated to mix the ingredients for the milk soaking mixture...and discard a cup.  What?  Why would you make so much if you're going to throw it away?  Anyway, I double the cake part but not the soaking liquid so I wouldn't have any leftover.  The cake was good but a tiny bit "dry" on the edges because the liquid wasn't quite enough.  Next time I make a double batch, I am going to add 3/4 cup more heavy cream to make the milk soaking liquid a thinner but it will be a little less sweet and it would have been enough to cover a double batch of cake.  After soaking it overnight, it was good but even better the day after that.  I will definitely make it again.  However, I noticed that some recipes online included pictures of the cake.  The slices often had milk oozing out of it...from what I understand, the milk should be completely absorbed by the cake.  Oh well.  I'll make mine the way I like.

9. I posted about making the cake on my FB Timeline.  A "friend," decided to make dumb comments.  Can you believe this?
My post: Baking tres leches cake.  Hope it comes out!
Friend, we will call him A: You're not supposed to bake tres leches cake.  It's just regular yellow cake dipped in 3 milks.
Me: What?  You're crazy, you bake the cake before pouring the milk over it.  Besides, it's not yellow cake, it is a sponge cake.
A: I just get pound cake from the store and dip it in the milk.
Me: WHAT?  STORE BOUGHT POUND CAKE?!
A: I saw it on the channel 7 news.
Me: How insulted would your grandma be if I bought a jar of mole, heated it, poured it over chicken and calling it homemade?
A: LOL

10. I really wanted to have a nice round number of points...but I got nothing.

Even though Cinco de Mayo is not really celebrated by Mexicans, some of us want to celebrate for the tiniest reasons.  But, that is besides the point.  I'd like to share my recipe for caramel flan.  I searched high and low for various recipes, and adapted it according to my tastes.  I realize that many people are used to firmer, richer versions of flan, but this is how I like mine: creamy but not too rich or too sweet.  Most of the recipes call for much more sugar for the caramel, but I find that it is too much sauce in the finished product and the sweetness overwhelms the delicate custard.  If using 1% or nonfat milk, I would use 6 eggs instead of 5.  If you'd like more caramel, you can use 2/3 to 1 cup granulated sugar.  If you'd like a richer flan, you can substitute half and half or heavy cream for the milk.  I haven't tried milk substitutes, such as rice, almond or soy, but I suppose you can make delicious custards with them.

1/4 to 1/3 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
3 cups milk (whole, 2%, 1% or nonfat is okay)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 325°F.  Have 6 cup round baking dish or casserole dish ready.  (I like using a 9" round cake pan with 2" high sides.)

Place sugar in a small saucepan or skillet over medium low heat; let heat slowly until sugar has dissolved and turned golden brown.  Let the sugar cook disturbed; do not stir.  If the sugar is not melting evenly, you can pick up the pan and swirl it a bit.  Pour caramelized sugar into baking dish; swirl to coat bottom of pan.  The bottom may not be completely covered, but that won't be a problem.

Place eggs and sweetened condensed milk in a mixing bowl; beat with electric mixer or whisk by hand until well blended.  Stir in milk and vanilla.  Pour mixture into caramel coated pan.  Place flan pan into a large roasting pan.  Fill the roasting pan at least halfway up sides of flan pan with hot tap water.  Place roasting pan with water and flan pan into heated oven.  Bake 1 hour or until set.  Remove roasting pan from oven; remove flan pan from water.  Let flan cool several minutes.

Chill flan in refrigerator several hours or overnight.  When ready to serve, use a small knife or rubber spatula to loosen around the edge of the flan.  Invert a serving plate or platter over the flan pan.  Using both hands; hold the pan tightly with the plate and flip over to unmold.  Cut into wedges to serve.

Makes 8 servings 

1. Can we stop with the "who pays for dinner" debate?  We're all adults.  We can buy our own dinner.  We can buy dinner for others if and when we want to.  If you don't want to buy someone else a dinner, then don't.  No one is forcing you to.  Let's not make this so complicated, okay?

2. Vanilla cake recipe needs work still.  I hate baking the same recipe and coming up with different results.  So frustrating!  No one likes dry cake, either.

3. Just read an article today that a little boy suffered first and second degree burns because a bully didn't like him.  What a horrible situation.  What is wrong with some people?  Are they not being disciplined properly?  And how did the kid get gasoline to douse the kid with?  A friend posted this on FB and it started quite a conversation, but we've come to the conclusion that some people need to pay more attention to their children.  We must teach them that it is wrong to bully others, to accept the abuse from others and not getting help from adults, and that a little extra time spent with your own children can be very beneficial.  Spend that time learning about what is going on in your kids' lives, if anything/anyone is bothering them, etc.

4. Another friend was griping about the ridiculousness of the Tupac hologram.  Seriously?  Don't like it?  Don't watch!  That friend has been annoying me recently, about the most unimportant things.  (You know, the stupid things that celebrities do.)  When did she become so close-minded?  That was the main reason she had to break it off with her former fiance.  She couldn't take anymore of his judgmental remarks and comments about anything and everything.  Besides, she's complaining about how dumb some famous people are.  I'm thinking, "Why do you care so much?!?"

5. The neighbor's damn cats.  A couple years ago, our neighbor found himself with TWO stray cats.  They stay outside but he feeds them.  Now there are 12...that I know about.  I've even got names for them, so when I tell my husband what I observed, he knows which cat I am referring to.  Anyway, I don't have a problem with cats, as we have 2, but the neighbor doesn't seem too interested in spaying or neutering them.  I believe the cost of spay/neuter to be less expensive than feeding an expanding number of cats in the long run.  If he wants to foot that bill, that's his thing.  I JUST HATE IT WHEN THE CATS SHIT IN MY YARD!  Especially since I want to plant some veggies and fruits in the yard.  Cat poop does not make good fertilizer, in fact, it can be harmful to our health with the worms and parasites the cats may have.

6. Ombre cakes on Pinterest and baking blogs.  What is the big deal?  It is white/vanilla cake with varying amounts of food coloring.  That's it.  Nothing really special about that, in my opinion.

7. Another neighbor's rooster.  Yes, I live in a suburb but it is not uncommon for neighbors to have a couple chickens and a rooster in their yard.  Why?  I have no idea.  This rooster crows at the oddest times.  Yesterday I noticed it crowing at 5:30 PM so I thought his internal clock was off...but he was at it again this morning.  However, my husband tells me that he's not saying "cock-doodle do" but more like, "please kill me."  "He looks pathetic."  Me: How do you know that?  Husband: "I saw him.  He looks like he has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.  It looks like they tried to put him in the de-feathering machine already.  I feel sad for him, someone must have felt bad for him and saved him."

8. I hate filing papers!  But I must, it is a part of my job.  So tedious.  I know, I know.  Either suck it up and file them, or find another job.

9. Bangs.  They are at a length too long to be just dangling there on my forehead but not quite long enough to be tucked behind my ear.  Can't decide to grow them out or cut them yet.

Ugh.  I think this was far more complaining than I bargained for.  Hopefully the next Complaints and Grievances post doesn't come too soon.