Cream Cheese Poundcake

Here's why life's been awesome lately:

1. I had the smoothest, most lovely first week of school yet.  It was so good, in fact, that I'm left with that "waiting for the other shoe to drop" feeling.  Hopefully that other shoe stays waaaaay up in the air.  And hopefully my little baby ninth graders stay as sweet as they were this week (there is a zero percent chance of that happening) and hopefully my eleventh graders don't knock me off of the pro-baby wagon. 
2. Speaking of the pro-baby wagon, Matt and I have been ridin' it for 28 days now.  Like being possessed by the devil, I tell you.  I'd also be a damned liar if I didn't admit to having fantasized about: decorating a nursery, naming a little girl an old lady name, watching Matt be an awesome dad, and teaching a little human how to be completely awesome.  I'm less excited about: being pregnant, spending all of our extra money on that little person with the old person name, not being able to pay as much attention to Mitch, getting even more fat than I already am, and not being able to take naps whenever I want.
3. Speaking of naps, I took a 5-hour one on Thursday night.  That's right, lest we forget, Mandy is the world champion of nap-taking.  What was even more impressive was that, upon waking from that 5-hour nap, I took a shower (which I hardly ever do) and graded a big stack of papers.  My productivity the night before made for an easy day at school on Friday.
4. Speaking of school on Friday, it was the best ever--not because I got to read "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" with my juniors (because I hate the Puritans more than I hate Ashlee Simpson), but because we got FREE CHICK-FIL-A!  I don't know why we got free sandwiches, but there's nothing like some free chicken sandwiches to make an already good day even better.
5. And speaking of delicious food, when I got home on Friday, I made a cream cheese poundcake. I didn't even know that was a thing until one of the women at work requested that I make one. So I set out for a recipe, and went to town. (Well, I didn't really go to town so much as I went to Publix, and then went back to my glorious happy kitchen to do some baking.) Check it out.

(Notice the gorgeous Amish Butterprint bowls.  They're not only beautiful, but better because of the little spout things.  Made for a better baking experience.)

(From what I understood, I needed to fill the pan to be very full because there were no leavening agents in the batter.  I may have gone a little wild with this instruction.)

(See?  And it gets worse.)

(Oh well.  More crispy pieces for me to eat.)

(What I really want to do is to pan-fry this piece of cake in some butter and then eat it with Thomas Jefferson's Vanilla Ice Cream.  I also want my jeans to continue to fit, so I guess I'll pass on that idea.)
Cream Cheese Poundcake (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
2 cups white sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)
6 eggs
3 cups cake flour

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease one 10 inch tube pan.
2.Cream together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light. Stir in the vanilla extract. Add the flour and the eggs alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3.Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy the rest of this long weekend!

Happiness Is. . .

What a week it's been! My last seven days have been complete mayhem, mostly because of the 90 ninth graders who are itching to get out of school. Last night I was up until 3:00 a.m. baking cookies and cakes for those ninth graders, my last-ditch effort to end their year in a positive way. I'm going to be a very happy girl tomorrow afternoon, as I bid those little darlings farewell.  But I'll be an even happier one after Thursday's graduation. There's nothing better in the world than summer vacation, and it's so close that I can taste it.

Now, I actually have something even more important to share with you, something that may end up being the one thing my life was actually missing. The time is finally here. I always knew that this would make me happy, but until I experienced it for myself I had no idea the depths of joy it would allow me to tap into.

So without further ado.




Because I want to tell you before I tell even my closest friends or family members.



And because I think this event is going to be life-changing.




Here it goes.




Chick-Fil-A has a new Spicy Chicken Sandwich!  

[source]

And it's really f'ing good. 

I've got a sink full of baking dishes, a dog outside barking at God knows what, thirsty plants, and gritty floors.  And I just realized that my week has been so crazy that I forgot to watch The Hills and The City!  Looks like I've got a busy night in store.  It's a good thing I just ate my Spicy Chicken Sandwich, a.k.a., "Productivity Fuel."  I think that's the campaign that Chick-Fil-A should use to promote the sandwich.  Either that, or, "The chicken sandwich that Jesus would eat."