Mirror Mirror on the wall...

I've become my mother after all! My mom and I were shopping boutiques one day several years ago and we found this saying stitched on a pillow. I really wished I would have bought it then. My mother really liked the quote and I didn't truly understand it's meaning until now. Growing up, I remember her complaining about something her mother (my grandmother) had said or done. After the years went by, she would say that she had become her mother and found herself doing the same things she had once despised. Alas, it has happened to another generation. When I was a child, I would say to myself that I was never going to do that when I became a mother. Now I just hope I have the same wisdom that she did to raise my little boy. Not only is my mom a wonderful mom, she is simply a great person. She is compassionate, generous, just, wise, grateful, loyal and a peacemaker (just to name a few of her qualities) and I hope that I can one day be a little bit of all of those. It's her birthday today. Happy Birthday JoAnna. I love you!

Her two favorite foods (aside from shrimp) are lemons and raspberries. I baked her a cake with those two flavors. Click here for the recipe. I tweaked a couple of things in it. I one-and-a-half timed the recipe to make it a 3-layer cake...I don't believe in only 2-layer cakes (what's the point?). I also poked holes into each cake layer and poured thawed frozen lemonade over it (about 1/3 cup total). Adds more of a lemony tartness.