Pretty cake tutorial

Isn't this rose cake just the purtiest? Find directions here

Kitchen sink quesadillas

This is a great recipe adapted from Real Simple. I've omitted many ingredients to make it a recipe I can make almost anytime from staple ingredients. If you swapped out the flour tortillas for whole wheat and used a lowfat (or polite amount of) cheese, it would be even healthier. But we like our flour tortillas and healthy amount of cheese over here.
Added bonus: It's a vegetarian dinner that my meat-eating husband loves.

Kitchen Sink Quesadillas
adapted from Real Simple

Ingredients:
flour tortillas
grated cheddar cheese
one 15 oz. can drained and rinsed black beans
one 11 oz. can corn
one cup salsa

Preparation:
Mix the beans, corn and salsa together in a bowl. Heat one side of the tortilla over medium heat in wide pan. When one side is hot, flip over and sprinkle the hot side with cheese. Top with 3 or 4 big spoonfuls of the bean and corn mixture. Top with more cheese and finally another tortilla. Let bottom tortilla get some color on it before gingerly flipping the entire thing over. Let other side brown, then slide off onto a cutting board and cut into quarters. Dip into more salsa, sour cream, or eat as is.

Handmade memory game

What a beautiful gift for a child this would be. If only I had an extra 100 hours...

Directions for making one of these memory games here

Summer terrarium

I love this idea for bringing nature indoors. Find complete directions (even for the hand-painted gnomes!) here.

And aren't these artichoke stems beautiful?

In other news, I made this sour cherry apple pie for an Irish friend visiting. I used up the sour cherries I picked from our trees last spring. I think I'm just going to stick with crumb topping for my pies, a double crust is so much work. And crumb topping is so yummy! You can find the recipe for the pie here, but I used Martha's recipe for the crumb topping. I accidentally used salted butter instead of unsalted and let me tell you, it was salty, so I ended up adding more flour and sugar to even it out. It worked in the long run, but I had lots of crumb topping left over. I just froze it and used it for an apple pie I made later during our friend's visit. It's nice having pie in the house, don't you think?