Mmm...Coffee Cake!

Hello!  Miss Manic Depressive is on the upswing!  Hee-hee.  (I have to laugh or it would just be scary.)

I feel good today.  It helps that I have the best husband in the world.  And you, my internet friends, are the very best, and my dogs, and my family, and, and, and...

Have I ever told you how lucky I am?  I'm lucky, lucky, lucky.  My best friend always tells me, "You are the only person I know who can fall into a pile of sh*t and come out smelling like a rose every time!"  It's true.

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I have a coffee cake in the oven as I'm typing this, and my house smells like cinnamony brown-sugary goodness.  I should say I have THE coffee cake in the oven, because I will never use another recipe.  This one is IT.  I got it ready last night by measuring and combining all my ingredients in sandwich ziplock bags.  Then I got my mixer and large mixing bowl out, put two sticks of butter in there, and covered it with a plate.  This morning all I had to do was take out the eggs and sour cream, dump and mix.

And because I love you, here it is:

THE Coffee Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Streusel Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup pecans, chopped finely

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 9" x 13" pan with cooking spray.  Set aside.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  In your large mixing bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy.  Gradually beat in the sour cream and white sugar.  Beat in the eggs one at a time and stir in the vanilla.  By hand, fold in the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated.  Spread batter into prepared pan.

In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon.  Dump over cake batter and spread evenly.  Drizzle melted butter over the top.

Bake in preheated over for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted to the center comes out clean.  Keeps unrefrigerated for several days, but I bet it won't last that long!

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I almost didn't post this picture because it just does not do this pretty flowery thing justice, but here it is anyway.  Imagine it 10-times prettier because it is.

Pretty-Pretty Flower Scarf

by Gnatalie

I suppose I could have straightened out the flowers so you could see them, but I didn't. This is supposed to be a scarf, but I forgot that and joined it at the back of the neck. I'm going to un-join it later today. Trust me...it's really cute. I'm going to make a few more in different colors and wear them together (as a scarf). I have several colors of the snowflake yarn. The original pattern said to use Caron Simply Soft, but you can use whatever you want I suppose.

One tip: The tighter you crochet and the smaller the yarn, the better it looks, at least in my opinion. And by smaller, I mean like DK or sport weight yarn.

This only took me 45 minutes to make, and that was the first one I'd ever made. I used a Size E hook (3.5mm) and Snowflake Wool yarn from Hobby Lobby.  You can see lots of these made by others on Ravelry.  If you're not a member, here's the pattern link:

Pretty-Pretty Flower Scarf

Thank you Gnatalie!

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A prayer, lots of love, and lots of good thoughts go out to my sister's husband.  He found out he has bladder cancer yesterday.  If you are so inclined, please keep him in your thoughts.  Surgery is next week.