Birthday cake...!!!!

Every year on his birthday (since we started dating...6 years and 1 day ago) my lovely boyfriend (who I refer to as BFB) acts like his life is over. And we're not merely talking about one foot in the grave... We're talking he built his coffin, grabbed a pillow & closed his eyes. It's only that day, day of. For the next 364 days he's perfectly normal. So I started making him cakes. Themed cakes to be precise. You see, bfb is a firefighter. Not just any old firefighter but a Captain with the fire department and a member of the south Carolina urban search & rescue team(soon to be an assistant squad officer). So, said themed cakes... Always firefighter themed.

I've made him a fire engine cake, structure fire cake, Dalmatian cake & this year a fire station cake. Yes, I know that doesn't add up to six. Birthday one I was in Florida on vacation. We'd literally just started dating a week before. Year two I made a three tiered cheesecake (white chocolate, chocolate & butterscotch)... This was the first time I'd witnessed the birthday tude first hand.

Long story short... This is BFB's 35th birthday cake...

It's a marble pound cake with my cream cheese frosting recipe. He loved it. Is he spoiled? Probably. (0:

Chili... With potatoes?!

A few years ago I went camping with my mom, her boyfriend (we call her "S.O." aka significant other) & my boyfriend(BFB). My mom has never really been the outdoors type or active type until she moved to Washington state. My mom & I aren't what you would consider the girlie type. Were essentially female jocks.. Sweats, tshirt, hoodie & tennis shoes?! YES PLEASE. but still, my mom & the great outdoors?! This was going to be interesting in the least. One night for dinner she pulls out 5 cans & one pound of ground beef. She calls it 5 can chili & when she saw my face changed the name to camp fire chili.

A little background... My mom rarely cooked when I was growing up. What she did cook was delicious (with theexception of a pork chop incident in which even the dog opted out) but I grew up thinking my mom can cook a grand total of 10 meals (and thats the benefit of the doubt). Sooo, her throwing out some random meal can be a bit intimidating. Turns out this "5can chili" is amazing. Way better day two than the first night but still delicious fresh!!

SO, today I share the recipe!! (0:

Here are the stars of our performance::

2 cans progresso minestrone
2 cans ranch style beans
1 can rotfl tomatoes
1(and if you like super meaty chili add more) ground beef

Here comes the hard part... Are you ready?!

Brown the beef... Add your 5 cans.. Heat... Eat.

That simple. Enjoy.

And now, I eat some. (0: