Normally we would have had a lot of hot air this past week with 500 balloons and an extra million people in town for Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. However, like everything else that draws more than 10 people, the AIBF was canceled this year. A few locals flew over our house this morning in honor of the event.
A view from the window in the stairwell. Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Sandhill Cranes are flying in for the winter. We are seeing large echelons of cranes flying along the Rio Grande. It seems like they are arriving early this year. Since the Balloon Feasta was canceled, it’s nice to see the cranes flying overhead.
Cranes coming into roost on the river well after sundown.
Cranes through the Tangle Heart Tree.
Marble taking a blue break.
Early morning. Cold with darkness all around. I was low on gas @ 15666 mi. You see…
…I pulled into Phillips 66 to Phill-er-up, but Phillip said “No gas for you today!”
Marina’s Incognito tree blends in nicely with the black bamboo.
While spies come in from the cold, the Incognito tree has been outed by the cold.
Over/Under Incognito for Marina. Checkout Marina’s Happy October, 2020 post.
Chopped chocolate
We have five birthdays in October in our family. The fun has begun. I baked Laurie a cake for her birthday, which was yesterday (Saturday). I baked special chocolate sour cream bunt cake that’s a little more complicated than the plain old fashioned chocolate cake I have made for her in years past.
Chopped chocolate mixed with cocoa powder and espresso powder ready for boiling water.
I prepped the flour while the chocolate mixture cooled so I could add sour cream to it.
Getting ready to blend the butter and brown sugar into a smooth, fluffy paste.
I think this was the most exciting part of the mixing. Mixed it up and got it ready for the eggs.
The chocolate mixture after I whisked the sour cream into it. It didn’t look much different from before.
The batter all mixed up and ready for the pan.
The recipe has you make a chocolate butter past to grease the bunt pan and then coat the pan with cocoa powder. Laurie said it worked better to use a mixture of cocoa powder and flour. Either way, I made a mess.
A well-coated bunt pan
Laurie had made this recipe and filled bugs and bunny cake pans with the batter. The little cakes rose well above the top of the cake pan. Keeping that in mind, I filled the bunt pan 2/3 full and prepped a pie pan for the rest of the batter.
Coated pie pan
Intermission: The birthday girl showing off how her exercise clothes and nails complimented her birthday bag full of goodies.
Batter in the pie pan.
Nice textures
It turned out that the cake didn’t rise at all for me. It just poofed up around the middle.
The cake came out of the pan really easily and looked great other than being a little short.
Drone view
The cake in the pie pan didn’t rise either. The sour cream I used was really sour, perhaps the sourness changed the leavening. I put the bunt cake on top of the pie cake on a chrome platter. The stack gave it a sculptural look. Tristan asked me to make the tangy whipped cream suggested in the recipe using heavy whipping cream, brown sugar, sour cream, and vanilla. The cake has a super chocolaty taste and the tangy whipped cream gives it a nice zing.
Note to Herman. This cake is great with a cup of espresso. Together they make the real breakfast of champions.
Teagan’s, Susan’s, and Lavinia’s trees beginning to turn yellow from the recent frosts.
Gwendolyn: “If you stop blogging everyone will miss seeing me grow up into a beautiful kitty!”
After a major pussy riot by all felines in the household, and a sound pussy whipping by said felines and other females in the household, I am being forced to withdraw all threats of not blogging.
Glenda: “And everyone would miss my cuteness!”
“How could you stop sharing THIS with the world?”
“People would miss out on all my great poses and being a Hellcat!”
“Don’t Eeeven think about it buster!”
“Meh!”
“Oh, brother! Dude!”
“AAahhh! What about all my girlfriends? AAaahh! What about all my admirers? AAaahh! What about all the modeling and acting I do for your blog? AAaahh! I’ll whack your pee pee if you quit blogging. AAaahhh! I’m going to whack it just for you thinking about not blogging and leaving me out in the cold!”
“I think I’ll give you a paw sandwich!”
“How about if I give you sad eyes?”
“You’re making me go all corny and flaky just thinking about it!”
“The thought of not being blogged!”
“I simply can’t bear the thought of it!”
“How can you Eeeven think about denying all those lovely women who adore me this beautiful face?”
This may be it for me. I’m tired of WordPress lying and forcing crap on me that I don’t want to deal with. WP techs told me the Classic Editor would always be available through the Admin page. Lowdown and behold, October 1st rolls around and it’s now the Classic “Blockhead” Editor. I’ve been blogging everyday for over 10 years now. Maybe this is a sign to give it up for a while. It’s not that I can’t learn to use the “blockhead” editor, it’s that I’m tired of being forced to use things I don’t want to use and there is no good reason WP has to have a “blockhead” editor and force people to use it.
Off Center & Not Even 