Grapes, Cakes, Potatoes, and Jelly

I don't normally buy grapes here because they are so expensive. Last week they looked so good I just couldn't pass them up. I did end up paying almost $10 for them, but the boys loved them.

There is a funny story behind this chocolate sheet cake. Kenny has been wanting to make this for a couple of months. This was the first time we had made his grandmothers chocolate sheet cake. The cake turned out great...it smelt and tasted just like hers. He made the icing and it looked so good but tasted so so bad. We couldn't figure out why it tasted so bad but knew it wasn't right. I thought maybe it was the butter we used because the powder sugar was from the US, so I knew it couldn't be that. We tasted the butter and it seemed to be ok...we tasted the powder sugar and something was wrong with it. Kenny thought it tasted like dryer sheets, but that wasn't it. I had made some icing for Jared's class to decorate cookies for Valentines and it tasted the same to me then, but I had just opened the powder sugar so it couldn't have went bad. I opened the other package of powder sugar that I brought with us and it tasted normal. Something WAS wrong with this powder sugar but we still couldn't figure it out. We remembered that when we opened the plastic tubes when I arrived here that some body spray we brought back for a friend had leaked. I guess this bag of powder sugar soaked it up making it taste like the spray. I feel really bad for the kids in Jared's class having eaten that icing now. 

Lesson learned: Only pack food with food!!!!

Since the chocolate sheet cake didn't turn out I decided to make one of my favorite Mema recipes....Banana Cake!!! I used the good powder sugar on this one and it turned out delicious.

Kenny has been begging me to find some strawberry jelly. I finally found some last week so I bought 2 jars of it. Kenny was so glad I found some and was looking forward to a PB&J sandwich until he opened them.  Mold anyone? 

In January I noticed some vines by the side of the house and I asked my gardener what it was. He said it was sweet potatoes. I was so excited because we all love sweet potatoes. Armenda told me we needed to cut the vines off the top to make them grow bigger. She also said they eat the leaf part on the vines and I told her she could have all she wanted. Last week I came in and seen one of these on the counter and asked what it was. Armenda said it was a sweet potato from the garden. She said she would cooked it for lunch and I said ok. When she cut it in half it was white inside.....I was a little disappointed. I never got to try it because I was gone at lunch but I will next time. I am guessing they do not taste like our sweet potatoes.