birthday cake makes everything better

Not that things were bad; I just haven't had a moment to stop and blog all week. I feel like I haven't stopped moving since last Sunday--and I'm trying not to think about the moving coming up this week. But anyway, I made my birthday cake a few days ago: Caramel Pear Cake. Yes, a recipe that calls for a boxed cake mix. Gasp!

I made this choice on purpose, though. Quick and easy, since I also made soup for dinner (but I can't tell you if I shared it here last year since something seems to be wrong with my search bar). Two notes: 1. I'm not sure if my pears were sliced thin enough; they didn't sink down in the cake like the picture would indicate, 2. I swapped the walnuts for pecans. I think it was appreciated. It's a very light cake and the spice flavor goes well with the pears. Oh, and I had some ginormous Anjou pears. I only needed one to make the two rows on top of the cake.

I've already made the world's fluffiest waffles (hyperbole much?) this morning and am about to make cookies. Both from scratch, recipes forthcoming. If I find the time. And two new Thanksgiving recipes this year...

When will I actually get back to cereal? Sometime next week, probably.