What's afoot in my kitchen?

Things have been pretty quiet around Pregnant Lady Cooks...but don't let that fool you into thinking that I've been idle. No indeed! We've been on vacation for the last two weeks or so, but the pregnant lady has still been cooking up a tiny storm.

We spent a glorious week in Outer Banks, North Carolina with Chris' family, where I continued to perfect my recipe for Basil Turkey Burgers. I'm so thrilled about this burger idea--in part because I normally run for the hills when people start talking about grillin' burgers, and yet have finally created something that I love and that other people also seem to like and are willing categorize as "a burger," and in part because it is, IMHO, a truly sublime flavor explosion. Once I get a recipe down to normal-size quantities (we were feeding 18 in NC), I'll post it here.

Then last week we had a family reunion with my extended family, for which the dinner head count was 45. Thank goodness for slow cookers. We had a Mexican taco bar, complete with my first chicken mole, the Tinga Poblana that we all know and love, cuban pork (another recipe I should post some time), homemade pico de gallo, spicy pickled carrots and peppers, my now oft requested yogurt cilantro lime sauce (which can be found with my fish taco recipe), stewed beans, and loads of salad and fresh fruit. My conclusion: just because you're feeding a lot of people doesn't mean you have to eat processed crap. A certain someone who shall remain nameless kept trying to get me just to buy Pace Picante sauce and iceberg lettuce at Costco, and I'm so glad I resisted. It's so satisfying to eat good food and watch other people appreciate it.

And now this week a whole new project is emerging: my friend Katina's wedding cake. This baby is going to be four tiers of vanilla poppy seed bliss, with lemon curd, raspberry filling, and inexcusable amounts of rosewater buttercream frosting. This is my very first time making a wedding cake, and I am elbow deep in it at this very moment. I've decided not to bother cleaning the kitchen until it's completely done; there's just no point, since it's a perpetual scene of cakey-crumby-curdy carnage. A status update reveals 6 of the 8 cakes completed, the lemon curd and the raspberry filling chilling in the fridge, and a long evening of gum paste calla lily-making ahead of me. I've been photographing as I go, so provided the results aren't too embarrassing, I'll be making a mega post sometime over the weekend to share my experience with anyone who is interested.