Salvage Company

I was simply trying to plan ahead. I knew that at least 6 people would be coming to visit on Tuesday afternoon, staying for dinner, and some if not all of them spending the night. Monday I had a gallon of freshly picked blackberries to deal with. And no room in the freezer, which is full of cherries, blackberries, and the 5 lb of blueberries I bought on sale Sunday. Hey, I need my antioxidants! So I made jam, six and a half pints of seedless spiced blackberry. That doo-hicky I bought last fall for the Kitchen Aid Mixer (when I had a ton of apples to deal with) worked great for deseeding blackberries.

I took the last 2 cups of blackberries aside and made what sounded like a great blackberry coffee cake. I was going to be so prepared for Wednesday morning, when everyone was planning to go rafting. As I was removing my masterpiece from the pan, it broke into several pieces. Okay, more than several. Alot. With crumbs. That's what I get for multi-tasking. I resisted the urge to toss it in the trash, and just gave the lumps a glare and a good old fashioned F u. I finished making the jam and considered my options.

All those years of hanging around with Brits paid off. A trifle, obviously, is what we should become, said the lumps of cake and blackberries. All my best dishes, serving and tableware are still in storage. So I didn't have anything close to resembling a trifle bowl. Tupperware to the rescue, a nice deep square semitransparent container, so you could kind of see the layers.

A layer of cake chunks, a sprinkle of amaretto, a layer of fruit (peaches, blueberries, and leftover blackberries that had been mixed with a little sugar, cinnamon and finely chopped pecans for the cake filling), a layer of vanilla pudding, a layer of whipped cream (mixed with low cal cool whip, since I was feeling slightly guilty...I'd used real butter in the cake), repeat once more, then chill.

I did not take a picture, though I should have with that striking Tupperware presentation.

It was SO GOOD, I think I'll add 'drop cake as you are removing it from pan' to the recipe, if I ever make one again.

So what about breakfast? Well, only 3 stayed the night, one got up 5 minutes before departure time and grabbed a clif bar, and 2 ate strawberry frosted mini wheats with me (my mom told me to try some...if you haven't yet, DO IT!). Who needs blackberry coffee cake for breakfast?

And how was the rafting? Well, Lloyd and the gang had too much fun. Eat your hearts out, Rob, Linda and Brendan. Sorry you had that darn flight home to that godforsaken place, Golden CO.

The rafts are going over Husum Falls again, as of last week. I caught them going over here:

And then ran around to Rattlesnake Rapids and caught them here:

And riding the bucking bronco here:

The rafting company pictures make it look even scarier, with the closeups. And you can see the look of terror on everyone's faces. I'll post those next, uploads a little slow right now.