Family Dinner Fun

Yummy Muggy Cake!

Today I decided to make a dessert for our weekly Family Dinner.  Ha, that sentence sounds weird since it seems to imply that we only eat dinner once a week.  So to clarify, at our house we set aside Tuesday for our extended family (as in my MIL, nephew, my two brothers and daughter and SIL when they can make it) to have dinner.  Seeing as Valentine's day is coming up I thought I'd make something with a heart theme. I rifled through my cupboard and decided to make Aunt Betty's 1-2-3 Cake, or Muggy Cake as I call it just because it's quicker and sounds more fun.  Oh, before I forget, here's the link.....

http://thehiddenpantry.blogspot.com/2011/11/aunt-bettys-1-2-3-cake.html 

I thought this was also a better choice as I am in great need of losing a bit of weight, boo, and I believe each serving

is about 80 calories.  I found that info on another site but since  I don't have a food lab in my house to verify, don't quote me on that.  It sounds reasonable so I'm content with it and it makes me feel better when I eat it.  I made them in a silicone heart pan that has 6 cute little heart molds so you can cook them in the micro.  My first stab at reworking the recipe to go from mug to heart pan went okay except I filled the molds too high and I had a bit of a mess, so if you decided to give this recipe a try keep that in mind.  I also wanted to use some chocolate chips and discovered it's better to sprinkle the chips in the pan before you add the batter...wow this is starting to sound like a cooking site!  So, to cut to the core they turned out pretty good and it's a great recipe to use when you want a tasty, cakey snacky that you don't have to feel too guilty about.

Getting back to Family Dinner...we are very blessed that we have a family that can actually tolerate each other enough to want to get together every week!  We had a lively discussion after dinner and I just love a good, meaty conversation.  After we played a board game which is the usual fare although the games can vary greatly as, between us all, we have a nice selection.  Tonight was Nate-O's game, Tapple.  This is one of those fast-pacer games but

Just a simulation...not our real hand or table :)

we all did fine, although those dang timers always seem to cause you to mess up.  It's also good because the play will vary each time so it should't get too "old" played multiple times.  It's also extremely easy to learn which is wonderful for us old types that get frustrated with rules.  My daughter and SIL play games that have rule books and when I say books I mean actual book-size books...too much for my creaky mind.  Another game we have recently played is called Telestrations and it's freakin' funny!  We've played it in a cheaper form using just paper and pencil but I think it's helpful to have the dry-erase tablets that are supplied.

Freakin' funny game!

It's pretty much like the classic game of Telephone except, obviously, you write and draw.  For example, one round we played started with the word "deodorant" and after going through the lot of us ended up reading "A queen ant laying eggs"; best round yet!  But one of the best single drawings would have to be this...it was my brother's rendition of a dog.  Someone came up with the fact that it looks like Charlie Brown so, 

Good Grief!

between Nate-O and I adding embellishments, it ended up looking like this>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hilarious yet frightening at the same time.  Yet another interesting outcome from Family Dinner Night.