Tomorrow is DD's party and the arrival of our English weekend guests. Thoughts and prayers welcome as each my try my patience.

Today was a whirlwind of house cleaning, guest room prep, shopping, and cooking. I'm making this heart cake for DD's party and the filling is supposed to be Cool Whip. I was raised by a whipped cream purist and am proud to be one myself, but was worried about the cream's stability. I looked up some internet blogs that advised adding gelatin, but unsure how well it worked. My experience tells me that 10-year-old girls will eat chocolate cake with whipped cream raspberry filling even if the cream flopped.

There's lots to do and still unsure of Sunday's menu as one of our guests is a very picky eater and the other a very eager eater.

My California trip is now officially off. I was near tears canceling the Culinary Institute reservation but should suck it up and get over it. And we've got subzero windchills. Bah.