My sister and pirate-loving nephew were just here for a visit that coincided with his fifth birthday. I saw this great pirate cake on Parenting.com and suggested we try and make it. My dad emailed me that it looked really difficult to make. A little chiding and he revealed he’d only looked at the picture, not the directions. If you read the directions, Dad (he’s an engineer; they never read the directions!), you’ll see it’s made with pretzels and candy and is super simple.

So my sis and nephew made the cake (I took the pictures – haha). And while ours didn’t look quite as pretty as theirs, it looked pretty good, don’t you think? One little tip: buy some pirate figurines at the party store and add them to the top. It totally made the cake! And if yours ends up lopsided, as ours did, tell the kids that the ship is just sailing the high seas.

Anyhow, this recipe totally worked for me! (Part of the Works for Me Wednesday series, hosted at WeAreThatFamily. Lots of great tips there every Wednesday.)

THE CAKE FROM PARENTING.COM

OUR VERSION OF THE CAKE (WITH FIGURINES FROM PARTY STORE)

OH HO HO IT’S A PIRATE’S LIFE FOR ME! MY NEPHEW HARD AT WORK

Wanna see more photos? Check out our Facebook page for more shots of the cake-making fun!

Anything that saves me a few minutes is O.K. in my book. Well, almost anything. I can’t be bothered with a hot dog machine, for instance, no matter how much time it saves me.

But OpenTable? I love it! It’s an online restaurant reservation system. Free, of course. Friends coming to town and you’re looking for the perfect place for a large group? Or maybe you have a client you’d like to meet for lunch. Rather than call around to see who has a table, simply click your way around OpenTable. It’s super simple. You can even put in special requests for the restaurant such as “it’s my friend’s birthday” or “table next to the window please” or in my case, “do NOT let my dad pay for the meal no matter what he says.”

Sign up for a free account and earn rewards each time you book through them. Redeem rewards points for dining gift certificates (I’ve just earned a $20 one for doing nothing but booking my reservations online!).

They have great mobile apps, too. I’ve used that many times when I’ve been out and looking for a place to go to lunch. Just pulled up OpenTable on my phone and found the perfect spot.

Are you ready for another tour of completely, totally random stuff? Here’s what’s open in my browser right now:

Sprint’s phones. I just bought the Palm Pre and while there are features I love, there are a few things that annoy me enough to consider exchanging it (Sprint lets you test out a phone for 30 days). I want something with good web browsing capabilities, as I often read news on my phone (one of the secrets to how I gather so much random info), a keyboard for all the email and texting I do, and good call quality. I’m thinking about the Blackberry Curve or the HTC Touch Pro.

Good Measure Meals. A local Atlanta thing. They prepare fresh, nutritious meals and deliver them to a gym near your house (or directly to your home if you prefer). They have 1200, 1700, and 2100 calorie meal plans. You can order 5 or 7 day-a-week plans or dinners only. My husband and I just started it and so far, the food has been really impressive. We actually love to cook but found we were eating really late at night because the time we would usually cook and eat was now the time that we fed the baby, played with him, bathed him and put him to bed. We were too tired and it was too late to start cooking after that! Enter Good Measure Meals and our problem is solved.

One Year Birthday Theme. Last week I thought maybe hot air balloons. The week before, I told you all I was thinking about safari or owls. This week, I’m thinking . . . WHEELS! Not Hot Wheels or anything like trucks (yuck yuck yuck) but just some cute wheels. Why? Because my son will take any toy with wheels, turn it over and try and stop the wheels (if it’s motorized). He loves things that spin. So maybe a party with pinwheels and a big wagon wheel type cake . . . I dunno. Any ideas out there for me?

Yesterday, my best friend Terri came over and we made homemade granola. It’s soooo yummy that I think I’ll make it every weekend and quit buying the boxed kind. We tried two different recipes, and preferred this one from the KitchenSink Recipes.

I was going to take pics and show you step-by-step but we really didn’t deviate from the recipe much and her pics are gorgeous, so just do what she tells you and you won’t get hurt.

We made a couple of batches. The first batch burned a bit, so Terri thought we should stir it more often than the recipe suggests. We stirred it every 5 minutes instead of every 10 and it turned out PERFECT. I mean, like seriously yummy.

Granola is really easy to make. It does take a lot of ingredients, but all you do is measure them all and dump them in a bowl, stir it, and spread out on a lined, rimmed cookie sheet. Bake it for 20 minutes (stirring every 5) and you’re done. Super simple. Buy the ingredients in bulk to save money. Besides you’re going to want to make another batch and another and another . . .

I did research granola recipes (I know, shocking that I would research something!) and found that there probably is some magic formula for amount of dry ingredients (nuts, granola) vs. wet ingredients, but I couldn’t really crack the code. USA Today explains the basics well and gives you endless variations. They use wheat germ to create a sort of paste to create clumps in your granola. I didn’t have wheat germ so I went with the KitchenSink recipe. I also tried Giada’s recipe. Hers is also delicious but moister and sweeter. I prefer my granola a bit on the dry side.

The only other thing we did differently from the recipe was add more nuts. It calls for either pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds. We used both. It calls for coconut flakes, which Terri and I both hate so we omitted that. I found a yummy dried mixed berry blend at Publix and used that for my fruit.

My husband and I eat ours with a dollop of plain yogurt on top. And lately, since they’re in season, we cut up a peach or nectarine and throw that in there, too. Makes a good breakfast OR dessert! Also makes a great gift. Package it up in a nice, BPA-free storage container, tie a bow around it and voila! Instant hostess gift. The granola keeps for a week or two, but in my experience, it won’t last that long.