the world wide web, cuban sandwiches, and strawberry lemonade cake

It's been 3 weeks since my last post. Not because I've run out of ideas or things to share. Nope not at all. May is generally my craziest time of the year - right up there with Christmas. The next event that I should have written about was Lane's graduation. Oh MY was it funny! Few things bring me to tears like a bunch of 4 and 5 year old kids on stage singing. So precious! I had planned to upload some of the videos until I realized they were all on Chris' Mac that he takes to work with him most days.

Y'all. seriously that MAC and I do. not. get. along. He has had the thing for a year and I still haven't figured out how many fingers I need to swipe in which direction. I feel like a 90 year old grandma calling some foreign speaking person to help me navigate the world wide web.

struggles.

Anywho, next week I'll get Lane to upload pictures from his preschool graduation to share with you all from is 4k graduation. I'm sure he will have it figured out in about the seconds.

Tech savvy I am not but I can cook. After Lane's little graduation, we were having my parents and grandparents, as well as, Chris' parents over for dinner. I knew better than to try to cook for 8 adults after the graduation. So I turned to one of our favorite, inexpensive, and easy crock pot meals that feeds a crowd - Cuban sandwiches! Mmm!

Mom and Dad went on vacation to Key West several years ago. While they were there they fell in love with these Cuban sandwiches. So obviously they went to a grocery store in search of the amazing bread. While they were at the store, mom spotted a little Cuban grandma and asked if she knew how they made the sandwiches. And like any good grandma would do, the lady took mom and dad around the grocery store showing them everything they would need and how to cook the meat. Love that sweet little lady! So here it is:

Cuban sandwiches from the kitchen of a little Cuban Granny:
ingredients:
Boston Butt
A stank load of garlic (I buy the little bag of garlic)
even more onions (like 5-6)  {don't fear it somehow isn't an overwhelming amount}
Goya Mojo sauce (large bottle in the ethnic food isle)

Take your Boston butt and cut a ton of little slices all over it. Top bottom and sides. Then stuff the little slices with your garlic cloves. Put the meat in the crock pot. Pour the sauce over the meat. Slice  the onions into rings. Fill the crock pot with the onion to the point that you think there is no more room and the lid might not close. Cook that bad boy all day long (6-8 hrs) Check back about an hour before it should be done. Check to see if you still have plenty of visible onions on top (they tend to cook down) You want plenty of "grilled" onions for your sandwich.

Now for the sandwich ingredients:
Cuban rolls (or some type of hoagie style bread)
Meat (from crockpot)
onions (from crockpot)
sliced ham (I buy the black forest ham from Costco)
Swiss cheese
mayo
mustard (regular or Dijon)
lettuce
dill pickles

Build your sandwich then press it on a panini press. Or if you don't have one, we use our George Forman grill. :)

So, so good! We served it with just chips because this is a crazy good and filling sandwich. Or you could go all out like mom does and serve it with back bean soup. I personally can never eat a whole sandwich and soup.


For dessert, I continued with my ridiculously easy theme for the night. I have a obsession deep love for this Strawberry Lemonade Cake recipe that I found on pinterest. I've made it several times and it has wiped out almost everywhere that I've taken it.  The icing recipe make a ton so I've started taking the extra icing as a fruit dip. No need in wasting perfectly good icing, right?

Well, I didn't make that cake. I didn't have it in me to bake a cake and all that jazz. I was already making sugar cookies for Lane's birthday party, so I made a few extra. And by "made" what I mean is I baked the break apart and bake cookies. Then I made just the icing from the strawberry lemonade cake. I put out several different berries and we had a build your own fruit pizza bar. Delish and too easy!

Overall, it was a wonderful laid back evening! We went ahead and gave the kids their big birthday present that night. A sandbox built by my amazing husband!! I'll share pictures of that soon. :)