• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Contact
    • Media Kit
  • Parenting
    • Teen Sons
    • Raising Girls
    • Inspiration
    • Single Mom Chronicles
  • Wellness
    • Fitness
    • Self-Care
    • Easy Meal Ideas
  • Family
    • Travel
    • Philadelphia Area Fun
    • STEM Activities
  • Finances
    • One Income Household Tips
    • Saving & Investing
    • Deals & Coupons
JenOni

Archives for December 2018

Holiday Dessert : A Hummingbird Cake

Dec 31, 2018

Holiday Dessert

I baked this cake for the first time in the mid-2000s. My mom loved the cake and Thanksgiving was a perfect time to bake the cake again. The hummingbird cake is a three layer cake filled with bananas, pineapples, and spice with cream cheese frosting. This recipe was found on Southern Living.com. This recipe calls for toasted pecans, I toasted the pecans for the garnish only. The cake is absolutely delicious, moist, and every bite is filled with richness combined with the sweetness of the cream cheese frosting.

The recipe is found here https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/hummingbird-cake-recipe

holiday dessert

Cream Cheese Frosting

holiday dessert
holiday dessert

Toasted Pecans

holiday dessert
holiday dessert

Filed Under: Cooking and Baking By Me Tagged With: #baking, dessert, holiday

Giveaway ~Becoming: An Intimate Conversation with Michelle Obama

Dec 4, 2018

Book Giveaway

To celebrate being in attendance on Thursday, November 29th at the Wells Fargo,  I am giving away a copy of Becoming.   On Thursday, November 29th I had the pleasure of seeing Michelle Obama at the Well Fargo.  Special shout out to my cousin for giving us the tickets she won.   I began reading the book and it is relatable to some of the chapters in my life.  It is heartwarming to read about the upbringing of people we admire and see their life reads like a chapter from your own life.

On Thursday, I learned so much of what to expect as I dig deeper into the book.  Some of the lessons from the conversation on Thursday included:

  1. Never allow someone to dim your light, When Michelle spoke about her high school counselor telling her she was not Princeton material, it turned on a memory from my high school senior days.  I can clearly remember a counselor (who looked like me) tell me to reconsider majoring in engineering because I was graduating from a city high school.  In my case, I remember the counselor first and last name, which I will refrain from mentioning here.  Just imagine if we never shut off the naysayers, where would we be?  The best way to handle is to show them we are enough by leaps and bounds.
  2. When Michelle speaks of how hard working her father was even with his illness it reminded me of growing up with my dad. My dad did not go to college but he was a proponent of education and having a strong work ethic. He strongly believed that education would write your ticket to anywhere you wanted to go in life.
  3. Her memories of growing up in a close-knit neighborhood with her extended family.  It brought back memories of my childhood growing up in my Philly neighborhood.  I grew in a working-class neighborhood on a tree-lined street, where each house or duplex had a lawn.   My grandparents only lived about twenty-five minutes away.  Most of us grew up in two-parent households and we did normal things like play hopscotch, double-dutch, ding dong dixie, tag, jacks, and hide-n-seek.     There was real outdoor time and no distraction from gadgets until we got Atari 5200.   Michelle reflects on the card games adults played and I remember my relatives playing rounds and rounds of pinochle.
  4. I love the fact she makes it clear it is fine to ask for help.  In her marriage when they reached a roadblock, the sought marriage counseling.  In her interview with Robin Roberts, she stressed the importance of counseling and the fact marriage takes work.  Also, she talks about taking care of herself.
  5. Personally, I always admired the mutual love and affection shared by Michelle and Barack.  A piece of advice she gave on Thursday night was to find a man with intention.  Also, take the time to get to know your significant other in different scenarios to see how they handle themselves.

Becoming give brings me joy for the opportunities that lie ahead in 2019.

Just in time for the holidays, I am giving away a copy of Becoming.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Wellness Tagged With: becoming, Giveaway, michelleobama

Primary Sidebar

Get To Know AJ

Interests include fitness, nutrition, yummy food and dessert recipes, wellness, and innovative technology. Read More…

Connect with CocoaMommy

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube






Don’t Miss CocoaMommy Updates

Blogging Networks

The Network Niche
SoFab Badge
influnenster-Alanda Find the lowest prices Everywhere
Alanda Josey
Let's collaborate
Dealspotr.com
December 2018
S M T W T F S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Nov   Jan »
Copyright © 2009-2016 | All Rights Reserved | Design by JenOni