Baking Adventures

We couldn't help but indulge in a little tropical treat when it finally started to get warm and when my brother visited, a huge coconut fan.  Getting the coconut was a little adventure in itself.  The first one had mold on the inside, so we took it back and got another.  On the second trip a customer recommended another store to me as I was standing in the aisle shaking coconuts like maracas to my own beat trying to determine which one was the best deal for the coconut water sloshing inside.  So we trekked up north for this famed coconut, and upon finally selecting our perfect coconut we heard on the loud speaker, "Can owners of a beagle dog come to the service desk?".  We look at each other.  Well, we have a beagle dog, and he was in the car.  Thinking he was howling and thought to be distressed, Brian ran out to the car as I hurriedly checked out my prize winning coconut.  Brian returned, breathless to announce the news: no dog in the car!  At the service desk we foud a woman holding Moab who, upon seeing us, peed in excitement on the woman who rescued him from the parking lot.  Our Moab, the escape artist who so badly wanted to come to the store with us, figured out how to open the door that had not latched because of a caught seat belt.  Lucky dog.  Lucky he didn't get run over, lucky a nice woman caught him, lucky he got to go into a grocery store (a beagle's paradise!).  And even more lucky, we gave him the hull of the used coconut which became his favorite toy for weeks!  It slid on our wood floors every time he tried to pounce on it and challenged his little brain for hours at a time!

The cake was delicious, by the way!  Only lasted 2 nights.