DH is definitely a keeper, we do spoil each other. I can highly recommend Ubud, out of the townsite it's very peaceful and the villa is soooooooooo hard to take :-) there are more staff than us! The Balinese people are so gracious and friendly and welcoming, nothing is too much trouble. I got a cool idea for French toast here- they make it with two pieces of bread with jam or marmalade in between, then dipped and fried. Very yummy! Thanks for the sweet thoughts, Lyra and Cathy, between the two of you you're right! :-)

Gosh Annie, how old is my birthday twin now-22? How time flies! This birthday kind of snuck up on me, I had no real plans and when anyone asked me "what do you want to do for your birthday I could only come up with, "Oh, I dunno.........."

Didn't do a lot of shopping, Lars, we're more into looking at historical and cultural stuff. One of the things we saw was a 2,300 year old bronze drum called the "Moon of Pejang" which is the largest ever cast in the world. When you consider the effort it would have required given the technology of the day it rates with the Pyramids IMO. We also saw a relief carved into the living rock about 25metres long, which was created in the 13th century. What an effort that would have required as well. On the eating side we had a lot of babi guling (roast suckling pig), nasi goreng (fried rice), nasi campur (like fried rice with assorted toppings) and sates of chicken, pork, beef and goat. For our anniversary dinner the cook at the villa we were staying at pushed the boat out with some delicious crisp spring rolls with a homemade dipping sauce, followed by a whole fish with a Balinese salsa which involved among other ingredients chillies and lemongrass, a seafood curry with prawns, squid and fish, some really outstanding chicken sates with homemade peanut dipping sauce, and some meltingly tender pork spare ribs, also with homemade sauce. Some of our other meals were eaten at street stalls which would make the FDA's hair curl, but the food was all piping hot and the stalls clean, and we didn't suffer any consequences beyond what you might after a night of really hot chillies ;-) One place we got bowls of noodles in chicken and vege soup for $1, and ten little chicken sates cooked over a charcoal grill while we watched for 50c. I think you'd love Bali, Lars, the fabrics would make your eyes light up for sure :-)

So late to this Annie, but had to comment! That apple stack cake just looks amazing : ) My recipe is packed, but this looks either the same of similar. Here in Tennessee, apple stack cake is a wondrous thing : ) As evidenced by your DH’s Mom’s recipe : ) I remember to make one when the local grocery store deli starts baking them… Apple season comes, and the moment I enter the grocery store the aroma of apples and cinnamon sweetness wafts over me! It’s utterly intoxicating. They sell out so fast – no one can resist : ) Now, I’d love some of your reduced apple syrup topped on as well – I’d be in apple nirvana : ) I mostly serve mine plain, as is. But heated a wee bit, with some vanilla ice cream is DH's favorite way to eat it. He confuses it with apple pie!