must. have. more. balls.

so i've been on a mission to find red velvet cake mix for ages. and not that overpriced sprinkles stuff, either. oh, no, i was hunting down a cheap, simple, but delicious version made by good old duncan hines. this stuff is pretty common down south and in the midwest, but in southern california? not so much.

nanette posted about these fabulous red velvet cake balls that she'd found on bakerella's blog a few weeks ago, and then when we were planning winnie's goodbye party, i begged her to make some for us. being the sweetheart that she is, she obliged - and they were even more scrumptious than i'd imagined.

i'm drooling just typing about it.

and since then, i've been checking the baking aisle of every grocery store i set foot in. nanette found hers at ralph's, so i tried there. nope. vons? zilch. albertsons? zippo. and then i remembered that i'd had good luck in the past in finding obscure grocery items, like marshmallow fluff, at stater bros. i really hate going to stater's (it reminds me of walmart for some reason, and i have to be absolutely desperate to set foot in a walmart), but the memory of biting into those dee-licious cake balls was enough to grit my teeth and give it a shot.

you know where i'm going with this.

um, hell yeah, i found my cake mix! while i ran into the store, the kid sat in the car listening to her beloved jonas brothers and kept an eye on the bean, who was snoozing in the back seat. and then she gave me that famous "WTF?" look when i bounced so blissfully back into the driver's seat, grinning from ear to ear. when i held up the box triumphantly, as if i'd just won an olympic medal, she just rolled her eyes and stuck those earbuds back into place.

i also found another flavor of cake mix that looked quite interesting. i giggled a little, remembering an exchange the kid and i had last week, and scooped that up too. gotta love that literal translation on the front there.

damn, i just realized that it has one of my most hated words in the entire english language printed quite prominently on the box. huh.

fuck it, i'm still excited, yay!