TWD--Applesauce Spice Bars

Today's Tuesday's With Dorie recipe for Applesauce Spice Bars was chosen by Karen of Something Sweet by Karen.  You can get the recipe on the link to her blog or if you don't have Dorie's wonderful baking book, GET IT! 

The applesauce spice bars were simple to make and pretty good.  There were only a few things I didn't love about them, but still, we liked them enough to eat them.  I thought there were too many raisins, in which their chewiness overpowered the apple flavor.  But funny I say that, I also didn't care for the bits of apple.  I would have just liked more applesauce and less chunk.  Although I loved the nuts.  So, if I needed to make a yummy fall treat, I would probably make these again, but leave out the raisins and possibly the apples, increasing the applesauce.  I also would maybe add a bit more cinnamon.  The sugary glaze was good, but I wonder how--no, I know how good these would be with a cream cheese frosting.  Ooh. 

Here's a quick photo run down of some things for you.

 

I hadn't really looked at this week's recipe much, but knew it involved apples, and I saw these crisp little beauties at the farmer's market this past Saturday, so I picked some up.   A sign near the apples at the market said they were "Dutchess Macoun apples".  Never heard of them.  But the guy selling them said they are a sweet apple.  They are actually quite crisp with just the right amount of sweetness.  I don't like tart apples too much, whereas, Kevin only likes tart apples.  This TWD recipe only calls for one apple, but I thought they were a little small, so I used two small apples.  I LOVED chopping them perfect equal sizes with my Vidalia Chop Wizard---

I always line baking pans with tin foil and then lightly spray it with cooking spray (I also floured this one, just because Dorie suggested buttering and flouring the pan, but I'll bet it would have been fine with just cooking spray.)  Everything always lifts out easily with the edges of the foil and I've never had anything stick.  Since I like nuts so much, I used 3/4 cup instead of 1/2 cup and I toasted the pecans first.  I also did not use the alcohol, but plumped up the raisins in some warm water, so just for fun, I added 1 tablespoon of the raisin water in place of the alcohol.  I only baked my bars for 20 minutes. 

 

I read on the P&Q's to double the glaze, so I did.  I forgot that I was out of corn syrup, so I used agave nectar.  The glaze seemed perfect to me, although a little too sugary for my liking.  What?  Did I say that?  Well, as I mentioned, I think I just would have liked a cream cheese icing on top.  I wonder if the caramelly glaze just took too much of the apple spice taste away for me.  And because I like to totally contradict myself, I had to top these with something else sweet.  ICE CREAM!

I've seen cinnamon ice cream and snickerdoodle ice cream floating around the blogosphere lately, so I decided to whip up Lori's version from RecipeGirl.com.  I seem to like the ice creams that aren't full of eggy custard (although some of those are DELISH!).  I supposed I like the simplicity of the ones that don't need to be cooked on the stove and then chilled.  I slightly adapted Lori's recipe, but only because of the amounts of cream, half and half and milk that I had on hand.

SNICKERDOODLE ICE CREAM, adapted by Katrina (My changes are in red.)
www.RecipeGirl.com

½ cup granulated sugar  (I only used 1/4 cup sugar)
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon  (I used a good heaping 1/2 teaspoon)
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups heavy whipping cream  (I used 1  1/2 cups cream)
1½ cups half and half cream  (I used 1/2 cup half and half and 1  1/2 cups whole milk)
1½ tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine sugars with spices. Add remaining ingredients and mix until smooth. Pour the cold mixture immediately into ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions (usually about 30 minutes.)

2. Scoop ice cream into a freezer- safe container. Freeze.

 

We tried to have the neighbors over for refreshments as I had previously made the blueberry oat bars and Dorie's blueberry sour cream ice cream (see my last post) as well as these applesauce spice bars and snickerdoodle ice cream, but their two year old was sick, so we packed up a bunch of the goodies and took it over to them.  Including this big cup of ice cream as well as some of the blueberry.  (Good to get these things out of OUR house! ;)

Thanks for the great, simple ice cream recipe, Lori!

And just because I can't end a post without any pictures of the boys, look what Mr. Sam did on Sunday, moments before it was time to get dressed to go to church.  He came up the stairs with that look on his face like he knew he'd be in trouble.  The boys were downstairs only feet away from him and hadn't even noticed what he was doing.  Sigh!  (This is Sam's new "get that camera out of my face look", you'll see more of it in the future.)

Yes, that's the look, Sam.  "What did you do, MR?!"  Hint--look at his left wrist.  No, that's not blood, he didn't cut himself.

Oh my goodness--this may be the cutest picture I've ever seen--look at those legs.  No, not the duck's. ;)  What is that on your left heel there, Sam-O?

"Where did you get a red marker from, Little Boy?"  Needless to say, he took a quick bath and we scrubbed.  No, it didn't all come off, you know those Crayola WASHABLE markers.  Yes, those.  Well, at least he hadn't gotten any on his face.

Ya'll come back soon this week, have I got one of the most delicious things ever to show you.  I'm not kidding.  HEAVEN!  See ya! 

BLUEBERRIES!!!! Oat Bars and Ice Cream!

I recently bought a BIG container of blueberries from Whole Foods.  They looked great and I couldn't pass them up.  While I love blueberries with my oatmeal and yogurt and granola, there were just too many to use up that way.  SO, I made Dorie's Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream, from Baking From My Home to Yours.  I know the TWD group made this back before I joined the group, so I'm glad I made it.  Not to mention, it's great!

I made some slight adjustments, so here is the recipe as I made it.

Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream, adapted from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking From My Home to Yours, by Katrina  (I doubled the recipe)

2 heaping cups fresh blueberries

2/3 cup granulated sugar

good pinch of salt

Grated zest of one lemon and juice of one lemon (about 1 scant tablespoon zest and 1/4 cup lemon juice)

2 cups heavy cream

1  1/4 cups light sour cream

Put the blueberries, sugar, salt and lemon zest and juice in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the mixture boils and the berries pop and soften--about 3 minutes.

Pour the mixture into the bowl of a food processor and process until pureed, about 1 minutes.  (It won't be completely smooth.)  Add the heavy cream and sour cream and pulse just until blended.  (The bowl will be pretty full, but with careful pulsing, it won't spill out.)

Pour into a large lidded bowl and refrigerate until it is well chilled.  Scrape the chilled custard into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions.  Pack the ice cream into a container and freeze for at least 2 hours, until it is firm enough to scoop.

 

As if that wasn't enough I had to use up more of the blueberries, and I love a good crumb bar, so I went on a quick search over at Cookie Madness.  I knew Anna has posted plenty of blueberry bars.  I picked a great one that I just think is fabulous.  Here's a quick recap of her recipe with some minor changes I made.  Anna had a few issues with the blueberry seeds, but I did not

Blueberry Oat Bars, by Anna, Cookie Madness

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans  (I used pecans--about 1/3 cup--I like nuts!)

Filling:
1 2/3 cup frozen blueberries
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2-3 teaspoons lemon juice  (I used lime juice as I was out of lemons and had some limes)

Heat oven to 350. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick foil or parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add melted butter and stir with fork until evenly moistened (mixture will be very crumbly). Reserve 1/2 cup crumb mixture for topping; Press remaining mixture firmly over bottom of foil-lined pan. Bake 12 minutes to set crust.  (I only prebaked the crust for about 8-10 minutes.)

Prepare Filling: In a small saucepan, combine blueberries, sugar and cornstarch. Stir in lemon juice. Turn heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until mixture begins to thicken slight (it won’t be too thick) and clear (about 7 minutes). Remove from heat and pour over baked crust. Crumble reserved crumb mixture over top.

Bake 30 minutes (I only baked this for 20 minutes, then added the nuts and baked it another 5 minutes.) until top is browned and filling is bubbly. Let cool completely in pan set on a wire rack. When cool, chill for an hour before cutting. Lift foil by ends onto a cutting board. Peel off foil; cut into 12 bars. Store in refrigerator, but serve at room temperature.

Makes 16 squares or 12 larger bars

How cute and perfect is this plate I found at the grocery store today!

Good stuff!  Hey, Sammie, wait, turn back around, I was trying to get a picture of your behind.

Auuhhh, Thanks, Taylor.  Okay, you're cute, too.

Check out Baboon Boy here!

Caught him just hangin' out playing Game Boy (he has no idea what he's doing, but he sure thinks he does!)

Random Post--Indiana Trip and Lots of Baked Stuff (*Alert--another long one!)

My boys and the cousins playing with Playmobil  Zoo(they have  A LOT of Playmobil toys.  I'm not sure if Monica likes them more--she loves putting it all together, or the kids.  Either way, the kids were all playing together nicely.

  

I baked a lot while we were visiting my brother.  I made a quick batch of Dorie Greenspan's Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies one night.  Let's just say, my sister-in-law doesn't bake.  Oh, she had all the ingredients.  Let's see, I found baking powder in her cupboard, half used, expired in 2005.  I found shortening dated 2007, let's just say you don't want to smell that!  Monica has quite the extensive food storage.  She had a couple more unopened containers of baking powder, expired in 2007  Lucky for me, she did have some that was labeled 2010.  Her big container of flour smelled funny, but I used it anyway and everything I made tasted good.  I didn't need flour for these.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies found here at Anna's Cookie Madness blog.

I learned that flourless peanut butter cookies are really sweet.  Almost too sweet.  I made them because I was trying to get my brother to cave in from his silly Atkins "diet" he's on and I wanted to see if he'd eat a goody that didn't have flour. (I realize Atkins doesn't approve of sugar!)  Nope.  He wouldn't.  He never ate one bite of anything I baked while we were there.  But Monica announced these were the best cookies she'd ever had.  They came out really nice, but I decided I don't like a peanut butter cookie to be quite so sweet.  If you look at Anna's recipe, I did not use peanuts or Mexican vanilla. 

I also whipped out some of the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I used all purpose flour instead of cake flour and bread flour.  I also didn't chill the dough.  Good cookies.  I may have said that before! ;)

The Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory in Louisville, KY.

I giant baseball mitt.  I can't remember how much it said this thing weighed, but it was made of steel.  I do remember that this world's largest bat outside the museum was 68,000 pounds.  Oh yeah, let's see you try to get the whole bat in one picture! 

Parker, coming out the door here was really happy with me because I wouldn't buy him anything in the gift shop.  They got a free mini bat for going on the tour for heaven's sake!  Taylor took the opportunity to actually hold one of the bats used by Mickey Mantle.  You had to wear gloves and were not even allowed to swing the bat.  What a GREAT picture of Taylor (minus the Michael Jackson gloves. ha)

Monica being Monica.  She got to be right by Ken Griffey, Jr.  Lucky (said like Napoleon Dynamite). hehe

That ball was clear out of the building. ;)

My niece, Aimee, is the beautiful model in the middle.

My cute lil' slugger.  Wait, that's not a bat, Sammie, it's a lint roller.  Oh well, let's Play Ballllll!

I'm a little bummed that we didn't take any pictures while we were at Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana.  We were just having too much fun to do so.  So while we had a GREAT week visiting Matt and his family, we didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked.  Thanks M&M for having us to your house and for your horsepitality.

I went even more crazy with baking while we were there.  Another day, I made blueberry muffins.  These To Die For Blueberry Muffins that have been adapted by Avanika at Yumsilicious Bakes (check out her cute blog and what a talented young gal she is!) from Allrecipes.  Avanika has added a streusel topping to these that I love.  Monica wanted me to make some things using whole wheat flour, so these are made with 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and 3/4 cup all purpose flour.  I also added some sour cream to make sure the whole wheat didn't dry them out too much.  They turned out great!

 

To Die For Blueberry Muffins, adapted by Katrina from Allrecipes and Avanika at Yumsilicious Bakes

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup canola oil

1 large egg

1/3 cup milk (I used skim)

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 cup fresh blueberries (tossed in about 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients)

Topping:

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

3 tablespoons oats

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners (or spray with cooking spray).  Mix all the dry ingredients (including the sugar) for the muffins together in a medium sized bowl.  Whisk together to sift and combine.  In another bowl, combine the egg, milk, oil and sour cream.  Add the wet to the dry and mix together just until moistened.  Fold in the blueberries. 

In a small bowl, combine the streusel ingredients and cut in the butter (using your hands works the best).  Fill 12 muffin cups about 3/4 full, divide the streusel topping evenly over the top of each muffin.  Bake 20-25 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

 

And because that just wouldn't have been enough, and really because there were some ripe bananas on the counter, I made a well adapted version of our recent TWD Banana Bundt Cake from Dorie Greenspan.  Again, I used some whole wheat flour and used half butter and half oil.  I also cut some of the sugar in Dorie's recipe and increased the amount of banana.  I added walnuts as well.  These were great.

Banana Muffins/Bundt Cake, adapted by Katrina from Dorie Greenspan's Banana Bundt Cake, Baking From My Home to Yours  (I made 24 mini muffins, 12 regular muffins and 3 mini bundt cakes with this recipe!)

1  1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup canola oil

1  1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1  3/4 cups banana, overripe and mashed (about 4 large)

1 cup sour cream

1 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted in the microwave for 1 minute-spread out on a plate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffins tins with paper liners or spray with cooking spray, as well as any other pans you may be using.  This recipe fits perfectly in a regular sized bundt pan.

Combine flours, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  Whisk together, set aside.  In another bowl (or bowl of electric mixer--I did this all by hand with a wooden spoon.) combine butter, oil and sugar.  Mix well.  Add the vanilla and eggs.  Whisk together until well combined.  Mash bananas in another bowl.  Add to the wet ingredients.  Add one third of the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine.  Then add half the sour cream and mix well.  Add another third of the dry and mix together.  Combine the rest of the sour cream and end with the rest of the dry ingredients.  Fill the muffins tins 3/4 full and/or bundt pans.  Bake the minis for about 20 minutes.  Cool for a few minutes, then remove from pans to cool on wire racks. 

The three mini bundt cakes needed to be glazed.  I simply put the glaze together with some powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. 

Monica really liked these.  Um, could you move your hand for a picture, Girl.

I finished out my baking spree with some Snickerdoodles that I just realized I never photographed (gasp! jk)  Aimee requested her favorite cookie.  I made a batch, but they actually didn't turn out that great.  I think I just overbaked them a little (different oven than I'm used to), so they were a little too crisp.  I have a feeling they all still got eaten anyway.  Thanks for letting me take over your kitchen, Monica!

And finally, today Scott (6th grade) and Parker (2nd grade) started the new school year (Taylor will start kindergarten on Friday!  Ahhh, school.  I love it.  ;)  Taylor and Sam had some fun this morning playing with Play Doh.  Taylor made some delicious ice cream cones and insisted I take a picture.  I love it that I've trained them to think they must photograph all food. hehe

Sam needed his bowl of "spaghetti" on film as well.

And finally, I attended another cooking demo class tonight at our local health food's store--Perfect Summer Dishes with Fresh Fish.  I love these classes that Paige does!  When I got home, Kevin told me after picking Scott and Parker up from scouts, he took the boys to get a Frosty from Wendy's.  And doggonit--THIS cutest thing showed up on my camera!

That's all--for now!

TWD Twofer One--Last Week's Banana Bundt Cake and Today's Brownie Buttons

We got back (after a VERY long drive) from our trip to Indiana last Friday.  I was so tired and the boys seemed to be a lot more restless (Sam) than on our way there.  I felt like I ate and munched all the way home (ahem, 9 hours!) to help me stay awake and alert driving.  I mean, I wasn't so tired I was going to fall asleep at the wheel, but felt like I could have gotten that way if I hadn't kept my hands busy and my mouth munching!  Anyway, we had a great time visiting my brother and his family.  We loved going to the Slugger Baseball Museum and Factory in Louisville, KY.  We also had a BLAST in Santa Claus, Indiana at Holiday World, an amusement/water park which boasts the world's highest water ride.  It was SO fun.  The boys loved it and even I loved all the rides I was able to go on (someone in the group always had to stay back with Sam and often Taylor and Hannah (my niece).  There were a ton of different water slides, all kinds of rides and roller coasters.  Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures while we were at the park.  I stupidly didn't buy (the ones the park takes on rides and sells for a lovely price) a great one of Scott on one of the roller coasters.  He is lovin' it, as well were my nephew, Tristan and SIL, Monica.  They were all screaming with joy, Monica even had her hands in the air as the camera shot them zooming down the rickety wooden coaster.  But the BEST part of all was my big, grown up (younger than me) brother, Matt, hands clenched to the bars and teeth gritted tightly in amazing fear in the same photo.  (Monica, I REALLY need a copy of that photo!) Anyway, here's to good times with family!

Shall I start with last week's TWD or this week?  Hmmm.  Let's go with the delicious Banana Bundt Cake which was chosen last week by Mary from The Food Librarian blog.  Sometimes, I like to just look at really yummy food and Mary's blog is the place to go for that!  Not to mention to get some great recipes!  Thanks for picking something BANANA, Mary.  I feel like I've said it many times, but banana is one of my favorite flavors!   So week before last, I made half the recipe in Dorie's book, Baking From My Home to Yours, page 190 (you can get the recipe on Mary's blog).  While I think this banana cake/bundt/bread is a definite splurge from my usual really low fat, healthy banana muffin recipe, I have to say it was so moist and delicious and I will definitely make it again.  In fact, I made the recipe again while I was at my brother's house.  I used half butter/half oil and half whole wheat flour for that one and it was good, but not as good as THIS---

 

Oh, I had fun with this one.  With the half recipe, I made a lot!!!  A small loaf of bread (with cream cheese frosting), a three layer three inch cake (with cream cheese frosting and walnuts!!!), three star shaped muffins/cupcakes (two with cream cheese frosting and walnuts and one with Nutella in the middle!), a little star cupcake top (okay, that one didn't come out of the pan all the way) and a banana/cream cheese frosting whoopie pie with the cut off tops of the cake--

Can you say, YUMMMMM!!!  I do have to say that you can clearly see why I don't DO cake very much.  I really stink at frosting layered cakes.  Look at the lumpiness.  Those little things were trying their best to slide all over the place.  Nevertheless, it held up for some pictures and the boys helped scarf it down the night before we left on our trip.

  

Props to all you amazing cake people out there!

I know, I know, this was supposed to be just a simple bundt cake, but after tasting just the plain cake (Mr. Star muffin not coming out of the silicone pan in tact), I decided this needed to play with the "big boys" and went for cream cheese frosting.  For the half recipe I made, here is the quick recipe for the frosting I made up as I went along.  (There's a little leftover.)

Katrina's Simply Delicious Cream Cheese Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese (1/3 less fat), softened

2 ounces unsalted butter, softened

pinch salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon half and half

In the bowl of a mixer, combine the cream cheese and butter.  Beat until well combined.  Add the salt, vanilla and powdered sugar and beat well.  Add the half and half a little at a time until desired consistency.

Thanks for the great pick, Mary, and for all who have stopped by.  Now check out this week's Brownie Buttons.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Jayma from Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen chose Brownie Buttons for our recipe this week as we TWDers bake our way through Dorie's book.

I doubled the recipe after seeing that it didn't make very many buttons and knowing brownies get eaten really fast at our house.  I used "my" version of bittersweet chocolate--Hershey's Special Dark.  And I knew I should have left out the orange zest, but I included it anyway.  Everyone wondered what it was making the brownies taste funny.  I kind of liked it.  Reminded me of those chocolate oranges mostly found at the holidays.  And then, I only had one ounce of white chocolate left, which was just as well, because I don't really LOVE white chocolate all that much.  I did a few, including some stars from one of my newer sale purchases--a silicone star shaped muffin pan. 

 

(***Note to self--reminder--you have four boys.  Only making three star shaped brownies will cause great angst with the one who didn't get one.  Just saying that as a reminder for future brownie making. ;) ****

The good news was that they popped right out of the mold nicely. 

These little square guys, however, did not--not sure why.

 

I find that silicone molds can be quite temperamental.  Out of the 8 or so that I made with the square pan, only four survived enough to use.  I smashed them down and froze them for later use---brownie ice cream sandwiches!

Most of the recipe I made regular little brownie buttons.  But I think I overbaked them a little.  They were still very edible and with a little poke from a sharp knife, they popped right out of the pan.

Good, but a little to plain for our house.  It's all about sprinkles here!

If I made brownie buttons again, I would leave out the orange zest, but otherwise, these were good!  Check out all the other (super creative, I'm sure) TWD Brownie Buttons on the Tuesday's With Dorie site.  Thanks, Jayma.

And now, a moment of silence as we all gasp over what else I did while in Indiana---take a deep breath.

Bahhh!  I chopped off my hair, big time.  I'm still not sure about this.  But it's a little late for that, now isn't it.  Sigh.  I'm okay.  I know it will grow back.  Besides, there just comes a time for me when I know something like this needed to be done when I put my hair back in a ponytail EVERYDAY, like from the moment I get out of the shower.  At least now I'm forced to spend a whole five minutes drying and styling my hair.  ;)  And never before have I felt like I REALLY look like my mom than I do now. 

TWD--Banana Bundt Cake

Hello, especially to my fellow Tuesday's With Dorie followers. Get this--I worked my buns off making this week's recipe last Thursday. Oh my gosh, I had so much fun with this cake. And well--it's BANANA--a favorite flavor and ingredient of mine. I couldn't skip it. BUT on Friday I took the boys and we drove NINE hours to my brother's house. I got everything ready I needed to pack--all the things for each of the four boys and my things. Including my computer, which was holding my precious photographs and notes about the banana bundt cake. Three hours into the drive, my husband called from back at home to inform me that I left my laptop there. SIGH! I was and am bummed. I totally planned to do this week's post while visiting at my brothers. INSTEAD--you will get a two for one with next week's TWD! So I'm really sorry and though I know I won't be able to stop by and see as many banana bundt cake creations as I'd like to this week, you can be sure that I'll visit as many as I can and I'll surely stop by at least next week to see what ya'll have done when I get back home to my beloved laptop. (It just doesn't cut it using my brother's computer (albeit a nice one) and trying to post on Blogger--I use Windows Live Writer and feel lost without it!

Okay, so that being said, I just thought I let you know that on the long drive here I discovered something. To keep the boys happy, they were plowing through a large bag of Dum Dum lollipops. In my boredom and tiredness from driving, I reached in the bag to have me a "sucka", too. (That kind of candy is not my favorite--I say, if it isn't chocolate--it isn't worth it.) Anyway, I was going to pick me a flavor to savor. I wanted Root Beer. But do you think as I carefully drove along that I could find one single Root Beer in that bag? NOOO. So I settled on another flavor from my past that I grew up liking--Cream Soda. And as soon as I tasted it, I was taken back--too remembering piles and piles of Halloween candy strewn out on the floor so I could trade with my brothers and sisters. Just that flavor of the Cream Soda Dum Dum, which I haven't tasted in YEARS really brought it all back. It was a fun, familiar flavor. I realized that I still like Cream Soda. I don't even drink any pop/soda, but now I'm craving a few sips of that old familiar flavor. And I secretly called dibs on all the other Cream Soda Dum Dums left in the bag. ; ) Anyway, that's just me doing a little ramblin' and sharing about my long drive with the boys the other day. And we got here and are having a great time. Today we'll be going to Louisville to the Slugger Baseball museum. The boys will love that!

I also learned that even though I don't particularily care for Cheetos, I had no problem eating them as I drove on down the highway, and they, too, actually were pretty good. To counteract my wonderful healthy eating while travelling (just to stay awake, mind you ;), I also had some fresh blackberries from the farmer's market and sugar snap peas. I rotated popping those in my mouth along with the Cheetos, so it wasn't all bad! ;)

And now I really will let ya'll go--go see all the other banana bundt cakes out there and come back to see mine next week along with the brownie buttons! Sorry, Mary from The Food Librarian--I really did bake along with you this week! You'll see.