Well, you know I missed the Brrr-brownies.  I was fluffing off (code for shopping) with my daughter.  That folks, is why there were no brownies.  I’m really sorry Karen.    Even though the York Peppermint Patties have been starring at me from the kitchen counter for over a week.  Ugh.  Anyway, Libby and I went to STL to get a few things for her trip.   She looked at clothes, shoes, purses and makeup .  We bought the necessary items for her trip.  Did I shop for shoes, purses, makeup, perfume, clothes?  Uh No….I shopped for kitchen toys.  What is wrong with me?  Anybody?  Ferris?

I do have a question.  How do you tame those wild animals in your cabinets masquerading as cakes pans, tart pans,  bundt pans?  Oh yea, the springform collection too.   You know every species in the baking kingdom.  They come in all sizes and various shapes.    ”Noah, what were you thinking?”

Well, I do the best I can and then sometimes I just give up and let them be.  I think they get in there together and conspire against me anyway.    Back to this new pan.  I don’t know what came over me while in WS (kitchen toys r us store) but I typically talk myself out of impulse buys and tell myself  ” Oh Amy, you can certainly live without that.”  You know you have told yourself a variation of this statement before.  Anyway, it came home in my shopping  bag.  Can you believe that?  So, this is my first excuse to use it.  I hope it releases well.  We will see.   I just thought I would share this first experience with you.  Be it success or failure.  There is a chance for both.  You see it makes 6 little cakes.  Okay, now I gotta get busy.  See ya in a while.

The cakes are baking in the oven.  I had more batter than pan so I pulled out another little pan, a molten cake pan, with push out bottoms.  I thought it would be my fail safe pan.  Again, waiting.

Dorie’s recipe for the Lots of Ways Banana Cake  allows for  wet and dry variations.  I used brown and granulated sugars, spice rum and sour cream ( just because I had some I needed to use) and toasted coconut.  I didn’t want to use too much texture because of the pan.  I would love to make this next time with some dried fruits and coconut milk suggested in the recipe.

An observation:  I’ve never used a mini-bundt  before.  Must learn to use proper amount of batter in order to avoid cakes rising over the top.  :”)  Hmmm

Well, you be the judge….  Perhaps I need a little practice with these “cute” little cake pans.

This is a really moist delicious recipe, that would be code for yep, I ate one of the cakes from the molten cake pan and it was warm.  Really so good!  Better than a muffin, not sure why.

Here is my attempt (remember its the first time I’ve used the pan)  at using a mini bundt.   I have a lot to look forward to in the future.  I chose the pan and Kimberly of Only Creative Opportunities chose this recipe for our baking group this week.  I always have bananas.  They are just something I always keep and so its wonderful that Dorie gave us such a “this way” or “that way” kind of recipe for those occasional unattractive bananas.  Thanks to Kimberly for her wise choice.  You should really go to her blog and get the recipe for your files.  After you get the recipe you really should see what all the other fabulous  baker people have done with their bananas.  Not kidding!  Its the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group.   Speaking of files if you use google you can copy and paste all your net recipes to the documents and put them in files of your making.  Make your very own cookbook, folks.  Thanks for your visit.  I love making friends.

My choice of liquor for these fine little cakes (the recipe makes two) was Disaronno rather than rum.  I appreciate simple comfort desserts that are understated, yet surprise you with a punch of flavor from a syrup made with Disaronno.  So, get over to Wendy’s blog and check out her beautiful photos and recipes.  The rest of the TWD bakers will have all kinds of ideas, twists and variations for you .

Thank you for stopping by for a visit.  I love making new friends….

My point to all of this is, yea, I know its Tuesday and where are those delicious little cookies?  Well, they are right here.  haha  I made them a while back and yesterday and last night totally forgot to write my post.  I’m not going on any totally awesome trips where you “do it ahead” or anything that exciting.  I was just immersed in discovery of a new iphone app and iTunes and talking to Corbin and I totally forgot that today is the day to show you pictures of my sweet little Dorie cookies.

What are the names of these cookies you ask?  Good question.  They are a bit unusual and seem to remind me of a British biscuit that would pair well with tea or would be consumed in the mid morning whilst visiting with a friend over coffee.  Here you go  coffee or tea and a Honey Wheat Cookie.  Dorie says she discovered it (see there’s that word) in the NYT’s and saved it.  It spoke to her as being wholesome because, ladies and gents, it has 1 cup of wheat germ in its ingredients.

I photographed these thinking of love and this whole month of love.  Can you tell?

I hope you’ll stop by and visit Michelle at The Flourchild where you too can grab the recipe for these awesome little cookies, not too sweet but just a simple little cookie for snacking, filled with wholesome goodness and honey.  Check it out.

Thanks for stopping by… gotta run!

Okay, maybe you can have just one so go on over to Britan of the Nitty Britty and she will have the recipe right there for you to bake from and enjoy this tasty, worthy of giving to your friends, beautiful holiday bundt cake.  Just for fun, there is at least one more stop  at Mary The Food Librarian who has baked Big Bundts for an entire month.  Yup, that’s right!!!  If you don’t believe me, check it out.  hehe  She has that many bundt cakes with recipes posted.  Have you ever thought someone could solve all your bundt cake challenges?

Thanks folks for being so kind and stoping by for a visit.  Have a wonderful holiday season.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Photos of this holiday concoction are forthcoming.  For those of you who have an X-box in the house you may be aware of a new game recently introduced.   I am a midnight baker and so he is a game player.  You’ll see the proof later this evening.  Thanks again.

At last, the photo shoot was completed and, (this is where it gets good) I finally cut the cake.  Yup, I tasted it and then some.  It is moist,  full of fun Fall flavors, a perfect choice for warming up the season with loved ones and sharing with friends.  Dorie’s All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake is a keeper and definitely will be repeated.   Even my sweet Texas friend who isn’t a TWD baker is getting ready to make it.  See, I can be convincing.

Somewhere on this page you will see a photo of a beautiful Paula Dean pie plate. Do you see it? Around the end of October I opened my email to find an email from a lovely young Mom, Angie of Southern Grace Gourmet, who notified me that I had won the pie plate from her blog. I never win even though each time I enter a contest I tell myself, “Amy, someone is going to win it may as well be you.” Yea, I know… . Anyway, this time I scored. Of course, original intentions were to make a pumpkin pie. You see Angie has a post using pie pumpkins which inspired me to give it a try. However, I couldn’t resist baking the Cran-Apple Crisp in it. It worked perfectly. I love it! Thank you so much Angie and  Mr. Random Picker Program! (whoever you are?)

Let it be said that the crisp is out of this world, thank you Dorie! Just one of those familiar tasty fall spice kind of treats. Super simple to make and the only additional ingredient I required was the fresh cranberries, duh…. tis the season. You must make and enjoy one or two or three or okay more spoonfuls. De-lish!

Now as far as those cookies go…. I love molasses! Know what? So does Corbin. He loves these cookies too. Sweet little guy. Well, he isn’t so little but it just makes me happy that he loves them.   A Mom thing.   Also, one must understand that this third child is very discriminating. A polite way of saying he is a picky eater. ugh!  Well, I’ve made these for Corbin before during the fall season.   The aroma brought the boy to life so tonight I whipped the dough out of the freezer and sliced off  six little cookies to bake along while making the Cran-apple crisp.  They were sort of a reward for taking these scrumptious photos, ya know.  he he

One more order of business, the recipes of course can be found in Dorie’s wonderful book or if you like you may also find them at the following blogs, because these bakers are the lucky ones who took their turns choosing the recipes for this month.  Isn’t it such a wonderful season?

Pamela of “Cookies” with Boys chose the cookies,  ha ha do ya get it?  cookies….  haha  Okay, well the Sugar Topped Molasses Spice Cookies recipe can be found on her blog here.

Well, guess what?  Sometime this month Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef will reveal to you the magic recipe for Cran-Apple Crisps.  Just stop by for a visit.  I know lots of others in the baking group have been baking up lots of special treats for their families and friends so please join in if you would like.  All you need is the book, a blog and a visit to the TWD site to get yourself set to roll.

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I really enjoyed sharing these treats with you this week.  They were among some of my favorites from Dorie’s book.  Hope you’ll like them too. (They weren’t even chocolate?)

It is the best way to eat your vegetables I would say.  Recently, while flipping through the final issue of Gourmet I noticed a small article near the back explaining all the varieties and further describing their appearance as well as nuances of their flavor.  Still I would probably have to have flash cards or the magazine with me to identify the different varieties.  Crazy huh?

Erin of Prudence and Pennywise chose these unique and yummy biscuits to help usher in the upcoming Thanksgiving season.  They are pretty tasty especially with jam.  To top it all off, you can whip these up in no time and you can even use canned sweet potatoes if you want.  That’s remarkable.  This little biscuit is in the front section of Dorie Greenspans Baking From My Home to Yours along with some other types of biscuits and scones.  If you would like to give them a whirl, you can find the recipe on Erin’s blog or in Dorie’s book.    Hope you are enjoying the Fall season along with all the yumminess too.

Well, I suppose you are wondering what became of all the efforts to reduce the fat content?  The Allspice Crumble muffins reduced fat version, actually weren’t that bad with out the butter fat and minus one yolk. Don’t get me wrong.  I love living the good life just like anyone else.  Like  butter in my baked goods.  No shortening for me.  The flavor with the brown sugar, allspice and optional lemon zest (included)  was quite comforting and nice.

COMO has had grey, cool and partly rainy weather lately.  I think that is what they call Fall.  Darn, really liking warmer weather right about now a whole lot better.  Does a warm sunny beach sound pretty good?  Yea, that’s what I was thinking too.  The point is, Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table lovingly and thoughtfully chose this weeks recipe for all the bakers this week.  If you are reading this Kayte, thank you for  this choice.  Nice of you to choose a simple, “go-to” muffin.  I had all the ingredients on hand even the whole milk which I keep for baking and I really use it.  Go figure with all these new found thoughts of reduced fat.  hehe  Yes, you will want the recipe and you can find it posted on Kayte’s site.  You can also journey through the blog roll of all the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers here. There really are a lot of very talented people who love to write their stories, bake a little for their friends and families not to mention some awesome photography. (BTW Corbin was busy so…..these are mine with a different camera)

I shared this little treat with one of my special gym rat friends along with a small bottle of 2% chocolate milk.

Even they like treats.  Yes they do.

Thanks for stopping by.  I’ll be sure and come by your place for a visit too.

Anyway, here is a photo of Chef Bayless.  I assured him that I had taken all the precautionary hygienic measures as I stood nearby for this dorky little photo op.  Rest assured, I was not the only giddy woman  who imposed herself upon this incredibly kind and charitable Master Chef.  You should have seen the “lot” of us.  What we do for food????  or is it Thrills?  Yes, and there were books to be acquired.  So, I didn’t disappoint.  I acquired, just one, Authentic Mexican. So maybe social networking on Twitter really is beneficial.  Maybe a trip to Chicago for breakfast lunch and or dinner at his restaurants would be a good idea too.  I’d like to add that Chef recently opened a new restaurant in Chicago called Xoco, just next door to Frontera Grill.   Still, he travels to St. Louis for a book signing.  Amazing for Schnucks!

That's Master Chef Rick Bayless!

Other than the chilling time required for the pudding to set up, this concoction can be constructed in a very short time.  Generally most of the ingredients  would be on hand in most kitchens.  So no extra fuss.

Garrett of The Flavor of Vanilla selected a most appropriate flavor pairing with his blog name, don’t you think?  Thanks Garrett, I was really surprised with this recipe.  I almost set it aside and then one of my Twitter friends, Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures, helped nudge me along and we both made it together. A neat little Twitter trick.

I’ve enjoyed baking along with all the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group and this selection is from Dorie Greenspans book, Baking From My Home to Yours.  Its a lot of fun and Dorie is a good teacher.  Of course we are all good little students, isn’t that right Dorie?