Living in a Cereal World

This was another instance of "I didn't intend to buy it but it was on sale." And it was time for another granola. Sometimes these things just work out. So when I opened the bag I smelled the apple first and then tasted a granola cluster--it was a little salty-caramel-ish. Then I started to pour and was immediately concerned by the sound of the dried apples clinking like glass. After that I realized there were little caramel bits in the there, too. I should've read the back of the bag first; it's all back there. What I really want to note here are issues of texture: the apples were surprisingly crispy and not chewy, like the apples in  the new Honey Bunches of Oats . That must the new way to treat apples these days. I have to admit I'm not crazy about the caramel bits. While they do  have a nice salty bite, they're a little too crunchy for me. I feel like if I don't bite down just right I'm going to break a tooth. It's probably just me, tho

It was a holiday weekend, we had guests, why not bake a pie? I really wanted to make a strawberry-rhubarb pie (I'm pretty sure our local farmer's market is selling rhubarb right now; I should really go down there and check) but while perusing my recipes I found this  Strawberry Streusel Pie  instead. I thought, just going by the ingredients, that it would be like a giant oatmeal cookie with a strawberry filling, but that's not quite it. It's more like a double-sided cobbler. I'm surprised my cobbler-disliking father ate it. I made this early enough in the morning that my brother was able to take some home that afternoon. It sliced easily but I always have trouble lifting slices from the pan without falling apart. Especially with some thinner areas in this crust. This was the first time I ever (sort of) blind baked a pie crust. I bought a bag of dried beans, way overestimating how many I would need to fill out a crust, but it worked, at any rate. The most tedious

This one is going to be tricky to review because they're gone already. Seriously. I made these  Super-Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies  on Monday thinking my brother would take some home with him but he stayed longer than I thought--just long enough to eat them all. I'm barely kidding. I got three. So what did I think of them? Well, I learned that "soft" and "chewy" are two different things. I was expecting something like those old Soft-Baked cookies I used to eat as a kid--you know, the ones in the red bag? Maybe they were called Soft Batch? I should look that up later. As for these cookies, yes, they were soft. And huge. And not as peanut butter-y as you might think. That could be a positive or a negative for you. It was more the chocolate chips that I wasn't super crazy about but you know how I feel about chocolate. I encourage you to try them anyway.

I started baking last week in anticipation of my brother's extended vacation (also, I just wanted some oatmeal cookies). I decided to try these  Oatmeal Fruit and Nut  (without the nuts, though) cookies because they weren't loaded with butter and sugar. It also wasn't necessary to break out the hand mixer, so I was able to whip these up between other household chores that day. There's a lot--seriously, a lot --of cinnamon in these cookies but for some reason that just serves to make the nutmeg come through stronger. It's a good flavor, though; you know I'm never going to knock cinnamon. And you don't even really notice the shredded apple--I just like knowing it's there.

I've never had any of Post's Shredded Wheat products before (seriously, none) but if you add the word "Crunch" to your cereal you've caught my attention. The squares are a flat, dark wheat; they look like Life cereal but cross-hatched--or more accurately, like a flat version of any of the Spoon Size Shredded Wheat. They smelled like Life, too, but I couldn't quite put my finger on the flavor. Either maple or a very intense (dark?) brown sugar. Ok, I just looked it up, it's molasses. Anyway, there's also a granola cluster component; I suppose this is the reason for the "Crunch" name but the cereal squares are crunchy enough to warrant the name. Now I'm curious about the texture of their regular Shredded Wheat. I may have to try one.

You may recall that I reviewed  Sunrise Crunchy Vanilla  a little while ago, so from that review you should get the gist of the components of this one. The main difference is that while the vanilla flavor was underwhelming, the maple makes it presence known. Or maple-nutty flavor when you consider all the grains and seeds and such in the flakes. For the time being this one gets ranked way ahead of Vanilla, but there's other varieties I have yet to try.

I wasn't giving this my full attention the day I opened it so the contents took me by surprise as I was pouring: hey, this smells like apples and cinnamon.  So that was a good sign. I tasted a flake first; it had some cinnamon flavor with a hint of apple coming behind, probably just from being in the box with the apples. Then I tasted an actual piece of apple. It was surprisingly crispy. I was expecting something more chewy, like in a bag of dried apples, but this was better. They were a nice size, too--even larger than the flakes. I didn't realize until afterward that I'd forgotten to taste a cinnamon bunch first. It's not necessary, though. This cereal made enough of an impression without that step. I definitely recommend this one. ******* And now an odd announcement (for me, anyway): the other day it dawned on me that I need to take a break. Not from the blog altogether but from trying new cereals. I'm just really craving familiar flavors right now. I have two

Breakfast sandwiches aren't something I normally eat; I think of them as fast food/on the run/emergency breakfast. And I've never made them at home, either. But when I saw these  Grilled Peanut Butter, Banana, and Honey on English Muffins  I thought to myself, well, that's not even a McOption. The main takeaway I got from this recipe is that it's messy. Buttery, peanut butter-sticky, honey-sticky. Honey-slick bananas sliding all over the place. If you have kids, they will have a field day with this meal. Flipping them in the pan was also tricky. I used Thomas' Whole Grain English muffins and one half has less surface area than the other. Of course I probably tried to stuff too many bananas on one but it was half a banana and I was determined to eat it. That being said, it was delicious. Totally worth it. I didn't even bother to use my fork-of-occasional-table-manners. I did get peanut butter all over the magazine pages I was trying to dog-ear, though. One m