Living in a Cereal World

I can't do regular Frosted Flakes anymore. Haven't for years. The sugar is just...too much. So I never thought much about finding an alternative. I just moved on. And then Annie's had to go and get into the cereal racket. Well, I guess since it says "oat..." Yeah, I can justify just about anything. But as for this cereal, after I poured some I thought, is this really 'frosted?' Because it doesn't look frosted. I tried to think back to the look of Frosted Flakes and these are definitely not as frosted-looking. This is not a complaint, though; you know I don't want all that sugar. I just wonder if there's cereal-labeling rules that define what can be called 'frosted.' (I can't help it--being a writer/word-nerd I get hung up on semantics.) So if you're looking for this to look like an oat version of Frosted Flakes, don't. But taste-wise, it's pretty good. If you like whole grain flakes with just enough sweetness, you

Proof that I really do bake everything I say I bake. Finally Sally  had a scone recipe that didn't call for heavy cream, so I jumped on that. Oh, right, the name: Raspberry Almond Buttermilk Scones . And can I just plug Wegmans for a second? I bought my raspberries there and they still haven't molded yet. Hopefully I can make more glaze for those unglazed scones tomorrow. Anyway, the time-consuming part was grating that stick of frozen butter. I don't think that's something I'll be doing again without a food processor. Don't get me wrong, the end result was worth it, just...tedious. And you should know, the dough will be really sticky. Reealllly sticky. Keep your flour handy. But after all that, I'm not complaining. Just tired of telling you about all the stuff I bake but not actually showing you. So maybe I'll do it again sometime. ******* (I expect to have some actual cereal reviews soon!)

My sister stopped by last weekend so of course I had to make some granola. Since I already had the applesauce to make the carrot cake  it made sense to try this Apple Cinnamon Granola . I was worried after cooling that my granola hadn't crisped up but then I remembered how applesauce makes oatmeal cookies extra chewy. It's a similar case here. Thankfully my sister didn't care either. It certainly doesn't affect the flavor. There's some nice background spices but most importantly plenty of apple flavor. It's nice when a recipe name promises something and proceeds to deliver. But if you prefer big crunchy clusters this isn't the granola for you.

...and an unintentional Sally  two-fer. First (actually second) we have my dad's favorite, carrot cake. Of course I had to make him one for Father's Day, and I couldn't resist this Cheesecake Swirl Carrot Bundt Cake . There's not a thing wrong with any of the words in that recipe name. Let me get this out of the way first: yes, I overbaked it (out of fear of a mushy cake inside), but no, my dad hasn't stopped eating it. It's soooo moist, which helps. Also, I used raisins, and the distribution of raisins and carrot throughout the cake was perfect. And , in case you were wondering, the cheesecake layer swirls itself. I don't know how that happened, but it did. Second (but baked first), I made cookies for my hairdresser's birthday (I told you I'd bake for anyone): Magic 5 Cookies . I never thought I'd say this but these might be the best oatmeal cookies I've ever tasted. Seriously. My first bite had chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and

I've been wanting to try this for a while--it's not sold in my town so I had to go and get it at Wegmans--and today just happened to be a good day for raisin bran. Sometimes things just fall into place. You may recall a few months back I settled for adding my own raisins to the Nature's Path Multibran Flakes  but I still wanted to try the real thing. The raisins in the Raisin Bran are on the small side and there weren't that many. I don't know if that's on purpose or just an issue of raisin distribution in the package. I'll be sure to shake up the box next time. The flakes, however, are exactly the same, as I suspected: wheat and wheat bran pressed together into slightly concave flakes, lightly sweetened with cane sugar. You might like your raisin bran a little sweeter but I'm good with this.

I know, I know, I've been leaving you in suspense long enough. Yes, I finally tried a new cereal. This past weekend, in fact. I'll admit, however, that I was in a bit of rush and didn't take the time to really taste as thoroughly as I usually do. It just slipped my mind. I did give it the eye-test, though: I'd say it's a pretty even mix of the typical tiny HBO corn flakes and the new O's, which are more the size of, say, Banana Nut Cheerios (not the regular kind). I also noticed that there wasn't as much flavor as I would've liked. It was more of a showcase for the fresh raspberries I had on top--so not really a complaint, just FYI. It'll be interesting to see how much flavor the almond O's have.

I know it's been awhile; I was on vacation for a long weekend and then had to come home and catch up on laundry and restock the larder. You know, typical post-vacation stuff. You should also know that I never travel without homemade oatmeal cookies. At least I'll get some fiber during a questionable eating period. I'm not sure why but I've recently been obsessed with putting coconut in my oatmeal cookies. I must have printed out ten recipes last week. The final decision came down to these Dark Chocolate Raspberry Coconut Oatmeal Cookies  because I've been wanting to try unsweetened shredded coconut. I'll admit to making a few changes, namely, subbing dark brown sugar for the coconut sugar (because I didn't want to commit to a big bag) and canola oil for the coconut oil--I know, I know, I'm missing out on all that coconutty goodness. When I have my own kitchen I'll probably stock every sugar and oil known to man. But they were still delicious cook

It's been a few days, hasn't it? I was sick all weekend and am still working on getting better. So I thought I'd use today's entry to list some of the foods I've made recently. 1. Sally's Favorite Cornbread . Is it mine too? I don't know yet. But I will say that I made it last week to go with one dinner, and then I ate it for breakfast...and then I ate it for breakfast again. That reminds me, there's still some in the freezer. I added blueberries because, why not? Even though plain buttery cornbread is absolutely fine--especially this one, which is moist and cake-like. You'll want to eat more than you should. 2. Beef Chimichangas . I got my first issue of Eating Well and marked this page immediately. I made this while my brother was home and everybody loved them. I don't think they even noticed the mushrooms. This was also my first time having fresh salsa. Definitely worth it. 3. I made these garlic pita chips  yesterday and they got a lit