Living in a Cereal World

I'm not sure who thinks "You know what Blueberry Special K needs? Lemon!" but okay, I'll go with it. My old review of Blueberry Special K doesn't mention it so I'm assuming the flakes were multigrain back then, too. The blueberry-flavored oat clusters are definitely the same, so that leaves only the new lemon cluster component, which is sort of--yogurt-y? You know how cereals sometimes have "yogurt" clusters? It tastes like that. Not exactly sweet and not exactly tart. Actually, sort of like a lemon yogurt, now that I think about it. And yes, it does work with the blueberry flavor. Still not sure if it was necessary to "upgrade" a perfectly good cereal, but so be it. If Special K wants to put twists on all their regular flavors, I'm game to try it. ****** And now I'll be taking a break from reviews for a few weeks. I need to finish a few boxes before bringing any more new products into the house!😛

The title of this post comes from my mother pointing out that my dad got two forms of cake for Father's Day. The first was an actual cake: Peach Cobbler Loaf Cake . Here's mine: I might have thinned that glaze a teensy bit too much but with all that crumble (seriously, it's a lot of crumble) you don't even really need the glaze. I chose this cake because my dad is not a big fan of actual cobbler (boo). If it doesn't have a bottom crust, he's not into it. But cobbler as cake? Why not? And, bonus, the cake itself actually tastes like a cake donut. Flavor and texture. The second "cake" was actually Carrot Cake Waffles . I know I've mentioned before that my dad looooves carrot cake. In fact, I think he bought himself a slice a few weeks back. He must've found out I wasn't making one this time around. Luckily, he loved these. He ate two! I made a few tweaks, though. I didn't make the syrup because--and I'm sure I've said

You know, I never tried this back when it was called "Pecan Bunches" because I assumed the pecans were in the bunches and I wasn't sure I could handle that many pecans. But I decided to go ahead and try this new version since it had a new flavor. Maple, brown sugar, what's not to love? And it turns out that the pecans are not in the bunches, they're a separate component. So it's flakes, pecans, oat bunches. Got it? Cool. As for the flavor, I detected more maple than brown sugar, which is not a problem for me. If it had been the other way around? Still not a problem. It's also not an overwhelming flavor, which is one of my favorite features of all Honey Bunches of Oats. I appreciate subtlety sometimes! 😃 I didn't have a lot of pecans; I'm assuming they're in the bottom of the box. I'll give it a good shake next time. ****** Next entry: I'm sure you want to know what I did for Father's Day...Happy Father's Day to all the d

Somehow I knew this would be my next cereal. After the whole Toast Crunch  thing, it was stuck in my brain and relayed to my taste buds. Then I read an article somewhere (I can't remember where) ranking all the Toast Cereals and this one was ranked last. So I was disappointed and intrigued at the same time. And now, having tasted it for myself I can say...don't panic. You know I do a sniff test first. The contents of the bag were extremely apple-cinnamon-y (yeah, I just made that a word) and reminded me of Entenmann's apple strudel. Do they still make that? Anyway, they're the same square puffs of toast as the strawberry and blueberry ones but they have a tie to the original Cinnamon Toast Crunch--it's the cinnamon. If it is possible to isolate the apple and cinnamon flavors for a second or two, you will find that the cinnamon tastes exactly like in Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I thought that was a nice touch. I also didn't experience any kind of let down at all. I

(You'll get the connection.) I don't know why I keep posting on Sundays. I'm not trying to make it a thing ; it just keeps happening. Once I have a few more cereal reviews I should be back up to twice a week at least. Today I wanted to share a few things I've made recently. First, this Irish Soda Bread from Sally's Baking Addiction. I've made Irish soda bread before but this one, by far, was the biggest. So big I had to freeze half of it. Even though it was more dough to work with it still wasn't difficult. A little bit of kneading and then let it do its thing. Oh, and definitely cover it halfway through. I didn't and I wasn't happy with the browning on top. A bit much for me. Next up, this morning I decided to try these Ham and Cheese Baked Egg Cups . It's like omelets, only baked, so everybody gets to eat at once. Not to mention have convenient leftovers. I would only suggest adding a little extra salt and pepper to each cup before baking t

Actually, twice. After giving away a sample of this cake I was asked to make another one. So that was a first. Oh, I almost forgot the picture: This is a Chocolate-Sweet Potato Marble Pound Cake. Check out that marble. The entire batter is made with sweet potato, then you remove 1 cup for the center layer and add cocoa powder to the rest. You can probably also see chunks of sweet potato that didn't quite get mixed in. The problem was that I didn't roast my large one-pounder of a sweet potato quite long enough. I had to break up the hard parts and microwave them several times to get it soft enough to work. Obviously I didn't make that mistake with cake #2. I ended up roasting the potato for about 78 minutes. Also, I can't find the recipe online anywhere. It's a tear out from Reynolds Kitchens--probably out of a Food Network magazine from a few Thanksgivings ago--but not on the website (theirs or FN's). I don't really feel comfortable retyping it but

I told you there'd be baking over the three-day weekend. I was searching for a quick bread or cake that incorporated pears and settled on this Honey Pear Bread . Since my grandmother was to be the recipient of some this bread--the recipe made two loaves!--I opted for her preferred honey, Gunter's. Luckily, it's sold in stores up here. And since I've only used it for this recipe, I have yet to compare it to old-school Sue Bee. But on to the bread. It's ridiculously moist, as you would expect from a bread made with extremely juicy pears. It's also loaded with spices. The flavor reminds me of a Betty Crocker spice cake except, you know, from scratch. I also didn't really pick up on the honey flavor, so I'm wondering if it's purpose was to amplify the sweetness--or the spice-ness. Or to balance out the pears. Not that it matters. Still a winner. ****** Then I decided at the last minute to make something for my visiting sister. I always end up making