And the 10 Lucky Winners are….

Before I list the winners out I would like to thank Krista and Lucky Leaf for offering my readers the chance to win a sample of their pie filling and a heart shaped cake pan. 

Nine of the lucky winners were chosen by my three children.  They each picked 3 numbers and I picked the tenth number.   To claim your prize please email me (joes1pain<at>hotmail<.>com) your mailing address.  You have until Friday noon to respond. 

For those of you that didn’t win have no fear, I  have another giveaway coming up this weekend along with two yummy recipes!

# 5

Julie Q. said...

I can't wait to try the Cherry Chocotinis - what a perfect valentine's dessert!

#13

oneordinaryday said...

The cake is so festive! My kids would love a heart shaped cake. : )
I saw the recipe for blueberry salad and it jolted a memory of my great aunt making something she called blueberry salad when we were kids. Now I've gotta go track that down and compare recipes.
(Love the pic of Joe and baby girl. Couldn't be any sweeter.)

#18

steph said...

Your cake is so pretty and perfect for Valentines! I need to get started on my Valentine's sweets!

#23

Andrew's Mom said...

What a beautiful picture - the father and daughter - not that the cake isn't nice too. I'd try apple butter bread.

#25

teresa said...

aw, what a precious picture! your cake turned out so pretty! i would love to try that cherry crisp, mmmmm.

#32

Katy ~ said...

That is the most adorable picture. Your husband and baby girl are just alight with love and anticipation of a evening made of wonderful memories. You make my throat tighten with emotion and joy for them and for your beautiful family.
Let's see. I spent some time cruising the Lucky Leaf site (I didn't even know they had one til your post) and saw any number of tempting recipes, blueberry moon pasties, coconut cherry squares, and strawberry frosting.
I think I'm going with the strawberry frosting first. That has really intrigued me and considering I'm on a bit of a cupcake kick, I think that frosting sounds totally irresistible.

#36

Amber said...

Cherry Pineapple Surprise - sounds easy and delicious!
Thanks!

#48

Diana's Cocina said...

Awwww, a father-daughter dance, how awesome! Your cake looks perfect. Seconds Please Peach Cake
sound yummy to me :).

#50

Eliana said...

Your cake looks just lovely. And what a gorgeous daughter you have. She is going to be a heartbreaker!

#54

Lori said...

Hmmm blueberry upside down cake. Yum!
I love that picture of your daughter and husband- so sweet.

The truth or lies? You decide!

Danae from The Busty Baker pasted along this fun award.  As with most awards it comes with a few rules.

The Rules:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award. Thanks, Danae!
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.  Check!
3. Link to the person who nominated you. Check!
4. Tell us up to six outrageous lies about yourself and at least one outrageous truth. See below!
5. Allow your readers to guess which one or more is true. Go for it!
6. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies. ALL of you are challenged, er invited to grab the award for yourself and get to lying!  :)
7. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
8. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

A lie or the truth?

1. I’m ambidextrous.
2. I have triplets.
3. I love chocolate!
4. I take tons of random photos.
5. I sat on Yankee’s Chris Chambliss’ lap when I was three.
6. I’m a terrible liar.
7. I played baseball on a all boys team until I was 13.

Hint….there are two truths and five lies. 

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Last call to enter the Lucky Leaf giveaway!  My children will be picking 10 lucky names tomorrow so you have until midnight tonight to enter. Please leave your contact info.  Good luck! :)

 

Bananas + Biscuits = Yum!

For those of you who have read my blog a few times know this post has several elements that are fairly standard to my blog.  Bananas.  We’re fond of bananas and you can find quite a few recipes here where bananas are key.  Another two are caramel and cinnamon which for me pretty much go hand in hand with bananas. Wait, who am I kidding?  There isn’t much those two don’t go with. (Am I right, Grace? Monica?) But the last two are quick and easy.  I love pretzels and cinnamon rolls but I really, really love quick and easy especially when it’s full of flavor! These upside down banana pecan biscuits, that I found on Monica’s blog  deliver on quick, easy, AND flavor. 

Wait! It gets better.  There’s no wrong way to make these and customize them to your tastes.  You don’t like bananas?  Want  walnuts instead?  Play with it…make the recipe yours!  My two suggestions for maximizing the flavors are to lightly toast your nuts especially if you’re adding them straight from the freezer (They’re not in the oven long enough to get nice a toasty.) and to use the canned (Make your own if you’re so inclined but did you catch the key words, quick and easy?) biscuits that are your favorite.  Don’t go with ones you hate but they’re on sale and you think you won’t mind them in this recipe.  You will.  (I made that mistake with this pie and bought the cheapy crust. Learn from my mistakes.  :))

I think I’ve made these once a week since I first saw them on Monica’s.  Needless to say my crew loves them.  The Twins top theirs with vanilla ice cream but Babygirl likes her plain with no nuts.  (Click here for a printable recipe!)

**********************************************************Leave a comment here for your chance to be one of ten Lucky Leaf giveaway winners.  Please don’t forget to leave your contact info!

Lucky Leaf & 10 Lucky Winners

At the end of January Krista from Lucky Leaf contacted me about trying their one of their Lucky Leaf premium pie fillings.  While I’m not crazy about pies my children are so I figured why not. Along with the two cans of  Lucky Leaf premium cherry pie fillings I received Wilton’s heart shaped pan, a set of heart shaped measuring spoons, and recipe card for a sweetheart cherry cake.

My honest opinion?  I still don’t like mushy fruit but thought the cherry pie filling had a pleasantly sweet flavor and  it didn’t have that awful artificial cherry taste.  I made a slight change to the recipe in that I added all the pie filling at once.  I did this so my mixer would chop up the cherries as I didn’t want chunks of them  in my cake. Both the kids and I really liked the cake.   (I loved the frosting and wish I could have split the cake into two layers as I had plenty of frosting to fill it.) The only issue I had with it was that the outside was done well before the middle.  I think there may be too much batter for the pan.  Next time I’ll divide the batter between two pans instead of the one.  Thanks Krista for the chance to try Lucky Leaf!  I’ll be keeping my eye open for more the next time I go to the grocery store. I’m thinking  strawberry pie filling with a lemon cake!

I’m sure you’re wondering about the 10 lucky winners.  Well, Krista and Lucky Leaf have very generously offered to give 10 lucky commenters a chance to sample their products and receive a Wilton heart shaped pan along with the sweetheart cherry cake recipe card! All you need to do it swing by Lucky Leaf and tell me what recipe you’d like to try. (I’m hoping you’ll find some good ones I might have missed!)  Besides my giveaway click here for info on Lucky Leaf’s Blue Ribbon Recipe Contest.  You’ll have a chance at $1000 and $50 worth of Lucky Leaf premium pie filling products!  Good luck!

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Here’s a photo of Babygirl and Joe just before they left tonight to attend Winter Springs’ Annual Father Daughter Dance!

Soft Pretzels

Last year Monica and I baked together quite a few times.  Our adventures in baking were cupcakes out of Martha Stewart’s Cupcake cookbook.  This year we stepped it and dragged along Michelle from One Ordinary Day. Over the next year we hope to conquer our fears and expand our baking horizons. 

Michelle chose soft pretzels as our first challenge.  Knowing I was baking with these two awesome bakers and bloggers gave me the push I needed to give these a try!  (FYI, I first drooled over pretzels after seeing Ann’s at Household 6 Diva!) Michelle chose Alton Brown’s recipe which she saw made here on Macheesmo.

Unfortunately my photos don’t really do the pretzels justice but the good news is you can check out Michelle’s and Monica’s pretzels which are sure to be stellar. 

I opted to make all my pretzels cinnamon sugar ones. You’re shocked right?  :)

I hope that we’ve motivated you to try your hand at making pretzels.  The recipe is straight forward and the dough isn’t too difficult to work with, just remember to have everything in place.

 ***Click here for the printable recipe I used!***