I’m going to say that one of my best finds of 2019 was this:

If you are rolling your eyes, I’m ignoring you 🙂 I had never used it, as a doubter, and crossed my fingers and tried it on a bundt cake — probably the best test. The result: the mess that you have to endure otherwise with greasing the pan (not the mess), and then dusting with flour (still not the mess) and then shaking excess out of the pan (THE REAL MESS) has a solution…buy this stuff. Seriously. I gave my daughter this in her stocking (which is actually a bucket as you can never have enough buckets on the ranch – all the kids got them). If you like to bake, give yourself a gift and score this at your local grocery store.

We are joining some friends for a holiday dinner tomorrow night, and made these today to take for an appetizer. Warning: they contain blue cheese, but combined with the sweetness of the dates, and BACON, they are amazing, and super easy. We took them to another family gathering recently and I noticed that someone had taken a bite and was closely studying it. I thought I would bail him out, so said “they have blue cheese, you can just toss it if you don’t like it”. He replied that he loved them, and was trying to figure out what it was! I gave him a few tips to make them, so hopefully he’ll venture that way. They are time intensive, but so worth it!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year – we are celebrating it with a ball drop in the Little Apple, a.k.a. Manhattan, Kansas! Thank you so much for stopping by my site– be safe, have fun, and most of all, BE KIND!! Here’s to a great 2020!!!

~Connie Kaye

MB and I took the day off today, and went to Kansas City to visit the new IKEA store.  Amazing.  Not really overwhelming as there’s kind of a path through the levels of the store.  The first thing you will do, when you enter the store, is find out where the unbelievable aroma of cinnamon rolls is coming from.  Turns out a dollar bill, yes, $1 will get you a delicious homemade cinnamon roll (right out of the oven) and another $1 will add a drink to that.  At this point, I knew our date day was lookin even better!  However, after the cinnamon roll we both needed a bath due to the icing, but heck, it’s all good.  You can even purchase a container of 6 for a whopping $4.  Enough said.

We had a great time perusing the aisles, but really aren’t in need of furniture.  We did decide that if you happen to be adding a little monkey to the family soon, or need furniture or a wide variety of storage stuff, great place to stop.    There’s a kitchen section where i kinda lost it.  In fact, I told MB that I now know why he loves Home Depot and Menards so much.  I could still be there now (and he liked it too).  We left with a random selection of stuff.  Note…tags and labels are not in English, but if you look closely, there will be a translation.  For example, we bought some Sinnlig’s….aka scented candle in a glass.   They also have some very unique and appealing food items, but if it’s something you cook, you’ll be loving the cooking temps.   Like who sets their oven at 292 degrees?  Interesting.

The day continued with a visit to a really good BBQ joint that has been featured at Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives.  Their specialty is homemade smoked jalapeno sausage smoked in a corn husk.  I should just stop there.  Name of this place is RJ’s Bob Be Que, and Bob will be cooking.  Cold beer, BBQ and a day off.  Need I say more????

What a way to spend a Friday.