I Heart Surprises

Today, I received a surprise in the mail filled with baking goodies. It was like Christmas in August. I frequent a message board on The Nest called What's Cooking. Love it! Anyway, Joelen, a tremendous resource who also has a fantastic blog organizes a summer exchange where nesties sign up to give and receive great gifts.

My fantastic gift can from Amanda in Maryland and I love it all. For those of you who love WS cookbooks, I can now bask in that love since I am now a proud owner. I have read soooo many blogs who worship these cookbooks, and I am very excited to join that crowd of obsessed bakers. I can not wait to try my first recipe. Yep, look closely -- that's a picture of caramelized bananas. I mean, c'mon on, who doesn't brown sugar on bananas. Mmmmm mmmmm.

Everything else she sent is going to come in quite handy with my TWD group. Ooops... I just realized I left out the sea salt. I had already put it in the pantry (my little one was trying to open it -- for some reason he doesn't get that not all presents are for him. Let's hope he never outgrows that belief -- life just isn't the same when you realize it isn't all about you.)

Thanks, Amanda, for kicking off my week. I can't wait to bake something spectacular this weekend.