Sunday, Sunday

We now have a couple of Dylan's outposts in town.

Today was our annual block party, and bake-off! The winners: 

• Adults: 1st Chocolate Mousse Pie, Liliana  2nd Fresh Apple Cake, Lydia
• Kids:  1st Oreo Cupcakes, Christine   2nd S'more Squares, Alexandra

It was great fun, as always, with a panel of four adults and four kids judging each dessert on a scale of 1 to 10 in two categories: looks and taste.  They sipped water in between to cleanse their palates. They got really full really fast, and could only manage a mouthful of each--though at first, the smaller judges' eyes were bigger than their stomachs.

We all chip in a few bucks to attend the block party, and the organizers give me $50 of that to buy two first prizes [$25 Williams-Sonoma gift card for adults, $25 gift certificate to Dylan's Candy Bar outpost on Valley Road for kids]. And my contact at Nielsen-Massey vanilla very kindly shipped me some bottles of the company's famous, luxe pure vanilla extract, so our top winners also each got one of those--the second-place winners each received a bar of Divine Dark Chocolate with Raspberries along with the vanilla elixir. For all ten entrants and all eight judges, I bought a little orange glass jack-o'-lantern votive candle holder and put a tea light in each. [The pumpkins were so cute, and just $1.49 each. The cashier at Kings ran up 19 of them for me this morning--luckily, I had one left over for Punch, who was visiting today.]

You should have seen the kids' faces, and their entries. The younger set was crowding around, a lot of them asking if I needed another judge, or if they can please be one next year.  It was another bountiful bake-off, with a big, warm pecan pie; chocolate-chip cookies; carrot-coconut muffins; amazing corn-on-the-cob cupcakes [you had to see them--with Jelly Belly kernels and butter pats made of yellow Laffy Taffy]; caramel creme pie; and rich double chocolate cookies. 

Such old-fashioned fun--along with the tug of war [boys against girls], a game of horseshoes and franks on the grill. Good night.

TCOY

1. Did not exercise! Not unless you count chasing after Punch. She was climbing trees a lot, and I was standing down at the bottom, spotting her. Holding my arms up to catch her or help her down may be the only exercise I got.
2. Did not mindlessly eat chips. Helped that I wore fitted jeans today, not loose, stretchy skirt.