Archive, Cakes, Chocolate, Christmas, Desserts, Fall

Chocolate Pumpkin Bread

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Today is a very special day because today I am going to share with you one of my very favorite recipes: Chocolate Pumpkin Bread.  I don’t know who to give credit to for this recipe as I believe it came from the newspaper when I was young.  My Mom happened to see it, cut it out and decided to give it a try.  Needless to say, it was a big hit and she often made it to give as gifts during the holidays.  Last weekend I decided to make my Mom’s Chocolate Pumpkin Bread to take to a party.  I have had several people ask for the recipe so here it is.  I hope you all enjoy it.

  • 1-1/4 cups oil
  • 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
  • 3-1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 29 oz. can pumpkin
  • 1-1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3-3/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1-3/4 tsp salt
  • 1-1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1-1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1-1/4 tsp ground clove
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 8 oz. chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped nuts

Melt together over low heat half of oil with chocolate; set aside.  Cream remaining oil with sugar.  Beat in eggs.  Add melted chocolate mixture and blend.  Combine pumpkin and vanilla and add to batter.  Slowly blend in sifted dry ingredients until moistened, then beat well until no lumps appear.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until firm for small loaf pans, 1 hour 15 minutes for large pans.  Let stand 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool.  Makes 3 loaves (9×15); 4 loaves (8×4); 7 cans or 7 mini loaves.

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Archive, Heavenly Cake Bakers

Nutrition Info on Many-Splendored Quick Bread

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I was surprised to find out that quite a few other people were interested in the nutrition information for the HCB recipes.  Maybe I will just go ahead and figure it up from now on and include it in my post.  We use BigOven software (PC based version not online version) to get the info.  Thanks everyone for reading and posting comments.  Here it is:

Nutrition info for Many-Splendored Quick Bread:

Serving Size: about 3 oz.; Servings per Recipe: 10

Calories 341; Calories from fat 161 (47% of tot cal); Total Fat 17 g (saturated fat 2 g); Cholesterol 43 mg; Sodium 282 mg; Total Carbo 40 g (dietary fiber 2 g sugars 16 g); Protein 6 g

Vitamin A 141%; Vitamin C 5%; Calcium 12%; Iron 27%

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Archive, Cakes, Heavenly Cake Bakers, Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Many-Splendored Quick Bread

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Although I didn’t have to work this weekend, I kept myself pretty busy catching up on some housework and doing a little baking project of my own.  ThereforeI was happy that this week’s HCB project was a quick bread that is on the Quick and Easy List.  It was indeed pretty quick to throw together.  I think that grating the zucchini and carrot were the most time consuming part which didn’t take long at all.

The flavor components are of course the zucchini and carrot and also include a banana, instant oatmeal and walnuts.  The ingredients make it sound pretty darn healthy don’t you think?  I am curious to know what the nutrition information looks like and am wishing that Rose had included that in her book.  I know —  I’m probably the only one in the world that wants nutrition info for a cookbook on cakes.  But with all of hubby’s health issues lately it is something we have had to focus on more and so I really do think it would be helpful to have.

Anyway, back to the quick bread.  First step is to toast the walnuts.  Next, you mix the dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, you make the batter and you can just throw all the ingredients in the KitchenAid and mix it up.  Add in the dry ingredients and the nuts and you’re done.  This recipe make one 8-1/2″x4″ loaf.

The flavor is pretty good, although not wow. However, if it is a somewhat healthy kind of snack to eat, then it might be a good thing to have on hand.  I will be figuring up the nutrition info on this and then making a final analysis.

 

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Archive, Cakes, Chocolate, Heavenly Cake Bakers, Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Molten Chocolate Souffle and Lava Cakes

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Mmmm. . . . chocolate!  I’m so happy we got to do a nice deep chocolate cake this week.

I’ve tried making molten chocolate cake before but I always seem to have trouble getting a nice gooey middle without the cake itself being underdone.  Rose has solved this problem by using chocolate ganache in the center so that it will stay liquid.  This seems like a pretty basic idea and I’m just wondering why in the world no one else has ever done this.  Kudos to Rose for coming up with a brilliant idea.

The ganache needs to be made a few hours ahead of time so that it can hold the shape of a ball.  Now I will be honest here — I read through the instructions and the whole saran wrap in an egg carton thing just sounded like a whole lot of work and mess to me.  Therefore, I decided to do this step my way which I think worked just fine.  I made the ganache by heating the cream and pouring it over the chopped chocolate.  Then I put the bowl of ganache into the fridge overnight.   The next day when I was ready to make the cakes, I scooped the cold ganache from the bowl using a small scoop.

The cake batter  is made by melting chocolate, cocoa and butter. Then eggs and creme are mixed into the chocolate.  The last step is to make a meringue from egg whites and sugar, which is also folded into the chocolate.

I was really wishing I had some small brioche pans or other decorative shaped pan.  Since I did not, I used a muffin pan.  The cups are filled three-fourths full and a ganache ball placed in the center.  The instructions say specifically not to push the ball down into the batter.  I baked the cakes for about 12 minutes and let them cool in the pan for about half an hour.  The cakes were very pretty and puffed up when I first took them out of the oven but after cooling, they fell.  The ganache seemed to be coming out of the tops of my cakes which I guess then becomes the bottom so I guess that’s okay.

I served the cakes with a little sweetened whipped cream and they were very well received.  I thought that it was a nice cake texture and really loved the soft ganache inside.

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Archive, Cakes, Desserts, Heavenly Cake Bakers, Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Perfected Caramelized Pineapple Pudding Cakes

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This project was full of frustrations.  Not only did I burn myself on the caramel which resulted in a trip to the ER and blisters on my thumb and index finger, but after all that, the caramel is just too solid to work in the way it indicates it should in this recipe.   In the end though, I think I ended up with a pretty nice dessert.

The first step in this recipe is to make Creme Anglaise.  This sauce went together quite easily and I was actually thinking the cakes were  going to be a breeze to make.  The sauce is made by scalding cream and milk and then pouring it over eggs and sugar with a touch of nutmeg.  Then you pour the sauce over cubed brioche which I had made a few days earlier (see my previous post).  The brioche is refrigerated anywhere from 2 hours to 12 hours.

The next step is making the caramel.  Now I have made caramel quite a few times and I feel pretty comfortable with the process.  However, this caramel seemed to harden up almost immediately.  I put it in the measuring cup and then poured it into my ramekins.  The first four were just fine but by the time I got to 5 and 6, the caramel was solid before it spread out on the bottom of the ramekin.  No problem I thought to myself, I’ll just pop it in the microwave since Rose suggested doing that while still in the measuring cup.  When I took it out of the microwave it was all bubbly and thick but hadn’t spread out.  Now this was the point that I did something very very stupid and I can’t even tell you why.  But I poked my finger into the caramel to spread it out on the bottom of the ramekin and I don’t think I need to say that the caramel was VERY hot!  It’s one thing to accidentally spill hot caramel on you which results in a burn, but I can not believe that I actually put my finger right into the boiling hot caramel.    Well, my baking was done for that night.

So tonight I figured I’d whip this dessert together.  Hubby helped me by coring the pineapple with the corer we bought this summer.  I have to put a plug in for this nifty little gadget since I wasn’t sure it was going to be worth it to buy it.  But we have really used this a lot and it saves so much work when you eat pineapple.   Since I decided to go ahead and core the pineapple first, I had to alter the instructions just a bit.  I made the syrup and then just put the slices in to roast.  I was having trouble with the thermometer in such a small amount of liquid so I just used my own judgment on when it was ready.  My ramekins were the perfect size to put the pineapple rings in and I thought it would be pretty just to leave them whole so that is what I did.

The next step is to drain any creme anglaise not absorbed by the brioche.  Mine didn’t seem to have any extra which may have been due to the fact that it soaked an extra day.  All I know is there wasn’t any leftover to use as garnish.  The soaked brioche is spooned into the ramekins and baked in a water bath.

I baked the cakes for about 35 minutes, when the internal temperature was 160 degrees.  I let them cool about 5 minutes and then unmolded them onto a plate.  The caramel was still hard and was just a disk that was stuck in the bottom of the ramekin.  My caramel must not have been dark enough because it looked anemic when I removed it and put it on top of the pineapple cake.  I was trying to figure out whether to just throw it out altogether when I decided that I could take the torch to the caramel to brown it up a bit.  So that is what we did and tried it with the disk on the top of the pineapple as well as to the side.  Still, the caramel itself really didn’t taste that great and was rock hard.  After eating our little cakes and quite liking the taste of them without the caramel, we had an idea.  Why not forget the caramel altogether and just put a little turbino sugar on top of the pineapple and caramelize the sugar.  So that is what we did and I think out of the three options, the last one is the best.

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Archive, Bread, Heavenly Cake Bakers, Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Classic Brioche

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I wasn’t able to make the Chocolate Tomato Cake with Mystery Ganache this last weekend because Hubby was unexpectedly in the hospital.  I am happy to say that we are finally home and all is as well as it can be until he gets the liver transplant.

Wednesday afternoon I decided to see what our project was for this weekend and it turned out to be  Caramelized Pineapple Pudding Cakes.  A very key ingredient for this recipe is a loaf of brioche which can be store bought or homemade.  Since Rose provides a recipe for the brioche, and also because I know that I won’t be able to buy it  in my small town, I decided to go ahead and make the brioche.  I have been wanting to try making this bread for a while now.  I saw a recipe in a magazine some time ago and actually bought a cute little brioche pan but with wedding cake season and all I just haven’t had the time.

Rose says that this recipe is an “easy, enjoyable dough to make,” which I was really hoping was true.   I have made a fair amount of yeast breads in my time, but I have always used active dry yeast.   The Classic Brioche recipe calls for instant yeast, which is not available at my grocery store.  A quick google search yielded information that the two can be interchanged as long as the active dry yeast is proofed before using.  I had to modify the recipe a bit.

The first step of the  recipe calls for making a dough starter or sponge.  I combined the water (warm), sugar and yeast together so that it could proof before adding it to the flour and egg.  While I was waiting for this to happen, I read ahead in the directions and found out that in the second step you use an additional 1-1/4 teaspoons of yeast which is combined with dry ingredients.  I decided that I had better add the yeast from this step into what was proofing in step 1, so I went ahead and added an additional 1-1/4 teaspoons of yeast.  After I could see bubbles forming in the bowl, I added the rest of the ingredients for the starter.

Step two is to mix dry ingredients for the dough and put them on top of the sponge and allow it to rest for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. After letting it rest you add eggs and beat it with the dough hook and incorporate the butter.  The dough then raises for another  1-1/2 to 2 hours or until doubled.  At this point I deviated from the recipe because it was getting late and I hadn’t realized that it was supposed to raise an additional two hours before putting it in the refrigerator.  I was tired and didn’t want to stay up another two hours so I put the lid on the KitchenAid bowl and stuck it in the refrigerator.

Friday night I took the dough out of the refrigerator and let it warm up at  room temperature for about an hour.  I shaped the dough and put it in the pans to raise.   I wasn’t sure how much dough my brioche pan would hold, and thinking that it would only hold a half recipe of dough, that’s what I used and put the rest in a small loaf pan. (I later found out that my 7″ brioche pan will hold the same amount of dough as the 8-1/2″ loaf pan.)

The dough raised very nicely so I put on the egg glaze and slashed the tops.  I baked the loaves for about 20 minutes at which time the two small loaves had an internal temperature of 190 degrees.  The large loaf took another five minutes to finish baking.  I let the loaves cool for about 10 minutes before unmolding them and they came out very easily.   We decided to take a sample and we were very pleased.  Hubby even tried some preserves with his.

I am quite pleased with the recipe and intend to make this again.

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Archive, Cakes, Fall, Heavenly Cake Bakers, Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Apple Caramel Charlotte

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Baking the Apple Caramel Charlotte was unlike anything I have ever baked before and will not likely do again soon.  I actually baked the Charlotte a week ago because I had made several baking commitments for this weekend and knew that something as involved as this Charlotte was just not going to work.  Even so, I really underestimated how much time this recipe would take and it was not what I needed to start off a very busy week.

The first step of this recipe was to make the biscuit or crust.  Mixing the batter was definitely the easiest part.  The eggs and sugar are mixed in the Kitchenaid.  Then you beat the egg whites into a meringue and fold it into the batter.

It is baked in a half-sheet pan until golden brown and then removed from the pan at once.  Then comes the more time consuming part: after the cake has cooled, you must cut the cake into an 8″ round circle and 4 strips that measure 8-1/4″x2-1/’.

The strips are stacked and layered with apricot preserves.  Then you wrap it and freeze it.

It was late so I decided to poach the apples the next day when I did the rest of the baking.  I couldn’t find any tart apples other than Granny Smith so that is what I used.  These were put into a pan just large enough to hold the apples in a single layer.  They are heated in sugar water with a little lemon juice, calvados and a vanilla bean.

After the apples were poached, I completed the crust.  I removed the strips from the freezer and cut them into 3/8″ slices.   Then I lined the mold with the crust slices.

Next came the Caramel Bavarian Cream Filling which has two main components: the apple caramel custard and meringue.  As I began to make the apple caramel custard, Hubby asked if he could use a burner on the stove.  I figured no big deal, all I need is a burner for the caramel.  Five minutes later, as I had pans heating on three burners, we decided that trying to share the stove may not be a good idea.   You must heat some poaching liquid along with gelatin in one pan.  Another pan has egg yolks in it and the third pan is needed to make caramel.  After the caramel is ready, you add the poaching liquid/gelatin to it, and then you combine the yolks.  This whole mixture must then be brought to the boiling point and put through a strainer to chill.  As I went to make the caramel I made a very careless mistake by confusing the amounts for the water and the sugar which meant I had far too much water added with the sugar and after heating and heating, it was just never going to turn into caramel.  All the while, the poaching liquid was boiling on the back burner.  So I had to redo the caramel and I was back on track.

Component two for the filling is an Italian Meringue made by making a simple syrup of sugar and water and then combining it with egg whites that have been beaten to stiff peaks.

Finally, after you have the custard and the meringue made, you must combine them both with some cream and Calvados. This would seem pretty straightforward but this part really gave me grief.  This was because Rose has you cool the apple caramel custard in an ice water bath and you are to get it to a point you can drop it off a spoon and it will lightly mound.  Well, my custard was already almost to a gelatinous consistency before trying to cool it down and I could see that there was no way it was going to drop off a spoon and mound.  (You can see the horrible consistency in the picture.)  I proceeded to have a small meltdown because I had already spent so much time on this dessert and now it appeared I wasn’t going to be able to complete the next step. I was ready to quit and be done with this whole recipe but Hubby stepped in with his cool analytical mind and figured out how to salvage things.  We decided that I must have lost some of the liquid when I was having trouble with the caramel and had the poaching liquid boiling for an extended period of time on the back burner.  So Hubby reheated the custard mixture and added some liquid.  It seemed to be working so I continued on.  Cooling this mixture down just doesn’t seem to make sense to me and and as we cooled it down it again started turning gelatinous so I am still questioning what this step is all about but whatever. We did manage to get everything combined and the completed Bavarian Cream Filling promptly went into the crust.  

Next came the slicing of the apples and then arranging them into a rose.  Normally this would be my favorite part but by this point I just wanted the thing done.

The final step is to make a glaze that is brushed over the top of the apples.  The Charlotte then goes into the refrigerator overnight.  Once its in the fridge, you can begin the major cleanup involved after dirtying so many dishes and pans.

The next night we had a friend over for dinner.  It was nice that the dessert could just be pulled from the fridge and be ready to go at that point.  The appearance of the dessert is really quite spectacular.  The taste was good but not the wow that I anticipated.  I admit that some of this may be because I was still holding a small grudge over how long this took to make.  Hubby liked it a lot but agreed it was a lot of work to make.  My friend enjoyed it also but she observed that while the crust of this dessert is very beautiful, flavor wise it doesn’t really seem to complement the apples and custard.  She said it was like it should go with some other dessert, and I agree.

So, there you have it.  I would not totally rule out ever making it again and perhaps it would go a little smoother the second time around. But at the same time, it was not so amazing of a dessert that I felt like it warranted the work involved.

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Archive, Cakes, Heavenly Cake Bakers, Life, Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Lemon Canadian Crown

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The last few weeks have been a bit crazy for me and as a result I haven’t been baking.  As a friend once told me, “Baking is my happy place,” which really is true for me.  I have missed the whirr of my KitchenAid and the aroma of sweet smells whafting from my oven.

Last week’s Heavenly Cake baking assignment was the Lemon Canadian Crown.  Fortunately for me, I baked this cake for my husband’s birthday in September.  Out of all the cakes in Rose’s book, Hubby chose this one for his special day.  Since we are not allowed to post about cakes before they have been assigned, I did not post about it at the time.  I figured I would end up making it again when the rest of the group baked it, but with everything going on I wasn’t able to. This cake definitely lived up to its expectations.

The frozen dessert needs to be made at least 5 hours ahead so it can firm up before eating.  It calls for ladyfingers which can be store bought or homemade.  Generally I would have leaped into making the ladyfingers but I didn’t have time so I went with store-bought. You cut the bottoms off and of the ladyfingers and line the pan with them.  It took two packages for this.

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Archive, Cakes, Heavenly Cake Bakers, Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Free Choice – Torta De Las Tres Leches

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This week was free choice and I had such a hard time deciding what to make. Finally I enlisted the help of my husband and we decided on the Tres Leches Cake. I’ve never made one before and so I thought this would be fun.

The cake is really pretty easy to make. You begin by mixing eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt in a bowl and setting the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until it is warm to the touch. Then you immediately transfer the bowl to the stand mixer and beat with the whisk attachment for 5 minutes. The mixture should quadruple in volume. You add the flour and that is it for the batter.

Now I made a little mistake at this point. I was halving the recipe and so I decided to use a 6-inch pan. But I wasn’t paying attention that we were to bake all the batter in one pan. I am so used to always using two cake pans per recipe that I pulled out two 6-inch cake pans and divided the batter between the two. Oops!

The cakes baked up fine and I removed them from the pan immediately as instructed. In the meantime, I prepared the “leche mixture.” Nonfat milk and whole milk are boiled until reduced by half. Then you add sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream, along with a little sugar.

The top crust of the cake is cut off, leaving a small mound on top. You pour the “leche mixture” onto the top of the cake and it soaks right in. Then the cake has to sit overnight in the fridge.

The next day you can frost with whipped cream and eat! Since I made two layers of cake instead of the one, I just ended up frosting them individually and gave one to a friend.

We really loved this cake. I liked how easy it was and we loved the flavor of it. We will definitely make this again.

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Archive, Cakes, Heavenly Cake Bakers, Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Gold Ingots — Plain and Fancy

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I am so honored to have been chosen as featured baker last week.  I didn’t even think to explain how I decorated the cake when I posted so since there was quite a bit of interest I thought I would share what I did.  I love seeing how everyone adds their unique touches to their cakes and it gives me such inspiration.  So last week after I saw so many beautiful renditions of the cake I decided that I could not just have some plain old cake and decided to come up with something.  Of course the cake had caramel ganache so I tried to think of something that would complement the caramel.  Then I remembered that I had a can of Dulce de Leche left over from some flan I made a while back.  I put the caramel in a pastry bag and microwaved it just a touch to soften it up (make sure you take the decorating tip off) and that is what I used to pipe the design on my cake.  It really is a great little item that can be used to dress up a dessert by pooling some on a plate or drizzling it over the top.

Well, today’s baking assignment turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.  I’ve secretly been dreading these little cakes for a while because I was afraid they would be just too plain for my liking (no chocolate AND no icing).  But I found this nifty little pan at Hobby Lobby and I started feeling a bit more positive about the whole thing.  This actually turned out to be the PERFECT pan for making the financiers.  Not only is it a really nice size for the cakes, but while most silicone pans are a real pain to work with because they flop around, this pan actually has a steel reinforced rim which keeps it rigid when you are putting it in and out of the oven or removing the cakes.  It is made by Davison (www.davison.com) and is called a Dessert Bar Pan in case anyone is interested in it.

I usually start checking the blogs on Sunday afternoon to see if I can get a little preview of what is to come and see if there is any advice that I can use in my own baking experience.  The couple of entries that I happened to see were not very complimentary of the ingots and I started to worry.  It sounded like they  really were going to be as unexciting as I had figured (or worse) and I considered not even making them.  Instead, I started hatching a plan of how to salvage the recipe (more on that later).

The recipe is pretty easy.  It requires toasting slivered almonds (I used sliced) which are then ground with sugar in the food processor.  The other ingredient that gives these cakes flavor is the beurre noisette.  I’m actually getting pretty good at making the beurre noisetts  since it’s about the third time we’ve had to make it in the last several months. Once the almonds and butter are ready, they are mixed with egg whites and Wondra flour and it mixes up in about five minutes.

Rose instructs you to put it in the fridge for about an hour and then pipe it into the pan using a pastry bag.  Since I really didn’t want to wait around an hour, I decided to just put it directly into the baking pan.  I put the batter in a measuring cup and then poured it into each cavity.  I didn’t have any problem with this and would highly recommend others to do it this way.  I was also very happy when my batter came out perfectly for my pan and I had 12 little financiers.

I popped the cake in the oven and they baked up very nicely.  I let them cool a bit and then took them out of the pans.  As I said earlier, I had worries over these little cakes, so in the meantime I had whipped together a few items to dress them up — some chocolate ganache (can never go wrong with that) and custard.  These two items came to mind because I figured the ingots were going to taste a lot like yellow cake and I decided to make some mini boston creams out of them.

So this was the point where I was very pleasantly surprised!  The ingots didn’t taste like yellow cake at all and they weren’t at all lacking in flavor.   The almond and browned butter flavors came through very nicely and made for a very tasty little cake, with a nice texture,  that I think would go well with a little fruit compote or a few berries.  I would like to try making these in my little teacake pan  as I can picture them on a dessert plate drizzled with berry coulis.

Now since I already had my custard and ganache ready, I went ahead and tried the cakes that way too.  The custard was actually a bit sweet (not from scratch) which I felt detracted from the almond flavor of the cakes.  But I really liked the chocolate paired with the almond and it added just a touch of moistness and elegance to it.

This was a great little recipe and one that I am very glad that I tried.  I am sure that I will be making these again and again.

Next week is free choice and I really can’t decide what I want to make.  There are so many recipes I am interested in that I am having a hard time narrowing it down.  So I guess you will be surprised next week.

 

 

 

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