Carnival Bars

Hi everyone! For those of you who are still visiting this blog after my long hiatus (I'm too ashamed to go look at the date of my last post), I am so happy to have such loyal blog viewers! I just learned that I have had 818 hits thus far, and I think it would be really awesome to get 1000 hits; so if you feel the desire to obsessively check this blog, do so.  I am going to try have new posts each week to reward you for your efforts! On to my blog post: 

Usually, when people ask me if I did anything fun the past weekend, I say no.  Though of course I consider a weekend full of track meets and long runs fun, the non-runner population does not. Therefore, I just give the boring answer to avoid having to convince people that thirteen mile runs are enjoyable.....  However,  I can say for certain that this weekend, I did do something fun: I went to a carnival! One of the Junior high schools in town brings the carnival in, complete with a house or horrors, the Yoyo, the zipper and of course..... a Ferris wheel.  

My housemates and I decided to venture 10 minutes down the street to check out this junior-high student infested scene with the hopes of enjoying some rides.  Of course we should have known that being a fundraiser, the main goal is to raise funds... not provide college students with a cheap fun thing to do.  Therefore, we decided to just ride the epitome of all carnival rides... the ferris wheel.  Despite being made feel really old by being surrounded by so many youngsters, the 5$ spent on the ferris wheel was well worth it... I got some stunning view of the carnival: 

And some even more stunning view of Davis, California: complete with desolate farm fields, porta potties and trucks #no filter 

Anyways, because the treats the the carnival were outrageously overpriced, I decided to make my own treat to fill the void of a traditional carnival treat. I went to the grocery store and wandered around for a while deciding what to make. My conclusion: Peanut butter pretzel M+M Cake Bars; also known as Carnival Bars. This recipe is a bit exciting because I pretty much came up with it all on my own... well, more like I decided what I was going to add to this base cake bar recipe: 



1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1/4 c. butter, softened
2 eggs
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 (12 oz.) pkg. peanut butter chips 
1 (12 oz) pkg: Pretzel M+Ms 

Prepare 9x13 inch pan. Combine  cake mix with water, butter, eggs and sugar.  Add 1/2  of the peanut butter chips and M+Ms. Spread in pan.  Sprinkle remaining M+Ms and peanut butter chips on top.  Bake 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees.  


I took these out right in the nick of time.... nice try Gertrude. Andddd  they were delicious... they lasted an embarrassingly short amount time in my house. There obviously need to be carnivals more often! 

PS: I'm really excited about the camera on my new phone- must more high quality than my third generation iphone!  However, I tried to add a bit of artistic flair to my pictures with instagram....  not sure how I feel about that yet. Which pic is better?? I say #nofilter FTW. 

    #filter 

    #Nofilter