I am my mother's daughter

Today I got a new cooking magazine.
It had a recipe in it for sour cream coffee cake.
The picture looked good and I had all of the ingredients...

So I have spent the last 3 hours making 2 of them.

Do I need two coffee cakes??
No.   ...but I was willing to make it so tomorrow all of my friends can tell me to keep or lose the recipe.

Growing up, my mom used to try out new recipes ALL the time!
I can remember sitting and waiting (dentist, doctor, hair salon, etc) and my mom would be reading magazines, finding new recipes, and copying them down.

When we got home (or sometime in the near future), my brothers and I would be the guinea pigs.

More often than not, if the recipe came across with rave reviews, it would get entered into the local recipe contest.
Yes. I can honestly say I have won a recipe contest.
I won $50 and a big country ham. (I don't know why but this makes me snicker.)
It was for Apple Cheese Bars.
Let me know if you want the recipe... I'm sure I still have it somewhere (Kidding!  Of course, I still have it!)

In fact, I will try to scan in the newspaper article tomorrow if I think of it... Cause I know you all want to see me in all of my high school loveliness. (Trust me.. nothing to call home about... it was back when my mother/society convinced me that wearing clothes 2 sizes too big was in.)

I remember that recipe well... my mom had read it, but we hadn't had a chance to try them out before the annual recipe contest (My mom collected a LOT of recipes!!) So when we got the call that I  had made it to the tasting finals, we had no idea what they would taste like. I won my category and ended up tying for the grand prize.

All of my brothers have won in a category.  My older brother, Michael, won the grand prize one year as well.  He, in fact, won a couple of years before me.  That was the last year they held the shopping spree for the grand prize winner.  I'm sure when the local grocery store agreed to award the winner of a recipe contest, they assumed it would be some 80 year woman, not a 17 year old boy.  You had 3 minutes to get as many groceries in your cart.  My mom got us to the store an hour before the shopping spree was supposed to begin.  She discussed with my brother the path that he should take, what things he could take time knocking into his cart on the way... but ultimately, my mom's goal was to get him back to the meats.  Michael was told he needed to load up his cart with steaks, crab legs, shrimp, and anything he could grab. (My mom, being a single mom of four kids was no dummy :) Due to strategic placement, Michael had loaded one whole cart  as he raced down the aisle. Then picked up his next cart and headed for the meats.  He had to make sure he was past the finish line with his cart when the time was up. He continued to knock things into both carts as he headed back down the aisles. He won a little over $300 worth of groceries.  Like I said, that was the last year of the shopping spree... so I won $50 and a big country ham. (*snicker*)

Yeah... I sure do love me a good recipe.
Too bad you aren't here... I'd share some coffee cake with you.