Denise Shoemaker’s Red Velvet Cake

Four velvety layers of cake 🍰 covered with four layers of homemade icing. (Crisco, butter, sugar, flour, milk and a touch of vanilla. All the good stuff.)

After putting this masterpiece together, Denise puts it in the freezer until the day she is ready to eat it. It was mostly thawed when I consumed this piece of heaven. The inner layer of icing was still firm from being cold when I ate my piece. Delicious!!!

Oreo Brownies: Crazy!!!

Olivia Goecker of Dudleytown, Indiana is a mild-mannered grad student by day studying Speech Pathology at NYU. But throw a Super Bowl party in her path and she becomes the Slutty Brownie 👑 Princess.

These morsels are absolutely phenomenal!!!

It goes like this:

1. Pour brownie batter in muffin pan.

2. Place an Oreo in pan.

3. Spread peanut butter over Oreo.

4. Place another Oreo in pan.

5. Another layer of peanut butter.

6. Top off with brownie batter.

7. Bake.

Add a cold glass of milk and you have died and gone to Super Bowl snack heaven!!! Try at your own risk.

Mission BBQ: Boom Baby!!!

1213 Veterans Parkway in Clarksville, Indiana

is where you will find Mission BBQ. It is a military, police and firefighter themed BBQ restaurant with an outstanding menu.

I had the three meat combo with two baby back ribs, beef brisket and Jalopeno-cheddar smoked sausage. (The smoked sausage was my favorite!) The brisket was super tender and delicious. Cornbread, Mac and cheese and baked beans on the side. I also had Two chocolate chip 🍪 cookies for dessert.

A pleasant surprise was an iced down bottle of Cheerwine, a 🍒 cherry soda that I have only seen in the south. Cheerwine has been made in Salisbury, North Carolina since 1917.They also had retro bottles of Big Red, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, etc.

We were there for lunch and every day at noon, they stop everything and play the National Anthem. We all stopped, stood, put our hands over our hearts to honor America and its heroes.

Bullwinkles Family Restaurant 🍔

Bullwinkles is located at 117 East 2nd Street in Seymour, Indiana. Tonight I had the Mushroom 🍄 and Swiss 🧀 Burger on a toasted bun and it was very good. However, their Sidewinder Fries are phenomenal! I’ve been there twice and the Sidewinders have been fresh and hot both times.

Now take a 👀 look at what may be the best tenderloin I have ever eaten! I asked for two slices of cheese as it was so big. My pet peeve on tenderloins is how thick they are. (I don’t like them thin.) This sandwich is plump and juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Once again, on a toasted bun. Highly recommended!

If these sandwiches are not enough, they have an ice cream bar with Kovener’s Korner’s full menu. It is what I think was the old Elks Club Bar. Mom and I enjoyed our experience and she says when she goes back, she will get a Kovener’s Korner butterscotch milkshake.

The Big Breakfast: Town House

The Big Breakfast consists of 2 🍳 eggs (over medium), 4 🥓 🥓 strips of bacon, hash browns, half order of biscuits and gravy and toast. Pretty darn good!!! Also, probably more than any one person really needs to eat at one setting.

I’m going to Bloomington later to bring Sophie home from IU and unfortunately, I won’t be ready to eat yet. My point being, Bloomington offers so many dining options.

Steak Chili and Jalapeño Cornbread Muffins: A La Frank Wintin

It has been a semi-observed, yet time honored tradition that the Wintin boys (David, Frank and Walter) get together on Wild Card Weekend and enjoy food, drink 🍺 and 🏈 football.

Frank hosted this year in Bedford. He may have outdone himself. The steak chili was phenomenal. He asked, “Do I need to cut the jalapeños into big chunks you can pick them out, or dice them up small so you don’t notice them?” My wife doesn’t even ask me that.

On top of that, the jalapeño corn muffins were incredible! A dollop or two of sour cream and some shredded 🧀 cheese not only added to the calorie intake, but trumped the incredible as well.

We may let him host again. Not to mention, the Colts are winning 21-0.

I’m thinking this tradition will once again become annual.

Stream Cliff Farm and 🍷 Winery

Stream Cliff Farm in located in Commiskey, Indiana just off of Highway 3. It is part of the Southern Indiana wine tour. Our favorite samples today were Santa’s Secret, Pink pig and Daisy Delight. The sampling room is located in a rustic and cozy old building that is also home to the Twigs & Sprigs Restaurant.

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For lunch, I enjoyed a one third pound seasoned burger 🍔 with Swiss 🧀 cheese on a toasted bun, cheese soup with cauliflower, broccoli 🥦 and 🥕 carrots, and a serving of herb potato chips. The food was wonderful, and to add to the charm, our table was located right next to the 🔥 fireplace.

For dessert, Heidi and I shared a scrumptious bowl of blackberry cobbler topped with two scoops of ice cream.

Our goal, beginning next spring, is to travel the Southern Indiana Wine 🍷 Tour on Saturdays. This is our kind of hobby.

Samantha’s Sweet Treats 🧁

🧁 Top right going clockwise: Oreo cupcake with Oreo buttercream icing, Strawberry 🍓 cupcake and strawberry buttercream icing, Chocolate cupcake with buttercream icing and ganache, and Vanilla cupcake with buttercream icing and sprinkles.

I tried three of the four and they were fantastic!!! The cakes were baked to perfection and the buttercream icing art was beautiful as well as delicious.

Samantha Baker made these for a Student Council event at Austin Middle School, however, you can reach her at 812-820-1120 if you wanted to place an order. She also makes regular sized and specialty 🎂 cakes, 🍪 cookies and 🥧 pies.