This was a spontaneous cake effort on Jason’s part one morning when we had some over-ripe pears to use somehow, and a craving for something sweet. With an apple cake recipe, we substituted the sliced fresh pear, added some peanut butter chips for total craziness, and loaded up on the icing once it was out of the oven. Experimentation pays off – it was moist, delish, and fun to make!

If any of you are familiar with fast food dollar menus, this burger will be familiar to you. We have attempted to re-create one of our favorite $1 burgers, which consists of burger with barbecue sauce, cheddar cheese, and an onion ring on top. When you have got a gas grill, top-quality angus beef, aged cheddar, awesome barbecue sauce, organic onion rings, and whole wheat burger buns, you are going to turn out a burger that no fast food chain could ever dream of making! Do yourself a favor and make one of these burgers once or twice over the summer, and don’t forget the lemonade!

And their love child is totally edible. As with the pie battle royale, my sister and her boyfriend showed off their cooking talents with a new dessert bar. The bottom layer is basically a chewy oatmeal cookie. Over that is a thick layer of sweet pumpkin, and a bit of oatmeal streusel is sprinkled on top. These gooey bars were even better the next day!