Knoxville

At most marathons, the post-race refreshments are drawn from a pretty standard assortment of fare: fruit (especially bananas); bagels; water; and Gatorade. In January, when I ran the Houston Marathon, we lucked out with a full breakfast post-race, including hot biscuits. Last weekend, after the Knoxville Marathon, we were treated to pizza and a variety of baked goods, including mini cupcakes (source unknown, but quite tasty) and a variety of cookies donated by VG's Bakery in Farragut, Tenn. When I saw the bakery boxes and cookies within, I was really ecstatic. I guessed (correctly) that the white-glazed cookie was a lemon sugar cookie. The pastel-glazed number seems to have been a glazed sugar cookie: nice, soft, and sweet. The oatmeal-raisin cookie was really good, too. I wish there would have been time to pay a proper visit to the bakery. When we make our visit to Great Smoky Mountain National Park, I'll be sure to get to Farragut for the bakery visit.

Although I failed to take photos, I brought along a batch of Coffee Toffee Chunk Cookies to share with my pals who ran Knoxville. I might have shared a few with myself after the race, too.

P.S. One other unphotographed baked item was made for a PLTI alumni board meeting last week. I made a batch of the Chocolate-Mayonnaise Cupcakes from Jill O'Connor's Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. I frosted them with a vanilla buttercream that I jazzed up with a little orange extract.