Not much smells better than almond extract.

I did that whole baking thing again tonight. E even helped, if you count helping as him being the best bebe on the planet, patiently waiting to be fed a bite of sweet potato in between each ingredient I added to the bowl.

He's awesome, if I haven't mentioned that before.

This really is the same recipe as one I've posted before, but this time I decided to test the orange extract I bought for a to-remain-unmentioned-because-it-failed-miserably recipe, and and use the sliced almonds I had in the fridge rather than spend the time chopping walnuts. Like I said, I had a hungry baby directly affecting my multi-tasking abilities. And if he's borderline happy, I'm not about to push it.

As usual, I waited for the hubby's review. Because let's face it—if I spend the time making it, most of the time I'm going to happily eat it. Whether it's blog-worthy or not, however, requires a more critical tongue.

"Is it good?" he asked, as I handed him a healthy slice. "It's good," I assured him. Five minutes later he was cutting a second (even healthier) slice. "Uh, yeah," he said. "It's good. Too good."

And so here you go.

Banana Almond Bread
2 very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp orange extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup sliced almond

Heat oven to 350.
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl until just mixed. Pour into greased bread pan and cook for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. If it gets brown too quickly (check after 30 minutes), throw a piece of aluminum foil lightly over it.

Let cool before removing from pan and slicing.

The crust is the worst part of the pie.

That's my opinion, anyway. It's so...crusty. And burned, half the time. And full of calories, which generally means it's just a waste of my time.

Word on the street is that I'm hosting Thanksgiving again this year, so I was digging around online for recipes and got sidetracked thinking about pumpkin. From there, my brain turned to pie, which made me think of how much I dislike crust, and ta-da...the search for crustless pie was on. This was a mix of a couple of them, plus some ideas of my own.

I'd call this more custard-like, actually-its nice and thick, but it's not as sweet as you may expect. If you prefer a sweet version, maybe use pumpkin pie puree, or use white sugar. Or serve with ice cream. Being less sweet has a bonus, however—it's low-cal. 1/8 of a pie is less than 170 cals.

Oh, and before you give me too much credit for "baking" again, this hardly counts...it all got mixed at once in one bowl, and I cooked it in the toaster oven.

As for reviews, my guinea pigs were my coworkers...B and I both thought it could have used a bit more sugar (though the low-fat whip helped), but Bossman raved...I thought maybe he was just being overly nice, but as I was heading out for the day, he asked me to leave it there so he could have more. I figured it was probably too much pumpkin for hubby (who hasn't tried it yet) anyway, so I told him to have at it.

Crustless Pumpkin Pie
15oz pumpkin puree
12oz can of 2% evaporated milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup quick oats (like Quaker)
2 tbsp brown sugar

In large bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs and evaporated milk. Add in 1/2 cup sugar, flour, spices, vanilla, salt, and baking powder. Mix well. In small bowl, mix together oats and brown sugar.

Pour into a greased pie pan. Sprinkle with oat mix. Bake at 350 for 55 minutes. Check half way through-if it's getting too brown, cover lightly with aluminum foil for the remainder of the time.

Cool completely before serving.

Dessert's the best part anyway.

Roma's Pecan Pie*
1 cup Karo® Syrup
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
6 oz bag of pecans (chop roughly)
1 unbaked 9-inch deep dish pie crust (you can get the frozen or refrigerated kinds)

Mix syrup through pecans. Pour into pie crust. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Quickly cover exposed pie crust with strips of aluminum foil (so they don't overbrown), and let bake for another 40 minutes. Let cool at least 2 hours.

*This is my grandma's prize-winning pecan pie. Which she stole from the back of the Karo syrup bottle. Awesome. I added a hint more vanilla, cause I love it, and I may have added a dash of cinnamon...I don't remember. But I was throwing cinnamon in everything this weekend, so I suspect so. Oh, and I substituted Karo Lite syrup. And no one knew. Shhh.