Sleeping in the New Year

We are currently in Holiday Limbo. It's that weird time between Christmas an New Year's where you have no idea what day of the week it is, there's still festivities, and everyone is trying to eat up leftover Christmas treats before they go bad. Work schedules are weird, sleeping and eating schedules are weird, and then you throw in traveling and give up and just let life happen.

I'm back in Texas after another long trek in the car. Someone had the nerve to wreck their car all over my highway, making the trek even longer. I made it back to my apartment, swapped my normal human stuff for my crazy anime fan stuff and left for my friend's house because we drove to Austin the next morning for Ikkicon. It's both a blessing and a curse that this convention is on New Year's weekend. I love having a con around the holiday season  to tide me over until the spring convention season, but it makes for an insane week. Not to mention I have to pack my bags for both events before leaving. It's so worth the trouble, though. I had a lovely, laid back Christmas with my family, then a crazy fun bouncing-off-the-walls convention with my friends. We took pictures, made new friends, hung out with old friends, and probably spent waaaaay too much money on merch to feed our obsessions. I'd go into more details, but sleep was rather low on my list of priorities and I'm still a little spacey. I say that if you aren't good and tired by the end of con, you're doing it wrong. I may be tired and my wallet a bit lighter, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Needless to say, you can all stay up to meet the new year, but as for me, I'll be sleeping like the dead. This celebratory bowl of oats is the extent of my celebration.

See, there's sprinkles, that makes it festive.

And here's my family at Christmas. Aren't we cute?

Anyway, just because I was all over the country this weekend, doesn't mean I didn't cook! In fact, my family loves it when I make something fun for them. My family's Christmas dinner tradition is cheese fondue, which I love because not only is it delicious, it's something no one else really does. Plus, it's dipping things in cheese, what's not to love? It's nice for everyone to sit around the table, dipping meat and bread into a big pot of cheese and talking. It's one of many things I look forward to every year. However, we don't have a traditional Christmas morning breakfast. It's always something good, but it's not something that we only make for Christmas. Well, readers, I think I may have inadvertently created a new tradition. When helping to plan the brunch menu, I chose a french toast casserole recipe to make. We made it and it. Is. Gooooooood. If you've ever had monkey bread, it's a bit like that. It needs no syrup because it has this lovely streusel topping which we enhanced with red and green sprinkles because CHRISTMAS. The edge pieces are where it's at in terms of texture. It's crunchy, gooey, sticky perfection. We are definitely keeping this recipe around for special occasions, and you can try it out for yourself.

Recipe:

French Toast Casserole

Sprinkles of Kim:

-I used half and half

-I measured generously on the cinnamon and nutmeg, I also used Saigon cinnamon (thanks, mom!) which tastes even better.

-Topped with red and green sprinkles to be festive. Festive food tastes better, it's science.

I hope you all enjoyed your Christams and have a happy new year. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go try and find a place for all this loot before I go back into hibernation.

Tastes like Christmas

I'm typing this post from the Hallmark card that is my mom's living room. She got one of those decorative fireplaces and not only is it gorgeous, it actually heats the room, which means my Texas-dwelling self curls up in front of it like a cat. It's currently Christmas Eve, what are you doing reading my blog? You're taking a break from all the Christmas things? Okay, I guess that's acceptable.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, I made my morning a little extra by getting extra fun with my oatmeal bowls. I know, Instagram has ruined me. It takes less than ten minutes, it's fun, and it tastes good. Enjoy these festive bowls:

                                                
This blackberry pengin is a personal favorite. The orange is sprinkles, the rest is cream cheese and berries

The white in all of these is cream cheese frosting that I put in a Ziploc bag and cut the corner

This wreath was one of the tastiest ones. It's banana bread oatmeal with cream cheese details

The colors on this one are great, and chocolate oats with raspberry are yum

The green oats are matcha, goes well with berries

I call this the Grinch Bowl because it's green oats with a heart that's in three sizes

Frosty the Oatman!

The tree is made out of pear, so I put a blackberry partridge in it and I have a partridge in a pear tree!

Christmas Morning oats on the morning of my trip home. Read on to find out why this is so special.

Okay, on to the actual post.

It's a long way home for me for the holidays. Ten hours in a car to dive into the bed I've had since high school. But those ten hours are so, so worth it. Don't get me wrong, I love my life in Texas, but remember my less-positive post last week? Yeah, the thought of a Christmas with my family carried me through that and through those ten hours to Nebraska.

I am so blessed that I get along well with my siblings. We have our differences for sure, in fact no one of us is particularly like any other. But somehow we make it work and all really enjoy being around each other. I know families where the siblings fight like cats and dogs, and I'm thankful every time I get together with my siblings that I can do so without old grudges and fights coming to the surface. Does that sound like bragging? Sorry if it does, but I really am thankful for my relationship with my siblings.

I do have a lot to be thankful for this Christmas. I took time off from a job that I have to drive a car that I own to a house filled with people who love me and are happy to see me. I wrapped presents that I could afford to buy and guessed at what was in the presents that were picked out especially for me. Tomorrow I plan to thoroughly enjoy my Christmas day in the way that only my family does. Every family Christmas is a little different, It's a good time to enjoy what makes yours special.

This week I'm sharing a very special recipe. Yes, it's scones again. My blog, my recipes, deal with it. But this is probably my favorite scone recipe of all the ones my mother has ever made. Partially because it's delicious, and partially because it's special. My mother only makes these around Christmas, so they always remind me of my favorite holiday. The combination of flavors is not one that I've encountered in any other recipe, but it's very good. It doesn't have a catchy name like fluffernutter or turtle, but it just kind of...tastes like Christmas. I'm not really sure how, but the vanilla, cinnamon, rosemary, and cranberry flavors just work. These scones are unique and one of many things I look forward to when I get home for the holidays. Yeah, they're easy to make and I have made them myself, but it's much more fun when my mother gives me one on a poinsettia-patterned plate with a cup of festively-flavored coffee the morning after a long drive. It's a small moment that makes Christmas special. Enjoy any of those moments you can get, it's like adding sprinkles to your life. This blog is all about a sprinkle of something extra, thus the title. Heck, maybe this blog is a sprinkle in your day, writing it is a sprinkle for me.

Here's my recipe:

Christmas Morning Scones

This recipe takes no modification, it's perfect. Just make it, it's truly a wonderful thing.

Enjoy your Christmas sprinkles, be they your favorite carol, a hug from someone you missed, or the actual sprinkles on your favorite cookie. Merry Christmas!

Minter Storm Warning

The only place I love cold is when it comes to food, it seems. I hate being cold, I hate cold weather, but no matter how cold it gets I am ALWAYS down for some ice cream or froyo (that's frozen yogurt tho those who are not hip with the youths). One of my favorite flavors is the one that literally tastes like cold, mint.

How can something taste like cold? Science time! Menthol, a compound in mint (also used in many cough drops) binds to the ion channels in the skin that are responsible for temperature sensation. Once the menthol is bound, the receptors are hypersensitive to small changes in temperature, which is why your mouth feels extra cold if you take a drink of water right after brushing your teeth. There, you can say you learned something from my blog today.

I love science and mint, and I'll be needing both to stay positive after this week. I'm trying to keep this blog real an not have it just be this made-up persona that always has a good life. Some weeks suck. And this was one of them. One of my teeth is cracked and needs a crown, my apartment needs to be bug-bombed, and because of coworkers taking vacations and bad weather messing up drop-off schedules, work is a struggle. Adulting is hard. And it all had to happen around Christmas, too. Not every year can be the perfect postcard year, and that's okay. Some snowstorms look like a Hallmark card, some knock out the power and keep you from your holiday plans. I try to find enjoyment in any way I can, and this weekend it came out in my baking. Baking something feels like a small victory in a week filled with unexpected defeats. Going to the dentist? looks like I need an expensive procedure. Want to get home and relax after a long day at work? Last courier is late and brings a ton of stuff to process. When I bake something that turns out well, I can look at it and say "At least I made this and it's beautiful" and we all need that sometimes. 

Christmas means another work potluck, which means I'll be trying to impress my co-workers once again with my cooking. Everyone always tries to impress with their home-cooking in my workplace, and it's also a great testing ground for new recipes. It may seem strange that we have this love of food in a pathology lab full of formalin and body parts, but we're all used to it. The people in my office loved the scones at Thanksgiving, so I figured I would do some different flavors this time around.

One of those flavors is a combo of two of my favorite things, chocolate and peppermint.

They're so cute!

If you're looking at this and saying "Really Kim? More scones? Didn't you just do one on scones?" then you can take your complaints to another blog, because I love making scones. I had been wanting to make this recipe for a while, and I just needed the right occasion. They combine two of my favorite flavors in the perfect minter storm (terrible pun) that makes for a  rich, sweet holiday treat. The texture is somewhere between a dense cake and a light brownie, rich and super chocolaty. The mint is just enough to mellow it out and keep the chocolate from becoming monotonous. 

Chocolate Peppermint Scones

Sprinkles of Kim:

-The recipe calls for dark cocoa powder, but I used regular because that was what I had. Dark would probably be richer, but regular is still delicious

-You'll need approximately 2 full-size Hershey's candy cane bars to get 1-1 1/2 cups of chocolate that goes into the dough.

-I melted a third Hershey's candy cane bar for the drizzle on top. I think it's a more festive look than just plain white chocolate

I honestly hope your week went better than mine, and I hope my next week is better, too. It's Christmas, we always gotta have hope! And next week's recipe is one of my favorites ;)

My Favorite Christmas Cookie

December continues and the Christmas spirit has shown no signs of dying down!

I say this as I sit in my hot tub of peppermint hot chocolate whilst wearing a Santa hat and blasting every Manheim Steamroller Christmas album and debating the merits of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer vs. How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the hierarchy of Christmas specials with my good buddy Frosty the snowman (don't ask me how he's not melting, it's some sort of magic that I refuse to question). And yes, we've already established that A Charlie Brown Christmas is superior.

I think all of the treats and bright colors are going to my head. Even my oatmeal is getting festive.

Matcha, raspberries, and cream cheese, yum!

But hey, I like treats and bright colors, so I'm having fun with it. See, I was productive this weekend. Let me brag a bit to all you procrastinators out there *ahem* MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IS DONE! To be fair, it's not a difficult task for me since my siblings decided not to exchange gifts, so that leaves my mom and dad. I would brag about what a great daughter I am by telling you what I got them, but they might read this blog. I'm perfectly fine at keeping secrets unless it involves gifts, then I just wanna tell the person and make them happy. But no, I shall remain strong. I was also in the market for a clever gift for a white elephant party, which I was able to find. It may or may not be wrapped in bright pink paper because I'm too cheap to buy a whole roll of paper for one gift and the pink was what I had.

The majority of my Christmas shopping happened in Grapevine, the self-proclaimed "Christmas Capitol of Texas." Not sure how they got that title, but every building was decked to the nines and full of holiday cheer. One of my good friends and I trolled the stores and got some really great, unique items for the people we care about. I would tell you about some of the cool local shops we went to, but that would be a dead giveaway for a couple of the gifts. It was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. We ended out trip properly with some edible cookie dough from a scoop shop called Doughlicious, which was great, but it was a sugar overload for ME, so I recommend splitting a scoop with your friend. For those of you not up on your food trends, "edible" cookie dough is cookie dough made with heat-treated flour and either pasteurized eggs or egg substitute, meant to be eaten raw. It's a fun treat that's a nice mix-up from the usual ice cream.

With all of this shopping an general holiday cheer, I didn't really do much cooking this weekend. But, fear not! I am sharing one of the great secrets to my power as a baker: my fudge puddle recipe. Growing up, these have always been my absolute favorite cookie to make and devour at Christmas time. I have given many plates of cookies in the two Christmases since moving to Texas, and these are hands down the most popular ones. Peanut butter and chocolate, you really can't go wrong with these. They may look a bit plain next to the decorated sugar cookies and truffles, but they won't be around for long. I'm used to making these from an index card in my mom's old recipe box, but that index card has a clipping from a Taste of Home magazine from who-knows-when. So I checked the Taste of Home web site and lo and behold, there was my recipe. Yay, I don't have to type it! I don;t have any pictures of just the fudge puddles , so enjoy this one of my cookie plates. I know it's a repeat, but it's a good picture, darn it! If you can't figure out which of these are the fudge puddles just by looking, then maybe you shouldn't be in the kitchen to begin with.

Fudge Puddles

Sprinkles of Kim:

-I use a melon baller to get the indentation

-We've always done the fudge over a double boiler, which I think keeps the fudge from hardening too early

-I haven't done it with chopped nuts. I do not trifle with perfection, and these cookies are perfect.

Cookie Overkill

You know how some people are disenchanted with the whole Christmas season and get annoyed with how cheesy and annoying everything can get? I am not one of those people! I love Christmas. It's my favorite holiday. I get that to some, the whole thing seems commercial and disingenuous. Yes, a lot of big companies are just trying to make an extra million or two, but that doesn't mean that the reason for the holiday, the celebration of the advent of Jesus, means any less.

Yes, I know that the exact date is a pagan winter solstice celebration and a lot of our traditions (trees, gift-giving, mistletoe) have nothing to do with Jesus. And to that I say......so? Cultural tradition is also worth celebration. We do it all the time in the US with things like Martin Luther King Junior Day and Thanksgiving, which celebrate events in of our history and how they have influenced modern life. So, celebrate however you like, because for me, I'm celebrating the birth of Jesus and all of the gifts He has given me, including the cultural heritage. And darn it, I like sleigh bells and wreaths, let me have my fun! We just need to bring back the dragon slaying, now THAT would be fun (If you don't know what I'm talking about, look up St. George and Medieval Christmas tradition).

And speaking of parts of Christmas that I love.....cookies. This is a food blog, you knew it was coming. I spent most of last week mixing, rolling, chilling, melting, dipping, decorating, and baking probably way too many cookies. I started early because 1. I'm making these all myself, so it's going to take more time, and 2. I want to be able to give them all away before heading to Nebraska to be with my family. I have Pinterest boards full of recipes, so I had to make some tough choices on which to make. I still ended up going overboard. Here's my rough stats on ingredients used:

3 lbs. chocolate (a combination of white, milk, and semi-sweet)
1 lb sugar (combined white and brown)
1 lb powdered sugar
1.5 lbs of butter
2 cans of condensed milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 oz cream cheese

All of these ingredients transformed into many plates like this one. Colorful and carrying a full array of holiday flavors. Making these in my shorts as I enjoyed the 70-degree day was not the Norman Rockwell Christmas a lot of people envision, but it got me in the Christmas spirit just fine.

This amount of confectionery left even me sick of sweets for a while. But I ended up with a spectacular array of sweet treats for the people in my life. I feel like cookie Oprah. You get a plate! And you get a plate! Everyone gets a plate!! I enjoy making things for other people and making their day just a little bit better, so I tend to go overboard this time of year. But if I've got to go overboard on something, giving out cookies isn't a bad choice.

So let's dive into this week's recipe. We're kicking off the Christmas recipes with a fun one that everyone can get behind: sugar cookie truffles. These little guys are tasty balls of edible sugar cookie dough dipped in white chocolate. No baking required, which is great when your oven is overworked already.

They are cute little snowballs of holiday joy.

Here's my starting recipe:

Sugar Cookie Truffles

Sprinkles of Kim:
-If you're using unsalted butter, add a dash or two of salt, it keeps them from becoming cloying
-A little extra dash of cinnamon gives them a little extra personality
-If you have time, roll out the dough and let it sit overnight. This lets them form a bit of a "skin" and keeps them from falling apart when you dip them.
-Speaking of dipping, I dipped mine using a fork and slid them off the tines with a toothpick to get them to look nicer. I also used a knife to cut off the little pools of chocolate after they set.

I hope you all have a good start to your Christmas season and remember why you're doing all of this. There will definitely be more Christmas recipes to come, so keep an eye out. God bless and Merry Christmas!

Holiday Happenings

I survived Thanksgiving!

Or more accurately, I survived driving ten hours to Nebraska, two celebrations, and driving ten hours back, part of which was in a blizzard. Needless to say, I will not be volunteering to drive anywhere for a while.

The trip north was a dream. Very little traffic, no bad weather, just watching the thermometer drop and the gas prices rise (seriously, it's like a 30-cent difference from Texas to Nebraska). Podcasts were my best friends, keeping me awake and entertained all the way to my mom's doorstep.

My siblings came over and we celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday. We had to work around a very important event: the Nebraska Cornhusker football game. It's basically a religion in Nebraska. Personally, I don't care for football, so my sister and I did some online shopping whilst my mom and brothers watched the game. To properly enjoy our Thanksgiving meal, we elected to have it after the game. and have it we did. We keep it pretty classic, with turkey and stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, and of course pie. Sitting around the table with my siblings, talking and enjoying the holiday, I have a lot to be grateful for. I am so grateful that my family can have fun together. I know many families that can't be in the same room without fighting, or has a set of siblings that hasn't spoken in years. Now I won't say my siblings and I don't fight, and we've definitely had some rough years, but we all want to be together when all is said and done. It's important to have principles and stick to them, but sometimes you pick your battles and set it aside to enjoy the moment. Thanksgiving in my house was relaxed and happy. We did nothing together because we wanted to do nothing. And we all knew what was to come.

A perfect table for our little gathering

Allow me to explain the Deichmann family Thanksmas. My dad's side of the family is huge, so we have our family Christmas over Thanksgiving to make it easier for people to make it. IT's hosted at a church in town because no house is big enough for this number of people to be comfortable. It's fun, but there are just a lot of people all vying for attention and time because we all haven't seen each other in so long. And this year there were babies/toddlers everywhere! A lot of cousins are getting to the age where they're starting families, so you really had to watch your step lest you plow over one of the waist-high humans running by.

Those tables are about to be full. Oh my.

The day starts with a truly MASSIVE meal cooked by an assortment of relatives. With this many people, everyone brings something so we end up having really diverse and delicious spread. Then we all disperse with one of several groups to A) go shooting B) hang around and talk C) Attend to the needs of children (naps or quiet time) or D) decompress and be with a smaller group of people. I followed my sister to her house because I had to meet my niece's new guinea pig, Guinea. Once the guinea pig met with my approval, I stayed to talk to my sister and cousins while their kids napped. Then back to the church for everyone's least favorite part: family photos.

Now, I have gone to many conventions and participated in many photoshoots, which can be seen on my Facebook. Those shoots can get loud and crazy because everyone is distracted and talking to everyone else. THESE SHOOTS HAVE NOTHING ON FAMILY PHOTOS. It's a similar number of people trying to do similar things (all of each family, all the grandkids, etc.) with one major difference. Half of the people there are trying to escape like a cat from a flea bath. At a convention photoshoot, camera-hogging is more of a problem. With family photos, you can get everyone arranged and smiling, then discover there is someone missing. Again. But the sooner we can get it over with, the sooner we can move on to everyone's favorite part: Bingo!

What, you don't play bingo with your family at Christmas? Well, you're missing out. It's really fun. Everyone brings a bag of small unwrapped gifts for the table and when someone gets a bingo, they get to choose something. The prizes are things like soaps and cosmetics, kitchen supplies, gloves, socks, snacks, tools, jewelry, and other little trinkets people use in life. Everyone ends up with a nice little haul of useful things and we have a good time playing together. After this, we generally have a supper of the leftovers from the earlier meal and people who have to travel or put kids to bed start packing up.

Speaking of travel, getting back to Texas was not the chill experience that the trip north had been. I left Saturday night in an attempt to beat an incoming blizzard. I stayed the night in Wichita and woke up to blowing snow. Great. I knew that the longer I waited, the worse it would get, so I had to power through about an hour and a half of white-knuckle driving before it cleared up. But by the grace of God and a recently-replaced set of tires, I made it out of the storm and back to Texas, so it's all good. Time to start the Christmas baking!

Okay, so remember how I said that everyone brings something to the family Thanksmas? My relatives know about my blog, so they said I could bring pretty much anything I wanted. I decided on cookies because I knew that they would keep their quality through the journey to Nebraska. Matcha is great for holiday cooking (if your audience likes it) because it's naturally bright green, so instantly festive! I haven't cooked with matcha in a while, so I decided to make matcha cookies. Here's my starting recipe:

Matcha Sandwich Cookies

And oh look, i forgot to take a picture. They look basically like the ones in the recipe picture, though. These are adorable and go well with tea or coffee. Without the frosting, the cookies are really crunchy, but as they sit with the frosting in the middle, they soften a bit (I prefer them this way, but to each their own) The green tea flavor is subtle and a nice change of pace if you're getting a little overloaded with cinnamon and peppermint and chocolate.

Sprinkles of Kim:

-I made my cookies slightly bigger than a silver dollar, to give an idea of size

-Before baking, I sprinkled mine with red sugar sprinkles. Christmas colors!

-I hapened to have coconut milk leftover from a curry recipe, so I used it, I'm sure dairy milk would work just fine

-I completely ignored the frosting recipe and made the buttercream I always make with a bit of almond flavoring added. Looking at the amounts listed, I'm guessing the recipe makes way too much, you don't want a lot of frosting between each cookie or else it smothers the green tea flavor.

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and enjoyed being with someone you love, be it friends, family, or even just your pet. I wish you joy going into the Christmas season and all year long.

Thankful for Snowballs

I love the holidays. I'll probably end up waxing eloquent about my family later, but today, it's all about my friends. I don't know how long "Friendsgiving" has been a tradition, but I love it. It's a time to celebrate the chosen family who deserve some gratitude as well. I am so thankful for all of the wonderful friends I've had throughout my life. If it wasn't for my friends in Texas particularly, this move would have been a lot more difficult and scary. I do make an effort to try and choose good friends, and it looks like I have chosen well. You guys are great. You aren't just there when things are good, you aren't just there when things are bad. You're just there because you want to be. I love having people I can call up and ask to join me on the most random adventures, or just to hang out with on nights when I want to be around people but am too tired to be around people who take a lot of energy (extrovert problems). It's a big world full of people, and I'm honored that you have chosen me as a friend.

Even when they're not around, my friends take up residence in my thoughts. When I see something, be it an event, a movie, or an object, it's not uncommon for my first thought to be of who would like that. I have saved many recipes on Pinterest that I wouldn't even like just because I know a particular friend would like it. I want my friends to know that they are in my thoughts, and Friendsgiving is a great time to express that. 

I was invited to a Friendsgiving with a group consisting of college buddies and some of their friends (yay for expanding the chosen family). Of course, we all brought food of some sort. I made pumpkin sage biscuits (which may be a future post) and my recipe for this week: Orange Creamsicle Truffles.

Most people have at least one flavor combination that they cannot resist. There can be the biggest menu in the world, but if that flavor combo is there, it's the default order every time. For me, it's that sweet, sweet peppermint mocha. It's just perfect: the rich, sweet chocolate with the bitter notes from the coffee and that nice chill from the peppermint. For my dear friend Sydnee, that flavor is the orange creamsicle. So when I saw the recipe for orange creamsicle truffles, I knew she needed a batch. I had previously made matcha truffles with a similar recipe, and they turned out delicious, so I knew I could make these exactly the right thing for this Friendsgiving. I love making truffles, it's very satisfying. Something about rolling out the little balls and dusting them with powdered sugar is just fun. Plus, they're pretty hard to screw up, so they're a good fail-safe treat to bring to something like this. The only downside is that they do make a mess. The powdered sugar gets everywhere. Which is why they remind me of little snowballs, all round and fluffy. Texas doesn't exactly get much snow, so these are probably the only snowballs I see around here. I hate the cold, so these are definitely more my kind of snowballs. I think my friends would agree that they were a snowball they wouldn't mind having more of. Who knows, I might try other flavors like lemon or almond. Just watch out for yellow snowballs. (yeah yeah, gross joke, but we've established many times that I am an overgrown child)

So, here's my recipe

Orange Creamsicle Truffles

Sprinkles of Kim:

-I doubled the recipe using 16 oz of chocolate. The exact number of truffles you get will depend on the size you want to make them

-about half an orange's worth of zest per recipe is about what you want. I was making a double batch so I zested one wholeorange

-I didn't have orange food coloring, so I just added drops of red and yellow till I was satisfied with the color

-To add to the creamsicle idea, I split the mixture into two bowls and only colored one orange. Then, when I was rolling them out I took a little from each bowl and smooshed it together to get two-colored truffles. They looked like half-and-half rather than a swirl, but I still liked it.

-It is of utmost importance to keep these things cold until they get the powdered sugar treatment, otherwise they get really sticky and lose their shape. My strategy was to roll about 5-10 truffles, then pout them in the freezer for a few minutes, then roll them in the powdered sugar and put them in my container. I also stored these in the fridge until I was ready to leave for the party. Remember, they are chocolate, so they will melt if you give them a chance. These are definitely easier to make when it's cold outside, so maybe they're better a a special Christmas thing or a snow day tradition.

I hope you all find something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. If you can't be with your family, or it brings up a lot of bad memories, consider a Friendsgiving with your chosen family. Between my Friendsgiving, my office party at work, and all of the family events, I'm going to be Thanksgiving-ed out by the time I reach Thursday. And I could not be more grateful, because it means I have people around me to be thankful for. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get ready for my family Thanksgivings. And yes, that's plural.

Sweet or Savory?

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who divide people into two types, and those who don't. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.

There are also sweet people and savory people. Now, I don't know if this blog has made it extremely obvious yet, but I am a sweets person. I very rarely go a day without some form of a sweet fix, be it from fruit and yogurt, a square of chocolate, a scoop of ice cream, or one of my many baked goods that end up on this blog. If you follow my Instagram, you know I love a bowl of dessert-themed oatmeal most mornings (pumpkin pie oats are a personal favorite). Even my beauty products are often sweet scented. My favorite perfume is Sweet on Paris and my deodorant is Wild Sugar. I'm pretty sure I have just absorbed the sweet into my pores and carry it with me everywhere.

But not everyone shares my sweet tooth. There are people who would take a plain shortbread cookie over a snickerdoodle, or a bag of chips over ice cream any day. Those people are WRONG, but I can respect their stance. After all, it means more for me. Though it's not my favorite, I can appreciate a steak and potatoes or a nice spicy chili. Every now and then, I just want a nice big burger and fries...sweet potato fries, that is. I love tasty food in  all its forms. I started a food blog, for goodness' sake, I better love food. and that's not to say I don't ever crave savory or salty foods, it's just not as frequent as my cravings for sweets.

So, when the sign-up for the office Thanksgiving potluck went up, I was faced with a decision: Should I make something sweet, or something savory? Sweets are my specialty, but when planning a potluck, too many desserts can lead to an unbalanced table that isn't as fun to munch through. I needed something that played to my strengths and the equipment available to me. I neither have nor want a large crock pot (I have no space for it in my tiny kitchen), so it must be something that can be room temperature until served. That narrowed the choices significantly. I eventually settled on something that I think everyone will agree is a Kim specialty.

Scones.

Yes, if my mother is the scone queen, I guess that makes me the scone princess. It's an important job, and one that I take on with joy. I love my scones, I love making scones, and I love sharing them with other people. Scones were a perfect idea for this office party because I could make them ahead of time, and I could also make them half-sized to serve more people. A batch of scones is generally eight, so my starting recipes could make sixteen. Considering the number of people I expect to be in attendance, two batched will be necessary. But where's the fun in just making a double batch of one kind when I could make two different ones? And with this, I can satisfy both the sweet and savory lovers. Yeah, I bet some of you have never heard of savory scones. I've never made them before, but they tend to be more like a biscuit and contain things like cheese, bacon, or herbal flavors. I'd seen some recipes for them and been curious to try one out, so this was a perfect opportunity.

Behold the sweet scones. Peanut butter s'mores. I'm a sucker for anything s'mores flavored, so I'd been wanting to try these for a while. How have I not stuffed one of these in my face yet? I have no idea. These are also some of the prettiest scones I've made, if I do say so myself.

And here's my contribution to team savory. Cheddar and herb scones. Think a lighter version of the cheddar bay biscuits from Red Lobster, and that's what my kitchen smelled like after making them. And I haven't eaten a single one. I should get a medal for the self-control that this takes.

As I type this, I haven't eaten any of the scones. I have no idea how these will go over with my co-workers, but if the way they look and smell is any gauge, I'm pretty sure I won't have leftovers. I'm taking one of each before I put them on the table. It's my payment for all this work. Are you a sweet person or a savory person? Whichever camp you fall into, here's my base recipes so you can satisfy whatever craving you have.

Peanut Butter S'mores

Cheddar and Herb

Sprinkles of Kim:

Peanut Butter S'mores
-To make mini scones, I split the dough in half and made two smaller disks and cut those into eight pieces each. If you do this, it might reduce cooking time (I don't use timers, I cook until things look right. I'm weird, I know), so watch them carefully if you're doing the smaller ones.
-I used semi-sweet chocolate chunks, and I definitely recommend this. Between the honey graham crackers, the marshmallows, the peanut butter, and the sugar, these scones have plenty of sweetness, so the chocolate can be less sweet to properly compliment it.
-I added a bunch of extra powdered sugar to the marshmallow glaze until it was thick like buttercream icing and piped it onto the scones to get those little marshmallow stars. I think it looks cute.

Cheddar and Herb
-Also mini scones, so like i said above, two disks cut into eight and reduced cooking time. Though I feel like these cooked quite a while, it might just be my oven.
-The original recipe calls for just fresh chives, but of course I took that as optional and did this, tossing in a few pinches of each:
     -One fresh green onion
     -One clove of garlic,minced
     -Dried onion flakes
     -Chives
     -Rosemary
     -Thyme
     -Parsley
     -Basil
     -Sage
-An extra sprinkle of salt to really punch up the flavors of the herbs
-After the egg wash was brushed on, I sprinkled more chives on top to look pretty.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere.

I'm pretty sure that somewhere, in some high-rise conference room in some big city, there is some board of directors with a representative from every major food group. The job of that board of directors is to look at these food groups and answer one all-important question:

How can we put pumpkin in this?

This fall has been one of the most pumpkin-crazed ones in my memory. The number of new pumpkin-flavored, puumpkin-infused, pumpkin-based, or otherwise pumpkin-containing foods
(and even non-foods like beauty products and cleaners) is nothing short of insane. I don't know if too many pumpkin spice lattes have gone to their heads or what, but this board of directors needs to be put on a temporary leave of absence before the clock strikes midnight and they all start turning into pumpkins (It's a Cinderella reference, you get it? See, because the....Okay, it's a stretch but I deserve points for creativity on that joke).

Most of the pumpkin food items I see in stores are sweet, but the humble orange gourd has a strong presence in the savory realm as well. As I showed with my stuffed pumpkin a few blog posts ago, the mellow flavor of pumpkin goes quite nicely with a blend of savory flavors and spices. So I figured why not do more with it? Pureed pumpkin is cheap, easy to find, and I can just keep a can of it for whenever my inner basic Starbucks girl needs a fix. Speaking of Starbucks, It is now officially PEPPERMINT MOCHA season and I am all about that. It's one of my favorite flavor combinations in the entire world. So, while my coffee has crossed into the next season, my food can still be invaded by pumpkin. It's the most wonderful time of the year....

And thus, my recipe for this week. Pumpkin pasta sauce. It's a thing I never would have thought of myself, but after trying it, I'm a fan. Granted, it's pasta and I love my pasta, so it wasn't exactly a hard sell for me. The texture is really surprising in how creamy it is despite having no cream (though you could make it with cream and it would probably taste awesome). Don't let the "vegan" label scare you away from this one, you can make it with whatever dairy and add whatever meat your little heart desires (I recommend some grilled chicken). It's easy, it's tasty, and it's definitely worth trying during this pumpkin-obsessed season. The only ingredient you may have some difficulty obtaining is cashew butter. I've seen it with nut butters in various stores, so it should be at some supermarket somewhere (I got mine at Target) and it's not too expensive if you get the unflavored, no frills kind that's basically just pulverized cashews. Cashew butter is also something I recommend trying in general if you like cashews, it's an interesting change from peanut and almond butters and goes well with dark chocolate, sea salt, or caramel.

I had some with one of my brimstone bread rolls as a quick lunch. Nothing like homemade bread on a fall day.

This recipe makes a good weeknight meal or a side dish to other autumnal favorites. Here's what I started with:

Pumpkin Pasta

Sprinkles of Kim:
-I had green onions, so I used those instead of shallots
-Extra garlic until there was the amount I like (which is a lot)
-I used dried herbs because fresh herbs get expensive fast and when I'm only using one sprig at a time, it's not really worth it
-I put in some thyme to round out the flavors
-The vegetable broth I used is "Better than Bullion" base and I recommend it, it always works well in my recipes.

So, enjoy whatever seasonal flavors you love, I promise I'll start the Christmas stuff soon, fueling the month-long sugar high that is December. Until then, Happy November!

Brimstone Bread

Have I mentioned I love Halloween?

Well, buckle in folks, because I'm talking about it again and bringing you another spooky recipe!

I build costumes as a hobby, how can I not love this time of year? And when I'm not in costume, my fashion sense does have a Gothic edge, and I actually have used pieces that I get at post-Halloween sales just in my daily life (when else can you find striped stockings for $3?). Haloween gives me an excuse to bust out some of the costumes I'm really proud of and may not get to wear very often.

And this year I had an idea. An awful idea. I had a wonderful, awful idea. Wait, wrong holiday. I'll be doing Christmas recipes soon enough, let's focus.

Living in the city, a lot of local venues such as restaurants, bars, and other event spaces have costume contests with some pretty sweet prizes. I went to all this work to build a costume, might as well show it off. I ended up going to a food hall, which is like a food court, but with local and artisan type restaurants instead of big chains. They were having some musicians play that night, and of course a contest, which I entered. Very few people showed up in costume, so I took top prize with no trouble at all. Easiest $300 I ever made in my life, and I got to relax, have some good food, and listen to live music. I do cosplay for the fun of it and definitely am not in it for money, but it was nice to get a little something to offset the costs of my expensive hobby.

Now, on to my cheap hobby. Seriously, when compared to cosplay, the cost of a few high-quality ingredients here and there is nothing. This being Halloween, you would think I would make a bunch of sweet treats because we all know I love my sweets, and what's Halloween without candy? But actually, I decided to find some savory recipes. If you want to do a proper Halloween party or themed dinner, you gotta have all flavor profiles, not just sweet.

Behold my latest creation, Brimstone Bread.

And this recipe isn't just exclusive to Halloween, it would be great for a fantasy or fairy tale themed party, or to accompany a fitting movie. The original recipe came from a blog on recipe for a "Phantom of the Opera" theme. The colors could easily be changed up to make blue and white "glacier balls" or red and green "cracked ornaments." No matter what the occasion, I feel like a dragon eating these little lava bombs. They taste just like a normal bread roll, so top them with whatever you like and serve them to your friends and little monsters. Or be like a true dragon and hoard them for yourself.

This is actually a pretty simple recipe if you've ever made dinner rolls before. If you have a yeast roll recipe that you like, feel free to use it. Just dye it red and you're good to go. The important part is the rice coating. If I may get scientific on everyone for a second, here's how it works. The wheat flour in the yeast rolls has gluten, so it stretches as it bakes (this is why gluten-free stuff can be crumbly and not as fluffy), whereas the rice outer layer does not, so as the inner layer expands, the outer layer can't keep up, so it cracks, revealing the red inside. The black layer does make a bit of a mess when you cut into it, but I think it's worth it for a little spooky fun.

Original recipe:

Brimstone Bread

Sprinkles of Kim:
-I could not for the life of me find plain rice flour. I must have just been looking at the wrong grocery stores. The only thing I could find was fancy organic brown rice flour. It was expensive, but it worked.
-Definitely use gel food coloring. It took a lot to get the dough this red, I can't imagine what it would take with liquid food coloring
-I had a fair amount of the coating leftover, so you may be able to reduce the recipe some and still be okay
-For once in my life, I actually used a timer because I can't use visual cues on a black bread, so pay close attention to the time on this one. But then again, if it does burn a little, no one will be able to see!

I hope you all have a happy Halloween and I hope you're excited for holiday recipes, because I sure am!

Soup Season

Even Texas gets cold.

Okay, not as cold as anywhere else I've lived, but cold enough for me to be uncomfortable and shivering. Especially when the cold is accompanied by enough rain that I practically need scuba gear to get to work. And I hate the train even more because it makes the medical couriers late, and throws off the whole schedule for me at work.

I will say that I'm not much of a fall person. I hate the cold, I'm not a fan of the muted colors, and while I do enjoy the warm spicy flavors, I prefer the bright, fresh flavors of summer. But when fall does roll around, I embrace the parts of it I do enjoy, like the lack of bugs, the holidays, and the food of this blog post, soup.

There is nothing like a nice, hot bowl of soup. The smell, the feeling of the warm bowl in your hands, the rich flavors, it's just very nice after a long day of work. So, because the weather has been so awful, I have been craving some soup, and because I am an adult who can cook, I made some, and I would like to share it.

Honestly, this blog post is pretty lazy because I was pretty lazy in the kitchen. I went to a midnight screening and was out late the night before. Hey, it's almost Halloween, and I celebrate all month long. It ended at 2 am, which last I checked, was the exact right time to find an all-night diner and get pancakes. A friend and I ordered pumpkin spice and vanilla pancakes and swapped half the stacks in what the waitress called a "pancake suicide." (for those of you who didn't have a childhood, a "suicide" is mixing all the sodas at the soda fountain to see what it tastes like) And it was a very good idea. But, the next day, I dragged myself out of bed and didn't want to do anything complicated, so I made this delicious soup while I worked on cosplay. This is not a difficult recipe. Most soups are basically just throw stuff into a pot until it tastes good. It made for a nice lazy weekend and a start to fall.

Here are some of the results of my cosplay work. I am a beautiful mermaid.

And behold, the most boring food picture ever posted on this blog. Who cares what it looks like if it tastes good, right?

Here's my recipe:

Spinach and Lentil Soup

Sprinkles of Kim:
-I couldn't find sumac, so i had to leave it out. And the grocery store was out of mint, so I put in a couple drops of mint extract, which seemed to work
-I added a can of tomatoes because there needed to be another acid ingredient
-A bit of cayenne gives it just a touch of heat
-I tossed in about a teaspoon of basil
-extra garlic because I like a lot of garlic flavor
-the two cups of parsley is a bit much even for me, so I would recommend cutting that back and may be adding some extra spinach

This is a surprisingly hearty soup that goes well with some cheese bread or crackers. I know this isn't the most exciting blog post, but I don't see any rule that states that I have to be exciting all the time. Sounds exhausting. So, here's hoping you all have a nice, relaxing beginning to fall.

When I'm 80

When I'm 80, I'm going to have stories to tell.

This week, I saw an interesting hashtag going around Instagram. It's called #whenim80. It's related to the fact that this last week was Mental Health Awareness Week. The hashtag has several purposes that I'd like to talk about. I have friends and family with mental illness, and while I can't get into their head and know exactly what they're going through, I encourage and help in any way I can. So, I'm going to discuss this hashtag and the encouragement it has given me and anyone who reads it. Whether you have a diagnosed mental illness or not, everyone needs to take care of their mental health. You still wash your hands and eat your veggies when your body's not sick, right? same with your mind.

1. There is a future, and you can be a part of it. If you are going through something and you feel like this is just your life now and you're stuck in a flatline, or you've considered ending your life, this is for you. You CAN think about what life will be like when you're 80 and looking back. The here and now may feel like all there is, especially when each day feels almost insurmountable/You've made it through every bad day, every anxiety attack, every depression phase, and every relapse so far, this one isn't going to take you. You're going to be there #whenim80

2. Life does not have to be perfect. Those beautifully posed pictures you put on Instagram will likely not be your favorite when you're 80. If you are going through a rough time but feel the need to hide it, or to put up a perfect front, it's okay. Talk to a friend, family member, mentor, pastor, or mental health professional. The good times you pretend to have will be tainted by the anxiety of constantly trying to hide panic attacks or bingeing and purging. That need for perfection causes a sense of isolation and "I'll live life when..." Let me tell you, that goalpost will keep moving and you will never achieve the perfection that your illness wants. It's not something you can just snap your fingers and change, it takes a lot of hard work because you are literally rewiring your brain, and that's okay. There will be slip ups along the way. Recovery is not perfect, and that is okay. You can live the life you want to live without the pressure of social media perfection. Find those horribly unflattering pictures of you when you really are living your life, and treasure those. Maybe it's that picture your friend snapped right after making an awful pun and you're cringing. Maybe it's that beach day photo where you're sunburned, covered in sand, and your hair is a mess but you just learned how to water ski and had a blast. Those moments of perfect imperfection are what you're going to treasure #whenim80

3. Life is happening right now. This one does relate to my previous one, but it's a slightly different angle. If you've been afraid to get help, or putting off a difficult part of recovery or management, now is the time to challenge that. No one is ever 100% ready, there will always be a reason not to seek help. How much will your illness have to take before enough is enough? How many days will depression isolate you from the people who care for you? How many events will you miss or not be able to enjoy because you're paralyzed by obsessive thoughts and actions? How much more of your life will you give to an illness that only gives you temporary comfort and demands more and more? It's scary, it's difficult, but life is happening right now. It's time to live it. Looking back, you won't think "I'm so glad I checked to make sure my house was locked exactly 17 times." "I'm so glad I starved for a week leading up to that vacation so I could be at my lowest weight ever" "I'm so glad I spent my mother's birthday lying in bed too numb from to even cry or answer the frantic phone calls." No one ever wishes they'd waited till they were sicker or "more ready" to take the next step. Life is something that you can live, and you'll be glad you did #whenim80

Yeah, you may not live to 80, but the idea is still the same. Take the risk, do something difficult, and make those memories that you can look back on.

I'm usually a pretty photogenic person, but this picture is...less so. Look at me. My hair is truly awful, I'm all sweaty and gross, and I'm out in the middle of the woods with a giant pair of clippers. But I remember exactly what we were doing. I and my summer research buddies we're building a hero fence to trap salamanders. We spent all morning building that thing by ourselves because we don't need no man! We we're so proud of it. I didn't care that I looked terrible, I was right there, in that moment, and darn it, all I wanted was to go jump in the lake! That is life, the life that mental illness wants to strip away. Don't you dare let it! #whenim80, this picture will still make me smile.

And you know what, when I'm 80, I will still love pancakes.I will always have the memories surrounding them, and they are just as good as the pictures at reminding me of the good times. So yeah, another pancake recipe. And look how pretty they are! Berries, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. I had a killer chocolate craving, and on this blog, we enjoy the things we crave. There is a time and a place for moderation, but there is also one for indulgence. Also, life may not be perfect, but this stack of pancakes is pretty darn close.. It's so beautiful, and I enjoyed every moment of destroying it. Pancakes will still bring up good memories that I will look back on #whenim80

Here's my recipe. I didn't really make too many alterations to it because, honestly, this one was pretty darn good to start with:

Cinnamon Applesauce Oatmal Pancakes

Sprinkles of Kim:
-A few dashes of pumpkin pie spice and extra cinnamon because it is fall and I can
-I used a whole egg
-I used maple syrup as my sweetener
-I didn't make the maple peanut butter sauce, delicious as it sounds, because of the aforementioned chocolate craving and a desire to use the fresh berries I had

So, take time to live you life now, and encourage those around you who may be struggling. Even something as small as a green ribbon prominently placed on your bag, car, or lapel can show people that someone else wants to see them get better. One of the biggest obstacles to seeking help is the shame and stigma surrounding mental illness. The charity Stop the Stigma seeks to end this through not only helping provide affordable counseling to those with mental illness, but education to friends and family in how they can help and support those they care about. That is a cause I will advocate to my dying day, and this is one of my favorite charities, they do such good work. Here's a link to donate if you so desire.
Stop the Stigma

Tasty Toxic Waste

 As Britney Spears would say "I'm addicted to you, don't you know that you're toxic"

I am, of course, talking about cheese. (That's what the song is about, right?) Cheese itself is not toxic unless you have a severe allergy, but it is definitely a food that I have over-indulged in on more than one occasion. And that's okay, it's just food, I have more important things to worry about.

Like Halloween.

I love Halloween. My biggest hobby is building costumes, of course I love pulling out all the stops for the biggest costume-based event of the year. I love seeing all of the crazy and creative ideas people pull together to be scary, pretty, funny, and all-around awesome. I love decorations and parties and events and, of course, fun food. Halloween also kicks off the "holiday season" with Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years in rapid succession behind it. The entire month of October is Halloween for me, so with today being the 8th of Halloween, I am posting a fun recipe for this spooky season.

So, fist off, I am aware that this recipe is incredibly gross-looking and childish. Yes, I made this recipe for me with no intention of sharing it. I am an overgrown child. And for anyone who doesn't know, I work in a medical laboratory, I see things every day that a lot of people can't stomach. I majored in Biology in college, my visceral disgust reaction is basically gone. So, when I see a recipe that is designed to get and "ick" reaction from a bunch of 9-year-olds, I'm all over it because, well, it's just fun.

Thus this Toxic Waste Mac and Cheese. Because I love to make my food fancy, I surrounded it with decorative scientific-looking bottles. Toxic waste is supposed to give you superpowers, right? Comic books wouldn't lie to me!

Don't let the appearance fool you, the only thing toxic about this dish is how much you want to eat all of it. When I saw this recipe online I couldn't resist. Not only does it look absolutely vile, the ingredients sounded right up my alley and pretty easy to make. When there is cheese, I say yes please! And look at that, we even get a decent amount of vegetables in there. I threw this together in about 30 minutes, so this is a very doable recipe for those who have, you know, actual children who want to eat gross-looking green goop. And even outside of how it looks, this recipe tastes really good. It sure beats boxed mac and cheese. I would describe the taste as a cross between spinach artichoke dip and broccoli cheddar soup. Creamy, gooey, cheesy, what's not to love? So, here's my original recipe:

Toxic Waste Mac and Cheese

Sprinkles of Kim:
-I used gnocchi instead of traditional noodles. Gnocchi are little potato-based dumplings you can generally find along with pasta in the grocery store. They have a lot of starch and cook up really sticky, so I thought they would make this recipe look even more like toxic goo. You can use any pasta depending on what look you want.
-frozen cauliflower works just fine for this, it would also work with broccoli or peas or zucchini, whatever vegetable floats your boat. Or just leave it out all together if you're not a fan.
-I wanted this to be a more substantial meal, so instead of melting butter at the beginning, I browned a pound of ground turkey and used the juices as the base for my sauce, then added the meat when I mixed everything in at the end. I thought the meat added a lot of flavor. I would definitely recommend doing this with the turkey, or pork or beef, whatever you have.
-I used a generic green gel food coloring. definitely use gel rather than liquid, it's stronger and really gets that fluorescent green color.
-I added a bunch of stuff to make the flavor to my taste. Taste your sauce and add what you think it needs, here's what I did:
     -more black pepper
     -paprika and an extra dash of cayenne
     -lots of garlic powder (gotta keep vampires away)
     -a big sprinkle of Parmesan cheese

I will probably have more Halloween-themed recipes this month because there's a thousand different ones that I can't wait to try. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go see if I gained super powers.

Birthday Adventures

Now, I don't wanna brag or nothing, but I have so many friends that I had to have two birthday parties. Seriously. Allow me to explain.

This past Saturday, September 29th, I turned 24 years old. Yeah, I know, I'm old. But I had to celebrate with as many of my friends as possible, so I ended up having two parties when all was said and done.

So, the festivities started Friday evening with a gathering featuring my college friends that live in the Dallas area. We went to a really cool restaurant that does pizza served Brazilian-steakhouse style. What does that mean? First of all, if you've never been to a Brazilian steakhouse, put it on your bucket list. It's expensive, but so worth it. The general format is that there are waiters wandering around with various cuts of meat, offering it to each person at the table, and if you say yes, they cut you off a bit of the meat. You can have as much as you want, and if you would like a particular one again, you can ask for it as many times as you like, all you can eat. It's a really fun dining experience, great for special occasions. This place used that serving concept for their pizza. 20 different gourmet topping combinations, 15 savory and 5 sweet, served up in small slices so you can try all of them if you so desire. I tried all of them. I was really, really stuffed, but it was my birthday, I wanted to be a pig. My personal favorites were a lamb one that was perfectly spiced, and the dessert blackberry mascarpone. If you live in the DFW area, I highly recommend this place for special occasions and gatherings, it's great. It's called Delucca Gaucho Pizza and Wine, price is $20/person for all the pizza your little heart desires. Our little group of seven gathered and ate and talked and generally had a great time. It was good to catch up with my Hillsdale friends. Some of them work in politics, so this is a busy season for them, but we do try to keep up. At the end of the dinner, we got a special treat since it was my birthday. It's a Nutella pizza with ice cream, and it was delicious.

The next day was party number two, with my anime convention buds. We knew we wanted to get together and watch some "so bad it's good" old anime and movies, but the trouble came in getting a location. We all live scattered over the metroplex, and some of us have small apartments, so finding a place that can accommodate all of us without forcing people to drive two hours. We found a solution: get a hotel room somewhere in the middle and split the cost. We did, and it was great. We played games, ate, and laughed at some pretty awful old anime. And because no one had to drive home, we could stay until everyone fell asleep and just go home in the morning.

So, this is a recipe blog, so you might be wondering if this week will be devoid of a recipe because I was so busy. HA! Not so. I like to bake and share too much for that. Last week, when I made a pile of pumpkin pancakes and posted them to Instagram, a cousin of mine gave me a challenge. She recently gave birth to twins, and due to some intolerances they have, cannot eat gluten or dairy for the time being. That poses a problem because most dessert foods contain one or the other of these things, and if anyone deserves a "treat yo self" dessert, it's her. So, I decided to make a gluten-free, dairy-free treat for my recipe this week. Just because I'm the one with a birthday doesn't mean I can't make a recipe for someone else. I like to make other people happy, let me. Thus, these pumpkin muffins.

They are dense, spicy, and sweet. And they make the kitchen smell like fall. You definitely wouldn't know there's no dairy or gluten. Oat flour and almond milk are your best friends when working around gluten and dairy allergies. Oat flour can be made cheaply and easily by grinding up oats in a food processor. This recipe uses both whole oats and oat flour to give it a nice texture. I recommend warming them up and eating them with some almond or peanut butter. The concept is good, but you know I had to spice things up. Literally. So, here's my starting recipe:

Allergy-Friendly Pumpkin Muffins

Sprinkles of Kim:
-Used regular eggs instead of flax eggs, so my version is not vegan.
-Brown sugar instead of coconut sugar because coconut sugar is expensive.
-For my dairy-free milk, I used unflavored, unsweetened almond milk.
-About 1/2 t extra cinnamon because cinnamon makes things better.
-about 1/2 t maple flavoring to amp up that maple flavor., and a couple extra tablespoons of syrup. These are supposed to be sweet, after all.
-A few dashes of each of the following: allspice, cloves, cardamom, ginger, and nutmeg. You could probably throw in a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice and get a similar effect.

Needless to say, I immensely enjoyed my birthday weekend. I hope my readers also had a good weekend. Remember to treat yourself occasionally, it's good for the soul!

Overnight Oats Part 2: Extra Thicc!

The apparent theme of this blog is currently breakfast, and I'm rolling with it. I did cook this weekend, as those of you who follow my Facebook will know, but I wanted to get this post out there because I've had the idea in reserve for a while and it's one I feel like people will enjoy. My birthday is Saturday, so this next weekend will be awesome. Expect a much more interesting blog post after that.

Okay, looking at my list of combinations, oatmeal is just going to be a running thing on my blog. If you haven't read my first post on my weekday breakfast, please do so here:

Part 1

I know I said oatmeal is hard to make pretty, but I think I may have succeeded with this picture. Matcha oats with strawberries and almond butter. Or maybe it actually looks like alien ectoplasm and Instagram has fried my brain. Either way, it tasted really good.

 I like to have a little fun with my breakfast, it motivates me to disturb my cat and get out of bed. So, in my Pinterest adventuring, I came across a blog that is almost exclusively oatmeal recipes. I decided to check it out and HOLY MOTHER OF WHOLE GRAIN that's a lot of recipes. If you like oatmeal, I highly recommend checking out this blog.

The Oatmeal Artist

But, you know, also read my blog. Because my blog has more sass. I've been adding a tablespoon of chia seeds to a lot of my oatmeal for the extra nutrients, and I've found that I really like the texture it gives as well. I also sometimes have chia seed pudding for breakfast and really enjoy it, so that might have to get a blog post at some point. A couple of these recipes use Greek yogurt, which makes the oatmeal super thick and creamy with the added bonus of enough protein to turn you into Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman *flexes tiny girl arms* Okay, maybe not. If you don't like Greek yogurt, you can certainly use regular or any non-dairy version you prefer. I've made a couple of these recipes both hot and overnight, and it's honestly down to preference which one is better. Another option is to soak the oats overnight and then warm it up in the microwave right before eating, which is nice if you want to prep the night before but don't like the texture of cold oats.

Chocolate blackberry
-1 tsp cocoa powder
-1/4 tsp cinnamon
-few drops of vanilla
Top with blackberries right before eating

Banana Daquiri
This is America, if I want my breakfast to taste boozy, I can. This tastes really rich and tasty
-1/2 tsp rum flavoring
-1/4 tsp vanilla
-Top with banana right before eating

Nutella
I highly recommend topping this one with banana or strawberry, it adds to the sweetness. This doesn't really taste like Nutella to me, but the combination is still tasty
-1 tsp cocoa powder
-1/4 tsp hazelnut flavoring
-sprinkle of cinnamon
-few drops of vanilla
-Optional: top with fruit right before eating

Thin Mint
This actually does taste like thin mint cookies. It's a personal favorite.
-1 tsp cocoa powder
-1/4 tsp peppermint extract
-few drops of vanilla
-dash of cinnamon

Vanilla Almond Latte
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-1/2 tsp espresso powder
-few drops of almond flavoring

Carrot Cake
I used a recipe for this one, and it has a great texture. I left out the raisins because I have never had a carrot cake with raisins, and I added cloves and nutmeg because the spice mix wasn't quite right without them.
Original Recipe

Spiced Orange
This one does have an extra step, but it tastes really good. Blend the orange and milk before pouring over the oat mixture. You could probably also make this with a 50/50 orange juice and milk mixture if you're not a fan of the pulp. This reminds me of a creamsicle crossed with an orange tea. It sounds a little weird, but it's good
-1 orange, peeled and blended with the milk
-1 tsp vanilla
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1 tsp cloves
-1/2 tsp allspice

Tiramisu
This one is from the blog I mentioned earlier. It's super creamy and delicious. I added a little cinnamon and some extra coffee granules because I can.
Tiramisu Oatmeal

Strawberry Romanoff
For those of you who haven't had it, strawberry romanoff is a dessert that consists of strawberries in a sweet Grand Mariner sauce covered in whipped cream. You can see where I'm going with this.
-3 small or 2 large strawberries, cut and blended with milk
-1/4 cup Greek Yogurt
-1 tsp orange zest
-1 tsp rum flavoring
-1 tsp vanilla
-additional sliced strawberries for topping

Strawberry Daquiri
This one is a really refreshing breakfast when it's triple digit temperatures by 10 (which is about 3-4 months of the year here in Dallas), and the flavor combo is particularly nice
-4 small or 3 large strawberries, cut and blended with milk
-1 tsp rum flavoring
-splash of lemon juice
-splash of lime juice
-1 T chia seeds

Bonus: Savory Oats (not overnight)
Okay, I had to include this because it's so unique and delicious. I'm normally a sweet breakfast kind of girl (and sweet snacks, and sweet cocktails...I keep dentists in business), but savory oatmeal really hits the spot some mornings. It's creamy, flavorful, and really satisfying. It kind of reminds me of a rice casserole. This is just a basic recipe, feel free to get creative and make what you think would work. Maybe some rosemary and chicken, or bacon and cheese, or ham and sweet potato. This idea inspired me, let it inspire you! (I might make a bunch of variations and give this its own post at some point)
-dash of salt
-garlic to taste
-sprinkle of chives
-dash of paprika
-whatever veggies and toppings you like in an omelette (peppers, onion, mushrooms, hot sauce, etc.)
-top with an egg cooked how you like it