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!