Life in Color

You know, you could say a lot of things about me, but I don't think anyone could ever say that Kim Deichmann is boring. I'm always doing something interesting just because I want to or it sounded interesting or something.

I want to clarify first of all that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being "boring." Boring people can live perfectly fulfilled lives and benefit society tremendously. The world NEEDS people of all degrees of interesting-ness (Is that a word? It is now) to function. No one should feel guilty for being a little boring if that's what they truly want. That's just not me, and it's okay.

I have had times in my life where I have fallen into a more boring life and found that those are not the best times for me. I get stir crazy, I need to be learning something or building something or fostering relationships with people. Not that I can't just chill and relax, my relaxation just happens to generally include something either social or intellectual. It's part of why I liked school and to this day continue to learn. Hillsdale (the college I went to for those not in the know) attempts to cultivate this desire for learning as part of every student's education.

So, while what I did this weekend seems active and like a lot of work to some, I actually found it to be a very relaxing weekend that left me ready for another week of my job.

But lemme tell you, it did not start well. On Friday evening, I was having some dinner, a nice salad. I chomped down on a wasabi pea (added for spiciness and crunch), and something gave. That something was not a tasty vegetable with ginger dressing. I have a temporary crown on the tooth that had the root canal a while back. The permanent wouldn't be in for two weeks and I had just broken the temporary right down the middle. On a Friday night. Great. Thankfully, as luck would have it, my dentist is open every other Saturday and this Saturday was one of the open times. I rolled in at 9 am right when they opened and got a new temporary that will HOPEFULLY last until the permanent one is ready. Until then, no more wasabi peas for me.

After that traumatizing ordeal (It's a good thing I'm not afraid of the dentist, or I'd just be a wreck all the time) I got a recommendation from the receptionist for where to go for a good brunch. This place had a nice little table for solo diners with no wait. Very convenient, as this was a weekend morning and the place was busy. I sat down, got some coffee and ordered. As I waited for my banana crunch pancakes, a man a few years older than me sat down and ordered as well. We struck up a conversation, and before I knew it I was talking costume building with a person who does medieval fighting as a hobby. This happens all the time, too. You never know who is doing something amazing behind the scenes. The cashier who check you out at Target? He does special effects at a haunted house. That friendly barista who has your order memorized? She makes money on the side sewing authentic costumes for Civil war reenactments. Artisans and craftsmen are everywhere, in secret, hiding amongst the general population.

That evening, I volunteered at a charity event. It had a circus theme, and I cobbled together an outfit for it. I sold grab bags to donors with carnival-esque flare. This event reminded me of my days in college selling raffle tickets to donors at events, which I was pretty good at. A smile and a tactful approach, and suddenly no one can say no to this face. Or at least that's what I pretend happens. Talking with the other volunteers, I found one who built replicas of weapons from video games and anime as a hobby. Yes, this kind of thing happens all the time. I wan't exaggerating when I said that craftsmen are everywhere.

Finding "my kind of people" is something that adds color to my life and keeps it interesting. My life will never be stagnant as long as I'm always finding more people and things to keep it interesting.

And in that vein, my recipe for this week takes something simple and makes colorful. I offered my coworker's a chance to pick any dessert that I can make for their birthday. This coworker is a man of simple taste and chose chocolate chip cookies. Now, as these are for a birthday, they can't just be ordinary chocolate chip cookies, they must be special. I found a recipe for rainbow chocolate chip cookies and the wheels in my head started turning. He also likes sports, so I covertly found out one of his favorite sports teams, the Dallas Stars. I made a batch of these rainbow chocolate chip cookies in the colors of the Dallas Stars and put star-shaped sprinkles on top.

He loved them and everyone else in the office enjoyed them. They're homemade chocolate chip cookies, who wouldn't? Here's my base recipe:

Rainbow Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sprinkles of Kim:
-I did the Dallas stars colors and put star sprinkles on top, but you could use any colors you like. Sports teams, Hogwarts house colors, colors for the flag of a country, take your pick. I recommend using gel food coloring to really get nice vibrant shades.
-I made the recipe with the ratios of brown to white sugar as written, and it's more of a white sugar taste than I generally like. If you like that brown sugar flavor, I'd say just divide the total amount of sugar 50/50 brown and white.
-Add a dash of cinnamon and thank me later
-If you like a crunchy cookie, bake just a bit longer. I'm a soft cookie person, so I went with roughly the amount of time listed. Or at least I think I did. I don't use timers, I just bake things until they're done. I know, it's weird, but it works.

I hope these cookies can add a little color to your life. I like to keep thing interesting and live a life in color, and I'm glad that I get to share it with you!

Anime Con Life

I went to Ushicon in Austin this weekend and I'm tired, so today's post will probably be kind of lame, deal with it.

A lot of people ask me why I love conventions, and it really is a hard thing to put into words. It's an atmosphere of a lot of people who are excited about things and ready to share that excitement and spend money on it and talk to other people who are excited about things and find other things to be excited about. It's meeting the people behind your favorite things. It's a break from the monotony of everyday life. It's a place to make crazy memories that you'll laugh about later with your new friends.

I can describe a lot of aspects of a convention, like the dealer room, panels, guests, and events, but I can't really describe what is honestly my favorite part of convention life: the community. The best part of con is flopping down next to someone to wait for a panel and discovering that you some of the same things. It's being given the hookup to discounted arcade tokens from the owner whom you met an hour ago. It's almost having a wardrobe malfunction and having three completely random people instantly offer you safety pins, spirit gum, or hairspray to fix it. It's having someone you have never seen in your life tell you how awesome your costume is as you walk by. It's splitting a pizza with people you didn't know existed yesterday, but will remember for a lifetime. It's seeing those people at the next convention and catching up like you were never apart. Does that sound awesome to anyone else? Trust me, it is.

This is my crew chilling out in our hotel room at Ushicon. I love these people.

Another thing that people ask me quite often is that if I'm not entering cosplay contests, what's the point of putting all of that time, money and effort into costumes? That's another hard one. I love it, but it's hard to put into words exactly why. One thing is that it serves as a big neon sign that says "I LIKE THIS THING, TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS THING" so it's an instant icebreaker when meeting new people. I've always been a crafty person, so I do honestly enjoy learning new craft techniques and using them to make things. I guess another way to describe the appeal is this: Have you ever seen a character you like wearing an incredible outfit in a movie, TV show, or game and there's a part of you that just wants to wear it? Like, you want to wear something and look that cool in it? Cosplay is you doing that. Maybe not everyone has that desire, but I do. I want the experience of putting together that outfit and showing my love for the character. To be what I love about them come to life.

Maybe that was helpful, maybe it wasn't. I tried. And much like with my recipes, sometimes when we try, we succeed! So here's a nice, simple recipe that I made and froze so that I would have food for this week without having to spend even more money. It's cheap, takes very little time to put together, and it reminds me of scalloped potatoes and ham, a meal I very much enjoyed as a kid. And who doesn't want a nice soup recipe when it's cold out? This is just a nice one to add to the rotation.

Ham and Potato Corn Chowder

Sprinkles of Kim:

-Honestly, you could make this recipe with whatever vegetables you have lying around. I added mushrooms, but you could also add peas, squash, whatever you like

-I used vegetable broth because I didn't have ham broth and it sounded better than chicken.

I hope my attempt at explaining my con obsession was at least somewhat enlightening. Con life doesn't generally include much sleep, so I'm going to go find the nearest flat surface and go into hibernation.

Mini Waffle Time!

I love my new toy.

So, over Christmas, I ordered a mini waffle maker online. Because they had to wait for a restock and there was something wrong with my order, I didn't get it until last week. I have wanted waffles several times since moving to Texas and been unable to indulge my desire because in a tiny kitchen where space is of the essence, a waffle maker would take up too much space for something that only does one thing. This little gadget, however, is literally smaller than my hand spread out (and I'm a petite woman, my hand span is not big). Aaaaaaaaaaand it comes in pink. This thing was made for me! If this was a product review blog, the *infomercial voice* Dash mini waffle maker would get 9/10. Makes perfect little waffles, doesn't stick, heats up fast, and easy storage. IT's not complicated, no settings, no flipping, just pour and wait. Only drawbacks are 1. it doesn't have an indicator to show when the waffles are done, so you kind of have to use your intuition and 2. it does drip a bit on the counter when you open it, so just set it on a paper towel. Overall, I highly recommend it for people who live alone or with a partner, and people who would like to make tiny waffles with their kid, or just anyone who needs just a little more waffle in their life. These waffles will also freeze and heat up well in the toaster, I am told.

It's so tiny and adorable!

I've used my mini waffle maker probably 4 times in the week and a half I've owned it because I keep getting ideas and I want to try them. I'm sure the novelty will wear off at some point, but for now, it's all waffles, all the time. So, this week's recipe will be my most interesting waffle creation: Cheesy waffle dippers. This was an idea born out of a desire for something cheesy and tomato-y (If that wasn't a word before, it is now), but not having a suitable vehicle on hand to act as pizza crust. The result was this tasty meal that was like a pizza meets a grilled cheese meets a waffle. It was delicious! You could do this with regular waffles as well, since they end up cut into strips anyway. I even made my own sauce because I didn't want to open a huge jar of sauce to only use a few ounces (seriously, why don't they sell small jars of marinara? I don't understand this). Tomato, garlic, Parmesan, Italian herbs, salt and pepper. Blend for a few pulses. Drain off excess liquid. Done.

Here's my waffle recipe:
1/3 cup oats
1/3 cup cottage cheese (or Greek yogurt)
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp Italian herb blend
Salt and pepper to taste
Shredded cheese blend of choice
Parmesan cheese
Marinara or dipping sauce of choice

1. Turn on oven broiler to medium or toaster oven to heat up. Blend oats to grind.
2. Add cottage cheese, egg, baking powder, and seasonings to blender and blend until smooth. Let batter stand to thicken for a few minutes.
3. Make waffles according to waffle maker instructions
4. Top waffles with cheese and Parmesan and place on a baking sheet under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese and make the waffles extra crispy. Cut into strips and serve with marinara sauce.

Notes:
-This makes about 4-5 mini waffles and serves one person, multiply to your needs.
-Yes, I am aware that cottage cheese waffles sound weird, but they really are nice and fluffy while being high in protein (I may be an oversized kid, but I do still have to think about nutrients occasionally)

This waffle maker will likely be making another appearance on my blog at some point. I'm having too much fun to not. Currently, I'm gearing up for Ushicon and the sewing bug has bit hard, so I haven't had as much time to cook as I have at other times, but that's life. Update on my sewing and con shenanigans will probably happen in the next post or two. I hope you all have a happy Valentine's Day (I'm a single pringle who is going to con this weekend, so I didn't even think about it until now) and a good week!

Permission to Fail

So.....I took up karaoke.

It all started innocently enough. I went to a bar that was having karaoke and a costume contest on Halloween. I went dressed to the nines and hoping to have some fun. I discovered that this was no ordinary karaoke. This was a live band, allowing for the full rock star experience. I got up and sang some classic Britney Spears (I'm trash, I know), and you know what? It was a blast. I found out that this particular band does karaoke at several bars throughout the week, and now unless I have something else going, Tuesday night is karaoke night. It's a nice way to break up the monotony of the week.

I generally sing a couple songs a night, but I also get to watch other people sing. There are regulars, people just there for a special occasion, all ages, all styles of music, and all levels of talent and training. One thing I noticed watching all these different performers: no one regrets doing karaoke. Even those that have to be dragged onto the stage or can't carry a tune in a bucket don't regret it. They may not wanna do it again, but they're all glad they did it. And I think I know at least part of the reason.

Karaoke is permission to fail.

Everyone expects karaoke to suck. Untrained random people singing songs they may not know very well and possibly battling stage fright are par for the course. Anything above that is a pleasant surprise. And, honestly, there is something freeing in doing something with permission to fail. There is nothing at stake here. No judges to hit buttons, no million-dollar recording contracts, just a bar and people of questionable sobriety who are just as bad as you. Sure you don't gain anything if you're good, but you don't lose anything if you fail either.

I'm a competitive person, I always want to be better, to stand out from the crowd, but karaoke brought to my attention how powerful the permission to fail can be. It shifts the focus from getting the approval of others to how the activity affects you internally. If there is nothing external to affirm you, why are you doing it? Is this honestly something you like? Does it teach you something? Does it help give you a sense of identity or self-awareness? Maybe this is just me overthinking things (as I tend to do), but hey, if anyone else benefits from my ramblings, that's great. If you haven't given yourself permission to fail in a while, find a place to do it, you might be surprised at what you find out. Try something new with almost no risk. you lose very little if you fail, you gain very little if you succeed. You only get what you get from the process without anyone saying that you should or shouldn't be doing it. I know our society values risk taking, but sometimes it's good to step back from that, recharge for the next risk.

Speaking of risk, I really risked failure with these scones. I scaled the recipe by 2/3 (why I put myself through that much math is beyond me), and in the process of making them, I discovered I was low on flour. Greeeeeeat. And the dough was dangerously liquid, so it needed extra flour. I put in what i had and managed to get them onto the baking sheet without turning into little puddles, and baked them. Thankfully they came out fine and were a great treat for my boss' birthday.

Aren't they cute? I found the sprinkles at JoAnn and couldn't resist

So, here's my recipe:

Blackberry Peach Scones

Sprinkles of Kim:

-Obviously I had to use slightly less flour than the recipe called for because I was almost out. Don't do this. It makes the batter have the consistency of taffy. Thankfully, these are a moist, cake-like scone and still taste fine with less flour.

-I used frozen fruit since blackberries and peaches are out of season

-I dyed the glaze purple and added the heart sprinkles to be festive.