Blockbuster Cookies

These are popcorn cookies. Yes, you read that right. Popcorn cookies. Don't click away, I promise this works!

So, popcorn and I have a special relationship. My mom works for Preferred Popcorn, so I know more about the production and distribution of the stuff than I will ever need to know. A certain amount of popcorn is popped every so often during processing to ensure quality and test expansion rates (how big 100 grams of popcorn is when popped. Bigger expansion rates are higher quality). Because of this, there were always garbage bags full of popcorn that were up for grabs by employees. Needless to say, my household never wanted for popcorn, and my mom's caramel corn became one of her signature snacks for events. It was always requested, and never lasted.

In college, my mom gave me a 35 lb. bag of kernels at my request. That bag lasted until my senior year. Everyone loves popcorn, and I had the hookup for a huge supply. During Freshman year, my two best friends, Rachael and Mikel, and I woul split a huge bowl of popcorn and watch Netflix/study in what we called a "popcorn powwow" and it was awesome.

So, given my good memories surrounding this snack, I had to make this recipe when I found it on Pinterest. Even if it made a huge mess and didn't come together, it could still be pretty good, right? Well, it did come together due to my mad skillz in the kitchen. Actually, this recipe is easy, it's just like chocolate chip cookies with the extra step of popping the corn and a bit of a delicate touch when folding it in. What do they taste like? Well, the cookie kind of reminds me of a graham cracker with its buttery brown sugar base, and the crunch of the popcorn is kind of incredible. The popcorn is able to stay crunchy because the batter doesn't contain any liquid except egg and butter. It's addictive, and worth trying for the novelty alone.

A successful experiment

My first attempt at these was not bad. In movie terms, it was and wholesome family comedy that you enjoy seeing on the theater, but probably won't buy on DVD. These cookies needed some things more.

Aw yeah, now that's what I call cookies.

My second attempt was a summer blockbuster that everyone will rave about. They were awesome! The sweet chocolate and the salted caramel drizzle came together to create a product that will have your audience demanding a sequel. These little crunch bombs are ideal for Oscar parties, movie nights, slumber parties, or any time you wanna change up from the standard chocolate chip or oatmeal cookie. Can confirm that they also pair well with ice cream.

I knew these cookies needed a name more catchy than "those popcorn cookies of yours" and in keeping with the movie theme I was going for. The muses of baked good naming spoke, and I dubbed them "Blockbusters." So here's the recipe that provided my original inspiration:

Popcorn Cookies

I followed the base cookie recipe pretty closely, but trust me, the additions are what make these cookies.

Sprinkles of Kim:
-Add 1 tsp cinnamon when you add the vanilla, I have no idea why the original recipe didn't have this, it just tastes so much more complete.
-Right before the cookies go in the oven, press a few mini M&Ms into the top of each cookie, kind of like you would with monster cookies. Don't worry too much about making them evenly spaced, just put them where there's not already popcorn kernels
-Okay, now the fun part, the caramel drizzle. I snagged the recipe from here: Caramel Drizzle
And I didn't time it, I just boiled the mixture till it resembled caramel. The taste reminds me of a soft Werther's caramel.
-After drizzling the cookies (and likely making a huge mess if you're anything like me), hit each cookie with just the tiniest sprinkle of salt. It'll enhance both the popcorn and the caramel and up the sweet-and-salty factor, which is the appeal of these cookies.

I love my movies and my desserts, so I hope everyone enjoys these Blockbusters as much as I did!

Some Good Things Happen Overnight

I may be in the minority on this, but I have always loved oatmeal. It's easy to make, and can serve as a vehicle for tons of great flavors. However, for some people, oatmeal falls in to the category of "I was forced to eat this as a kid, so now as an adult I hate it." Other foods I have seen on this list include eggs, tomato soup, chicken, and carrots (both raw and cooked). Thankfully, my mother never tried to make me eat anything I didn't like. This could be because she just loved me more than yours did, but I suspect this was actually because the list of foods I disliked was so short it could be easily avoided (thanks, mom!).

A big reason to love oatmeal for a person on a budget is the cost. A large container of oats is less than $3 and can last through many meals. Plus, the oats can be ground into flour (I'll post some recipes later that include this, the texture is great), or even blended with water and strained into milk. Yeah, I bet most of you hadn't heard of oat milk. It's surprisingly creamy (I ran out of milk and was too lazy to go to the store, okay?).

Then came Pinterest. Oh Pinterest, you give me so many ideas, only 3% of which I will ever actually use. This time-wasting idea geyser of a web site has enlightened me to the idea of overnight oats. If you pour a liquid (generally milk or water) over oats and leave them in the fridge overnight, they soften up as if they were cooked, but with a slightly different texture that you either love or hate. I love it. I also love experimenting with different flavors, especially the ones that make me feel like I'm having dessert for breakfast. I love my sweets, so any time I can have more dessert, I am all over it.

So, here's a list of oatmeal combinations you might want to try. I left off obvious ones like maple brown sugar or apple and cinnamon. Those are in the packets you find in the store, everyone knows about those. These recipes are the fancy kind. These will all work hot as well, obviously. No pictures this time because let's face it, oatmeal is not exactly a pretty food. Yeah, they can try and dress it up with fancy slices of fruit and swirls of spices, but it doesn't change the fact that the substance underneath looks like wet sand. Tasty wet sand. I use unsweetened almond milk to make these, but you can use whatever milk or milk-like substance you prefer. I have also tried a couple of these with water, and while it's not as creamy, it does still work.

Pour 1/2 cup oats into a mug or small jar, add milk to about a quarter to half inch above the level of oats (modify depending on your preference, I like my oats on the thin side, so I use more milk), add all mix-ins except fruit, and mix it up. If you're using a jar, you can literally just put the lid on and shake it, this is a recipe for lazy people. You can pretend you have your life together by making your breakfast ahead of time, and in the morning, you just open the fridge and there it is. If you actually have your life together, you can portion out several days' worth and keep the jars in a cupboard so all you have to do is add milk the night before. Ah yes, I am now free to do important things, like create a recipe blog.

All of these recipes have an implied "sweetener to taste" at the end because I don't feel like typing that a thousand times. I personally use maple syrup, but you can use honey, brown sugar, white sugar, agave, stevia, or whatever sweetener Dr. Kale von Detoxtea has decided won't give you cancer this week. I also like to use powdered peanut butter for the peanut butter flavored ones because when it's cold, peanut butter is hard to mix evenly. Powdered peanut butter (like PB2) gives a more even distribution of flavor. Use whichever you prefer.

Chocolate with Strawberries
-1-2 teaspoons cocoa powder
-a few drops of vanilla
-pinch of cinnamon
-top with sliced strawberries right before eating

Strawberry Shortcake
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-a few drops of almond flavoring
-top with strawberries right before eating
-Optional: top with whipped cream

Matcha Latte
Only attempt this one if you know you like green tea-flavored things. Matcha is expensive and not everyone likes its bitter flavor. This one also looks really revolting. I love the way it tastes, but it looks like snot.
-1 tsp matcha
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-a few drops of almond flavoring
-Optional: top with banana

Chocolate Peanut Butter
-1-2 tsp cocoa powder
-1-2 T powdered peanut butter
-a few drops of vanilla
-pinch of cinnamon
-Optional: top with banana

Peanut Butter Banana
-1-2 T powdered peanut butter
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-Top with banana right before eating

Spiced Chai
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 tsp cloves
-1/4 tsp ginger
-1/4 tsp nutmeg
-Option 1: a splash of vanilla for a vanilla chai
-Option 2: a dash of espresso powder for a dirty chai

Oatmeal Cookie Dough
Seriously, this one totally tastes like cookie dough, especially if you use brown sugar as sweetener
-1/4 tsp vanilla
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-Optional: top with raisins or chocolate chips to enhance the cookie experience

Cafe Mocha
I got my hands on some espresso powder, I'm probably going to make the whole coffee shop!
-1-2tsp cocoa powder
-1/2 tsp espresso powder

Pumpkin Pie
-1-2 T canned pumpkin puree
-Pumpkin pie spices (if you don't have any, use the mix from the spiced chai recipe plus a dash of allspice)
-Optional: If you're feeling like the whitest white girl to ever "not even," throw in a dash of espresso powder and have Pumpkin Spice Latte

Gingerbread
This is a very Christmas recipe, but last I checked, gingerbread always tastes good, and this one really does taste like gingerbread.
-1/2 tsp ginger
-1/4 tsp cincanmon
-1/4 tsp cloves
-dash of nutmeg
-Molasses to taste
-Optional: red and green sprinkles to be festive

If you have a modification on one of these ideas, or if you are inspired to create a totally new combination, go for it! What do I look like, the breakfast police? Most of these were created in my kitchen with me staring at my spice cupboard like a witch brewing a potion, so they're what I felt like eating. If you notice a conspicuous absence of coconut, there's a reason. That reason being I don't like the stuff. If you do, go ahead and try using it with banana or vanilla or something. I hope this list encourages you to rise and dine on something good!

I have a list of flavor combinations I have yet to try, so expect a part 2 eventually. Most good things don't happen overnight, but at least breakfast can.

Pancakes.

One of my best college friends got married this weekend. Well, there goes my "Who gets married first?" bracket. I wish Mikel and her new husband a life of happiness and Crossfit. So much Crossfit. I was gone at the wedding all weekend, bur have no fear, I still have many recipes hidden away for such occasions. This one is particularly appropriate. 

Pancakes. I love pancakes. They are one of my favorite foods, and not only because they are little circles of breakfast-y goodness. I have some good memories around pancakes. 

When I was a kid, pancakes were one of those fun weekend breakfasts that my mom would make and one of the first things I remember being able to make by myself. I'm sure I burned or undercooked many along the way, but it was those many failures that made me what I am today: a person who can make some damn good pancakes.

In college, pancakes were a cheap and delicious option when my friends and I wanted breakfast-for-dinner (which was all the time). We would go to the grocery store and get whatever struck our fancy as toppings, fruit, peanut butter, nuts, chocolate chips, whipped cream, and of course butter and syrup. We would then go back to my apartment and make us some pancakes. In those days, we used an enhanced version of the classic Bisquick recipe (I know, I'm a recipe blogger who used pancake mix, you are free to shame me), and even back then I threw in extras like spices and flavorings. One time I thought I was grabbing vanilla and accidentally made lemon pancakes. Still pretty good.

Even when they weren't homemade, I have good memories with pancakes. My college town, Hillsdale, had a diner called the Palace that was open all night on the weekend and had massive pancakes for around $3.50 each. This was heaven for a bunch of broke college students after a concert, performance, or big event. Inevitably after such an event, you could walk into the Palace and find at least two tables full of students, some still in stage makeup or formal wear, laughing and talking over some late-night breakfast food. Talk about quintessential college memories.

So, with my dear friend Mikel getting married, I though I would share this recipe in honor of her, being one of my primary pancake buddies. These pancakes are awesome, as pancakes should be. Now I'm all for a big splurge on some super unhealthy pancakes every now and again, but I want to have pancakes more often than every now and again, so this is a recipe for when I don't want to be in a food coma all day. These pancakes taste great and have a really nice texture. They are still properly fluffy, but a bit on the dense side. These are a hearty, filling pancake that doesn't taste like cardboard and sadness. Looking at this picture is making me want to make more of them. Like, right now.

Oh yes, look at those. Topped with strawberries, whipped cream, and extra cinnamon, and a side of eggs for a perfect sweet-and-savory brunch.

Okay, okay, enough of reminiscing and drooling (Note to self: stop blogging while hungry), it's recipe time!

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes Recipe

Sprinkles of Kim:

-I didn't have quick oats, so I pulsed old-fashioned oats in a food processor to cut them up. This is a trick you can use any time quick oats are called for

-As I often do, I added extra cinnamon and a dash each of cloves, ginger, and nutmeg, which gives the pancakes a wonderful spicy flavor that has the bonus of making your kitchen smell amazing

-The flavor of these pancakes if fairly neutral, so any mix-in or topping should go well with them. I used sliced strawberries and whipped cream, with a dusting of cinnamon just because.

Corn, Meet Curry

Despite my trendy sense of style and adventurous, big-city taste in food, I do still treasure some fond memories of my childhood in Nebraska. One of those memories is putting up corn.

A few of you are nodding and smiling nostalgically, the rest are going "What the actual heck are you rambling about this time?" For the latter, allow me to explain, it's a question I hear quite frequently.

So, when the sweet corn is ripe, it's all ripe at once. So, after waiting all through spring for fresh corn, you now have ALL THE CORN. And that corn needs to be preserved somehow so it doesn't go to waste. You can only eat so many ears of grilled corn-on-the-cob at once, only make so much corn salsa. So, when I was a small child, we would have one big day during the summer where my mom and I would go to my grandma's house and help her "put up corn" which included shucking, cooking, and putting corn into bags to be frozen and used throughout the year. We'd start with buckets stuffed with ears of corn and end with a freezer stuffed with corn. Now, this may not sound like much fun, but for a little kid, it was great. Me and sometimes a couple of cousins would make a huge mess shucking the corn outside and getting silk and husks everywhere, then steal nibbles of fresh corn right as it was being cut from the cob. Plus we got to play at my grandma's house, it was great. 

The taste of fresh sweet corn will always remind me of those good times, so this recipe for summer vegetable curry is both nostalgic and new for me. I did feel a twinge of shame for having to BUY corn. When it was in season, we would give the stuff away, we had so much. But corn I had to pay for is better than no corn at all, and it's still cheap. This recipe is bursting with flavor and it's different than any curry I'd ever had. The corn adds a sweetness and the lime cuts through the heavy spices quite nicely. I'm always up for a nice curry, and this one has a lighter flavor that's perfect for summer.

It's topped with goat cheese. If you haven't tried goat cheese, it's generally next to feta in the grocery store, and it's very good. It's cheese, of course it's good.

Here's the recipe I used:

https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/simple-summertime-basil-chicken-curry-coconut-ginger-lime-rice/

Sprinkles of Kim:

-I don't really like coconut, so I used almond milk

-No cilantro. That stuff tastes like soap to me.

-I took the vegetarian suggestion and used chickpeas because I had them and I didn't have chicken thawed. I like chickpeas in curry, so I recommend giving it a try, or go half-and-half for some texture variation
-I couldn't find curry paste, so I just put in a couple tablespoons of curry powder. Also, spice level is completely up to you, curry does not have to burn your mouth.
-I added mushrooms because I though the texture would work well with this recipe. I was right.