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!