Send in the Sprinkles!!

But ONLY if they are the non-rainy variety.

Thank goodness we are finally experiencing a few sunny, dare I say, Spring-like days here in Seattle. It has been 196 days since we hit 66 degrees, today's predicted high temperature. A loooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnng time. We haven't hit 66 yet but at least it was a nice enough day to break out some short sleeves (for G at least) and a picnic lunch in the backyard.



Yesterday, while mostly sunny, just wasn't as nice although that might have been due to the bloody noses, migraines, and overall blahness that invaded the house rather than the weather.

The kids and I all needed a pick-me-up and I knew exactly what it should be: Emergency Baking!

G & M both love to assist me in the kitchen and I love baking so I knew a good time would be had by all but I made sure that the recipe added a little silliness to the mix- just in case. I needed to make sure all the resident grumpopotami were kicked to the curb. Luckily I had seen a recipe that fit the bill to a tee only the night before over on Pinterest.


CAKE BATTER BLONDIES.

Ooooooooh yes. A little crazy but we were in dire need of food decorated with rainbow sprinkles.

I gathered up the ingredients. In perfect Murphy's Law fashion the only ingrediant not in my cupboard: the rainbow sprinkles. One quick trip to the market later we were ready to go.


While I don't mind making more complex recipes with the kiddos, this recipe was great because everything could be dumped into one bowl and stirred.

Into the oven for 30 mins. Beware. This deceptively short time frame may feel like 3 hours with some little person asking every two minutes, "Are they ready yet?"

A (very) few hard won minutes for cooling and, Voila!



Cake Batter Blondies. Yum.

If you are interested in making these for yourself, the recipe is here at Girl Meets Life.

You know you want to make some... The 50+ repins I got in under 24 hours when I pinned this on Pinterest says that I am not the only one craving more cake batter and rainbow sprinkles in her life.

Spring in the Kitchen

This week, G had her snack day at preschool. Translation: I had to come up with a snack food that was: small, portable, not too messy, appealing to G the food snob, had not previously been taken into school for snack by G (see previous food snob comment), and wouldn't cause issues for any major food allergies in the class. Oh, and G wanted it to be "fancy like a treat" because it was almost Easter.

Clearly graham crackers were not going to cut it.

Luckily, I hit upon the idea of making decorated pretzels and G was amenable. Thank goodness because I had nothing in the idea tank if the pretzels were nixed.

The great thing about these candy/chocolate dipped pretzels is that they are very simple to make (though not fast) and the kidlets can help out (to say nothing of my lifelong love of white chocolate covered pretzels though I am sure that played no role in my decision to make these).

After much consideration, G picked a color scheme of white with Spring colored (pastel) sprinkles. The materials were purchased:

pretzel logs, candy melts or chocolate, and sprinkles

And the helpers assembled:

The assembly is pretty straight-forward. Melt the candy coating according to the package directions. Then dip- I use a 2 cup measuring cup so I can easily tilt the coating to get better coverage (I think a bowl is too shallow).

if I make this photo somewhat smaller than the others will it hide the fact that is is blurry?didn't really think so but thought it was worth a try.

And sprinkle (I have a set of breading pans that are great for this kind of thing- I think only a third of the sprinkles ended up on my floor instead to the usual half):

We lay our pretzel outs on wax paper or parchment lined baking sheets to dry. If it is warmish you can tuck them into the freezer or frig to help things along.


Voila! The pretzels were a big hit and G was a very happy camper.

Which means I'm a happy camper.

And now I have 5 weeks to figure out what our next snack will be...