Yesterday I was organizing my photos and found some pictures I’ve taken in the past week when I’ve been out and about: This Starbucks Blonde Veranda Blend coffee.
Do Blondes have more fun? We should ask Marla, a brunette. We actually spotted this coffee together on our last meetup. I like the sound of “delicate nuances of cocoa” but something tells me this coffee would be lighter and like drinking brown tinted water more mellow than I prefer.
My latest coffee find is this one. Inexpensive and it’s been around forever, but it’s new to me and I like it. For now, this blonde is having fun with that blend. I saw this spatula when I bought the KitchenAid Bowl-Scraping Blade, which I am loving, and it almost negates any need to scrape down the mixing bowl. If you do need a spatula, this one has a handy measurement conversion chart on it.
Because real quick off the top of your head and before you’ve had coffee and have someone asking you why the sky is blue and can they have a snack and can dogs tell time, try to quickly think about how many cups is 11 tablespoons of butter? This is important because you need to know how many sticks of butter to take out of the fridge to soften. Or how many squares of baking chocolate should you break off if a recipe calls for one third of a pound of melted baker’s chocolate plus two tablespoons reserved for drizzling, knowing first of course, that baking chocolate squares come in ounces. Truthfully, I’d rather bake than do math. Especially before coffee. I forgot to buy the spatula because I was so excited to take a picture of it. Looks like I better brush up on my fractions. That, or just eyeball the dough and hope for the best. When I make brownies, bars, or cookies, I try to create recipes that either use a half stick, 1 stick, or 2 sticks of butter and not mess around with those 1 and 5/8ths of a stick recipes plus reserve 1 tablespoon. Gah! No.
Because let’s face it, we want cookies, not math. I saw these ice cube trays in the Target “dollar” bins for $2.50 for a pair. I snatched up a pair of these on the hunch that they will make perfect chocolate molds for Valentine’s Day candy making.
The dollar bins (or $2.50 bins) tend to have great cookware finds. One year before Easter, Target had pastel-colored silicone muffin liners, 6 for $1 dollar. Those tend to be pretty pricey at places like Williams-Sonoma or at Bed Bath and Beyond, and the same goes for silicone chocolate molds. Whatever I make, I’ll be using this chocolate because I love the way it melts.
And l Iove the way it tastes in Ritz Cracker Stuffed Peanut Butter Cups (No Bake)
Friday January 20 is also National Granola Bar Day. Maybe I’ll make Microwave Chocolate Peanut Butter and Oat Snack Bars which only take 5 minutes to throw together in honor of the holiday today.
How good are you at kitchen and recipe math? I can do math. I just prefer not to. I’d rather be cooking than converting fractions, cups, ounces, pounds, sticks, tablespoons. This is why the metric system would probably be so much easier. Any good Target Dollar Bin Finds? Have you seen anything interesting out and about lately? Have a great weekend!
