2018 Revival + Midnights

Hey friends! Did you miss me? I kind of stepped away from blogging last year and I got all sorts of wrapped up in other things. Like, sitting on my living room floor and watching my rabbit run around. And drawing webcomics. YEAH GUYS I HAVE WEBCOMICS YOU COULD BE FOLLOWING. They are: Kat Bites (which is a slice of life jokey sort of thing about, well, me, existing in the world) and Here's What Happened (which is a cute lil' queer love story about two friends who fall in love).

Okay. Self promotion over. Sort of. The point is: I got wrapped up in a lot of things last year. There was the sitting on the floor stuff, there was the webcomic stuff, there was binge-watching Nothing Much To Do and Lovely Little Losers on YouTube, there were a couple of travel-excursions, there were two novels that I wrote (holla!), and, well, you get it. Life happened.

But I'm writing this today because...(I'm imagining that elipses as a drumroll, what about you?)...I'm REVIVING this BLOG for 2018. WOOHOO.

Before, this blog was a little bit of everything. Little life updates. Poetry and prose. A tutorial or two. Lists. Opinion pieces.

It's still going to be all of that, probably, but it's going to be a little bit more focused because...

I'M TURNING THIS INTO A BOOK BLOG.

Are you guys excited? I'm excited. My game plan is to post once a week (I'm thinking on Wednesdays, how do you feel about Wednesdays?) and talk about a whole host of bookish things. This will start in 2018.

"Wait," You ask, scratching your head, "it's not 2018, though? And it isn't Wednesday..."

I know, I know, I know. BUT...I thought I'd re-emerge a little bit early because...

One series I'm thinking of doing is called...(drumroll drumroll drumroll)...

Cook Your Way Through YA

It's basically going to be recipes and things based on different YA books/short stories. And my all-time favorite author, Rainbow Rowell, (hey, Rainbow, if you're reading this, you're really pretty and thank you for writing all those wonderful books!) has a beautiful book called Almost Midnight which is comprised of a short story called "Midnights" and a novella called "Kindred Spirits." It's adorable and lovely and wonderful.

AND: the short story "Midnights" takes the reader through the moments leading up to midnight on New Years Eve for one group of friends, several years in a row. It's adorable and lovely and if you can't your hands on a copy of Almost Midnight, it's also in an anthology of YA Holiday Stories called My True Love Gave To Me which was edited by Stephanie Perkins and is full of wonderful wintery love stories.

So! I thought I would start a couple of days early with a "Cook Your Way Through YA: Midnights."

Since this story takes place at a New Year's Eve party, I thought we'd start off with two party foods. In "Midnights," our protagonists, Mags and Noel, spend their New Years Eves at Alicia's house, where Alicia's mom makes "the best chex mix" (or so claims Mags). So, I wrangled my mom (who I think makes the best chex mix) into helping me make our party foods. Chex Mix, of course, and Muddy Buddies (which are a NYE staple, in my opinion.)

Aw, so cute. Okay. So, we're going to start with the Chex Mix! Here's what you'll need: 

• 3 cups of Rice Chex, 3 cups of Wheat Chex, and 3 cups of Corn Chex
• 1 cup of nuts (we used an assortment including pecans, cashews, peanuts, and walnuts) (don't use tree nuts if you're going to be feeding your Chex Mix to the male lead of our story, Noel, because he's allergic)
• 1 cup of pretzels (pro-tip: if you insist on doing the rod pretzels, break them in half first)
• 1 cup pita chips (we used garlic parmesan but it probably doesn't matter)
• 6 tbsps butter
• 2 tbsps worcestercshire sauce
• 1 1/2 tsps seasoned salt
• 3/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder

You'll want to preheat your oven to 250 Farenheit.

Then, just...dump a bunch of stuff into a sheet-pan-thing.

So, you're going to mix the cereals, chips, pretzels, and nuts together in your sheet/pan/thing.

 

In a small sauce pan, melt your butter. Then, add in your worcestershire sauce, onion powder, garic powder, and seasoned salt. This picture on the left features one of my mom's favorite cooking utensils: a Dr. Dreadful Measuring Spoon. One side is 1/2 tsp, the other is 1 tsp. It's super handy. And it came from a Dr. Dreadful kit that taught you how to make little monsters and stuff. Anyway, it's cool and super handy and if you want to get yourself one you have to score yourself a Dr. Dreadful kit which probably means returning to the early 2000s.

Okay! So you're next step is to pour your butter/spice/saue mixture over your party food mixtures and then stir it all together.

Now all that's left is to bake it. You'll want to bake it for fifteen minutes, then stir it, then bake it for another fifteen minutes, then stir it again, and you'll just keep doing this until it's been cooked for a full hour. My mom has devised this brilliant trick to keeping track of your time:

I thought I took a picture at each step but apparently I didn't. Okay. So. Imagine you have a cloc. You start with the handle of your spoon/stirring device pointed towards the twelve. You set your timer for fifteen minutes. You bake your mix. After fifteen minutes, you take out the mix, stir it, and point your handle towards the three. Then, after your next fifteen minutes, you point your handle towards the six, and then the nine, and that's your final fifteen minutes. So, the first picture is before the first fifteen minutes, and the second is after thirty. 

And, well, that's it. It's ready to eat. 

Now! On to the muddy buddies. Here's what you'll need:

• 9 cups of Chex cereal
• 1 cup of chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

Melt your butter, peanut butter, and chocolate chips together in a small sauce pan. Use a low heat and stir it regularly to prevent it from burning. Once it's melted, mix in the vanilla extract.

Pour your chocolate mixture over the nine cups of cereal and stir it until they are coated. 

Mix in the powdered sugar. My mom used a wooden spoon. That wasn't sufficient, so, we snapped the lid on the bowl and shook the thing up. 

Now, you might object, thinking, "Those muddy buddies are far too brownish!" And, well, yeah. You could toss in a little extra powdered sugar to make the powdered sugar more visable. BUT I didn't want to do that because...

All right, friends, that's it for today. I'll see you all in 2018. Eat good food and read good books. 

♡kch