Peppered Thought – The Spice of Life

This week has been busy with food and fun!

pardon my blue language, I am still upset it’s too hot for sweaters.

Let’s see I:

• Made pecan oatmeal cookies and pumpkin Cheerio treat bars (I could have sworn I got pictures of the cookies, but they are long gone, as always)

• Had dinner with the family – always fun to laugh around platefuls of pizza!

• did not know NPR had Science Fridays all the time! How did I not know?! Speaking of science, the Orionid meteor shower is peaking tomorrow…maybe I can talk The Beau into driving out of town to watch the show!

• Made a newspaper snippet on this amazing generator. I foresee my pen pals and The Beau getting a lot of random “articles” I found.
• Went on a fabulous bike ride that include secret underpass artwork, a babbling stream, a roadrunner, rabbit but not a javelina, and the above pictured rest stop that I always see from the freeway. Very serene ride.

• Created then sent out a postcard made from a beer coaster (in honor of Oktoberfest)
• am excited about getting my color packfilm in the mail today – more portrait photos await!

I got the idea from Save Snail Mail, but decided to take it to a new level of missive-palooza by DIY-ing my own.

All you need is a sheet of printer-ready labels, some postcard templates, beer coasters and stamps, of course.

• printed vintage postcard labels
• beer coasters
• stamps

I found several different vintage postcards designs just by searching Google and looking through a few of my favorite DIY sites, How About Orange and Just Something I Made.

Cinnamon rolls! Ride the sugar rush! Well, as you would not be surprised, I got this recipe from Paula Deen and I was very surprised that there was only one stick of butter used!

The above link has the recipe, but if you must know, I did make a few changes to make them mine:

Out of the 6.5 cups of flour, I substituted one cup with wheat flour. Actually, I ran out of regular flour and that was all we had – but I’m glad it worked that way because it is slightly healthier, hehe. I also used skim milk instead of regular milk. I also warmed the towels up before I put them on top of the bowl – you can either  warm them outside (because we live in AZ), or in the dryer (but that’s pretty energy wasteful) or pop them in the microwave for a few seconds, like I did.

When the recipe calls for you to brush the butter on, don’t skimp. If you still have butter leftover after brushing the tops, keep going! If you are going to make cupcakes as the recipe says, good luck trying to roll that dough log small enough to fit it in a cupcake tin!  I made mine into regular rolls and just brushed a casserole dish with butter.

Instead of making the glaze on top, I used an extra icing we got with some dessert sticks from a local pizza establishment. It probably isn’t as healthy as making my own, since I don’t know exactly what’s in there, but I am recycling and that should count!

I would post some more pictures, but yeah, they’re already gone.

Does anyone else get impatient for each new boston.com “The Big Picture” photo essay? I love that the pictures take up your whole screen, especially when it’s something poignant or heartwarming. So I think this evening I’m going to pour myself a pint and pretend I’m in a couple of these Oktoberfest photos. This year is the 178th Oktoberfest, and I think that is just wunderbar.

Well, this week has been full of ups and downs. At work, I have been doing a project not related to my actual job at all and it was supposed to be over last week. Wishful thinking. I feel really crummy and uncreative when I feel like I am chained and only allowed to do this one thing. So hopefully today is the absolute last day and I can get back to my real job. If I can remember what that is.

But here’s the real week wrap up:

-I GOT MY CAMERA! I think the eBay seller knew I was checking the tracking info every hour for a week because he sent it at the very last possible moment. Blerg. But I got it, I cleaned it, I loaded film and I have only taken one picture but I. Am. In. LOVE.

The Beau just might murder me for putting his photo up here. Or make me take it down.

-I totally forgot that it was Space Week! Luckily I wrote about it last year, so you can read here.

-I won some coffee straight from New Orleans and it has chicory in it and now I want a garden full of chicory. Plus, it’s such a fun word to say.

Not pictured:

-It dipped way down into the 70s here in the valley, so I got to wear my amazing green pants that I will probably be wearing a little too much this fall! I’m not calling it fall yet, because it’s supposed to get back into the upper 90s next week, but fingers crossed that’s a fluke. Hello pants + tights!

-I found a recipe for apple cinnamon roll cupcakes that might stop my heart, and I am slowly putting together a rad Halloween costume, hehe.

Whenever I need my burger/Bloody Mary fix, I head on over to Burger Mary, because hello, it’s right in the name. Now, truth be told I don’t eat too many beef burgers, and Bloody Mary’s aren’t my style (no tomatoes for this Pepper), but I adore this blog. As she describes herself, “Australian by birth, Southern by the grace of capacity to eat,” you know whatever she is writing about, she means business!

And when she had a giveaway (FOR COFFEE!), you’d better believe I entered!And a huge surprise – I WON!I had never had Orleans Coffee and had to Google “chicory,” but after I had a cup, I didn’t need anyone to explain to me why I liked it so.

I think that’s James Dean’s “what’s that smell?” look.

Just opening the package and spooning in the grounds I knew this was a different kind of coffee. It looked pretty infused – meaning it had lots of little extras in the mix. Must be the chicory – and Orleans Love, maybe?

As I poured my first cup, I could hardly wait for it to go from scalding to safe to drink, but I could not stop smelling it. The chicory has a distinct and unique smell. I had never smelled any coffee like it.

I tried it first without sugar to get the full effect of the coffee, but I do like some sweets in my café, and zing! There it was – perfection. The chicory bonds incredibly well with the sugar and I am just a happy camper, plain and simple.

Now, I just need to figure out how to save up enough to travel to New Orleans to get the freshest possible cup of chicory coffee!