Sock Era or Baking Era?

Last week, I told you the tale of a sock gone horribly wrong. Well, not horribly, but certainly not as intended. If you haven't read about it, here's a link: Perplexed, but Not in Despair 

This week, I am almost done with sock #3! Yay!

To celebrate, and in between stitches, I baked peanut butter-banana muffins...

...and cookies, because I got some new cookie cutters!

(Yes, Halloween. Tomorrow is October, ya know!)

Those Keebler elves know about cookies, so I took a little page from their book and made simple shortbread (so much butter, yum!) with chocolate on the bottoms. So good on their own, but even better with a hot, slightly sweetened cup of creamy, pumpkin spice coffee! 

Each cookie was a celebration, so I started making up reasons to celebrate! Like organizing my new (and old) cookie cutters...

(Trays and lid all stack and snap together, yay!)

...and weaving in about a million (or 40) ends after finishing the colorwork on sock 2. Which is really sock 3. Which means that I've woven in more than 120 ends since starting this labor of love!

Whew! That's a lot of ends. My next project is going to be more solid colored, I think! Lol...

What's on your agenda for the weekend? I'm hoping to go apple picking soon, and perhaps I'll hit up a local farmer's market for fun. Oooh! If there are apples, there will have to be cobbler! or crumble! or maybe pie! or maybe apple everything!!! Sounds like I'm going to be busy, so I'll sign off here. 😉

Thanks for stopping by, friends, and Knit in Good Health!

Playing With My Food

When I was but 18 or 19, I had a job working as an aide in a 24-hour daycare. The kids in my class were 2 years old, and I loved every minute of it. Often, after the teacher and I had cleaned up the lunch tables and laid everyone down for naptime, I would enjoy my lunch. I mean to say that I would really enjoy my lunch...I would hum as I peeled an orange, and savor every bite of my sandwich, then sigh contentedly as I licked the creme center from the cookies I had packed for dessert. In short, I played with my food as I ate, and I enjoyed every minute of it! 

I still enjoy food, and the making of new things, and the getting a little messy that goes along with playing with food...so it's no surprise that I ended up making these for Valentine's Day:

So yummy, and with Pinterest at my side, so easy and fun! I started with THIS LINK from Pinterest, and I used her recipe for the peanut butter filling. I'm not going to repeat that recipe here, because it's not your only option...you can use a buckeye recipe, a jar of biscoff spread, plain peanut butter, whatever you like, really! I chose to make that buckeye filling, 

and I dumped a spoonful onto some tiny pretzel knots...

Then I topped them with another pretzel, smooshing them down slightly. (At this point, the original recipe tells you to freeze the whole bunch, but I forgot that part. Perhaps that's why I made such a mess, but I'm here to tell you that you can skip that part, if you want...but it's messy!)

Then I melted some chocolate that I had on hand (because everyone who loves playing with their food has melting wafers on hand, right? no? hmmm)...and I dipped each "sandwich" halfway into the melty, chocolatey goodness, and put them in the freezer for a few minutes to set the chocolate. (Do not skip the freezing here, or they won't set up and look pretty!)

While that first dip was setting, I also melted some white chocolate wafers (look out! she's getting a little crazy in that kitchen)...because I am adventurous with food, and I like to switch things up like that...and when I took the half-dipped candies out of the freezer, I dipped the other half in the luscious melted white chocolate...

...and added SPRINKLES!!! Because, well, Hello! SPRINKLES!!! And it's Valentine's Day, and why the heck shouldn't I use sprinkles any time I want to? That's right, sprinkles rock! After the sprinkles, back to the freezer to set the white chocolate...and try not to drool.

These are amazing!

Since I was on the sprinkle kick, I also made some jewelry...some sweet, yummy, gooey jewelry (thank you again, Pinterest! Here's THE LINK)...to package up and send to some of my favorite girlies. :) 

(By the way, I didn't have exactly what the project called for on this one, so here's what I did: I knotted together lengths of twizzlers pull-n-peel, then used a drinking straw to cut holes through large marshmallows. Then I "painted" a heart with a very thin powdered sugar glaze, and dipped the hearts in SPRINKLES!, and let them dry for a couple of hours before packaging. Hopefully they won't arrive as broken hearts, or a box of loose sprinkles!)

Watch for your package Peanut and Mindy!!! It's a good one!

You know what? Standing up to make all those goodies has really taken it's toll. My feet hurt. I think I may have to sit down for awhile to recover, and look! There's my knitting, just waiting for me...YAY! Perhaps I'll just taste-test one of these peanut-filled goodies first...