Time for Christmas baking

It's finally winter break! Woo hoo! I've done some baking here and there for the last few weeks, but now I'm probably going to step it up. I have all this time, after all.

I did make those oatmeal cream cheese butterscotch bars for the newsroom. They were kind of interesting to make. You make the crumble part of the bars by putting butterscotch chips, oats, butter, flour, cinnamon and brown sugar all in a food processor. By the time all that was in, my foot processor was full. To the max. The bars turned out yummy though, a good sweet.

Then came LNOP, our newspaper tradition. No baking required for that, but still a fun time. It was the end of the semester, and my end as editor of The Kansan. It's kind of bittersweet. It was a great time, but so stressful. I think if I'd done it any longer, I wouldn't have been any good at it any more. My best friends are from The Kansan, though, so it was definitely worth it. Next semester, the last of my senior year, will be my final one on staff and my 9th total. Wow. I'm going to be in the in-depth reporting class, which I'm pretty excited for.

Not being editor, though, is going to give me a lot of time to bake. I've done a bit during break. The classic pudding cake, which is my dad's favorite dessert. It's such a baffling recipe. You put the solid ingredients in the bottom of the pan and pour water over them, and somehow the top becomes a solid cake and the bottom becomes hot fudge-like. I remember making it when I was little for all my dad's birthdays. It's perfect with vanilla ice cream.

Then Friday, my friend cooked pumpkin enchiladas and I made quadruple chocolate brownies. Yup, that's right, four chocolates. I make this Martha Stewart recipe, which includes melted chocolate chips and cocoa powder. Then I stir in whole semi-sweet chips and white chocolate chips. They were like two inches thick and SO good.

I've had some pretty good desserts out lately too. Some friends and I went to Angler's, a local seafood place. They have some pretty awesome infused rums: pineapple and peaches and pears. But they also had key lime creme brulee. It makes me want to try that dessert, but I need the hardware for it first. It's on my list.

Last night, I went with the same friends to Yardhouse in Kansas City, which has a ridiculous amount of beers on tap. There, I had a lemon souffle. Pretty good. Never made one of those either, so that's on my list too.

I'm excited for next semester because I'm going to have a lot more time to cook and bake. I better add going to the gym to that list or I'm going to gain like 50 pounds. But I will definitely keep taking baked goods into the newsroom, and probably more than I did this semester. I'll take requests!

It's almost time to head to Salina for Christmas day. I think I'll take some pizelles. And my cat.