I watched the Vow tonight. A very chick flick indeed and I didn’t force MDP to sit through that. I liked it on some levels (if Channing Tatum tells you he is your husband tell him okay…and then ask him to see him with his shirt off ). I didn’t like it for the fact that it once again sets women up for the idea that men are supposed to repeatedly pledge their undying love for them and do quirky soap opera type love gestures and that somehow their relationship is horrible if this doesn’t happen.

But what I liked was that through it all, the memory loss, she may have reverted back to her old self at first, that in the end what she was before the accident occurred started to shine through. As I start my journey into a new decade in the coming months it often comes with reflection. And while some may say I might have had a mid-life crisis of sorts getting divorced, starting a new career, etc ( I left out the 5K to marathon/triathlon and eating Paleo that the rest of my mid-life crisis friends are doing) feel in some ways it’ s more of returning to what I was as a kid.

If I think back to when I was a kid, I was always known as a creative writer. When I was in 4th grade my best friend Jenny N and I wrote a book. They put in the library, it had its own bar code and you could check it out. I used to write and draw all the time when I was younger (though anyone who plays DrawSome against me knows that drawing is not my talent). I always loved to cook…and mix cocktails apparently. I remember when my dad’s friend would come over and for some odd reason they would always let me mix them drinks which yes is odd for a 14 year old kid to be doing but hey, I never tasted them…that was their job. Bloody Avocado was the best one ever my dad told me but my Cantaloupe Rum Surprise recipe never made a repeat appearance. Anytime my dad’s friend came to visit, I got to get my mixology on. I was always doing weird food combos…you haven’t lived until you have had a Frito with cream cheese wrapped in a grape fruit roll up. And while you are making a face right now if you really think about it I knew some flavor profiles when I was just in grade school…grapes always go well with cheese…and back then no one was wrapping things around appetizers. I was ahead of the curve.

I’m going to be doing some work for General Mills, they run a blog called Tablespoon and I will be contributing. And while they wanted me for recipes they also wanted me for writing. And at first I went to my place of why on Earth would they want me for my writing and then quickly reminded myself that at some point I should probably realize that I am a writer. Not in the, oh I run therefore I’m a runner sense but in the people pay me money to write stuff for them (while their technical editor hates them for doing so) kind of writer. I have more people tell me they want me to write a book-book than a cookbook.

So maybe start to look within yourself and think back to what you used to love to do when you were younger. And while we can’t all be pant less firefighters running through the sprinklers or Batman there probably was something you did as a kid that is wanting to come out of you again and rise like a Phoenix.

I was too unbearably hot these last few days and if this is a preview of summer I am less than thrilled. When it’s hot I break out the ice cream maker. As previously mentioned I am trying to barrel through a 5 pound tub of mascarpone cheese and having little luck using it all up. My friend mentioned tiramisu which is no bake as well but I was set on ice cream. Adding the mascarpone creates a lovely texture that almost coats your mouth as it goes down. I did not add any coffee to this so it’s not really tiramisu…but Kahlua is coffee flavored so I feel it counts. Feel free to buy store bought pound cake if it’s too hot to bake. I personally had a vanilla pound cake lying around (yes, I need help) and chopped that up. If this were a cocktail I am sure my dad and his friend would have approved.

Kahlua-Misu Ice Cream

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup granulated sugar
2 TBSP. corn syrup
1 ½ cups whole milk
4 TBSP. Kahlua (I used the Mocha Kahlua)
4 tsp. Cornstarch
8 ounces mascarpone cheese
Pinch of salt

Start by whisking in a small bowl the cornstarch and ¼ cup of the milk until cornstarch dissolves completely into the milk.

In a medium size sauce pan add the cream, remaining milk, sugar, corn syrup, 2 TBSP Kahlua, and pinch of salt and bring to a rolling boil.

Remove from heat and add cornstarch slurry and put back on burner and bring back to a boil. Remove from heat.

Whisk in mascarpone and the remaining Kahlua.

Pour into a container with an air tight lid and place in fridge over night or for at least 8 hours.

Remove from fridge and prepare ice cream following your machines instructions.

Once made into ice cream, take half the batch and spread it out in a rectangular shaped freezer accepting container. Throw some chopped up pound cake and drizzle some chocolate sauce. Then cover with remaining ice cream and again throw on some pound cake and chocolate sauce.

Place lid on container and let freeze for at least 4 hours. Serve cold.

I would love to say that I can’t believe the calendar will read December tomorrow and that we are just one month shy of yet another new year, but I do believe it. The older I get the quicker the months just seem to go. I blinked and November was gone. So I want to take this opportunity on this last day of the thankful month to say thanks for being a reader. You really have to like my site to read it. I don’t do giveaways (don’t get me wrong I would love to have the money to give away a mixer, crock pot, or a camera) so you are just here for the food. If it weren’t for you the only readers I would have would be family members that I would guilt into reading it and a few former teacher friends.

But no use fighting it, tomorrow is December. I’m ready this year. Last year at this time I didn’t have an ounce of Christmas spirit (if you know me, this is highly unusual), I only put up decorations because my parents were coming out. But this year, the tree is up and the apartment has been sufficiently decorated in gingerbread men, snowmen, and penguins.

Much can change in a year. I had a reader email me the other day that is going through a divorce and asked me if I had remained friends with my ex-husband as I had planned on. Yes. Now it isn’t a Friends episode where we hang out at the coffee shop together the entire time chit chatting on the sofa, but we do go to dinner or a movie from time to time. He fixes my computer emergencies, even when my computer is faking it. He comes by to say hi to the dog. We send each other emails if we see something the other person might like. So friends but not bff’s, but we fully know that we would be there for each other if need be.

Do I think all people can do that? No. See I still like my ex as a person ( I mean the man took the test to donate his bone marrow people). Many people who split find out things they don’t like about their spouse throughout the time, often their “true” personality shining through. I certainly know many a man with a crazy ex-wife as well as a woman with a crazy, jealous, stalker ex-husband. These are the people it doesn’t work for. But for those people who still like that person as a person but not in the capacity of a spouse, than yes. So if that is you dear reader, I wish you luck.

Enough with the heavy stuff, let’s get to something light and fluffy! And easy for that matter. Frozen Peppermint Bark Cheesecake Pie. The original recipe had you making your own crust but I found Oreo Cookie Crusts at the store for less than $1…you can’t beat that!. You don’t have to soak the candy canes but it gives it a nice two tone of peppermint flavors in my opinion. Same thing with the peppermint bark, you don’t need it but why not.

Hold on kids…here comes December!

Frozen Peppermint Bark Cheesecake Pie

1 9-inch Oreo Pie Crust (mine was premade…$.79, can’t beat that)
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz.) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 tsp. peppermint extract
2 ¼ cups heavy cream, whipped
10 full size candy canes
Red food coloring (optional)
1 cup peppermint bark, chopped (to make your own go here)

Unwrap candy canes (you laugh but one time I had a reader not do that on my candy cane ice cream and got mad I didn’t point it out…so I am pointing it out) and place them into 2 ¼ cups heavy cream. Let sit over night or for at least 8 hours. Remove any candy cane pieces out before you make into whipped cream.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream cheese until fluffy in large bowl. Gradually add sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Stir in peppermint extract and food coloring, if desired; mix well.

Fold in candy cane whipped cream.

Take pie pan and sprinkle ¾ cup of peppermint bark.

Pour filling into pan.

Cover and freeze 6 hours or until firm. Garnish with whipped cream and peppermint bark if desired.

Adapted from Smuckers.com

In my old neighborhood I had some very nice neighbors (I have some nice ones now). One of them is a witty British gal who is all things fabulous. We bonded over handbags immediately and have been poorly influencing each other in the shopping department for the last couple of years. We joke that if she dies (we are morbid) that I’m her back up to marry her husband and become the mom of her two boys. She wants someone who knows Physics (her husband and I have the same nerd apps on our phones) and someone who can bake shark cookies for the boys. Her husband doesn’t seem all that enthused that we are planning out his life for him, silly men.

Sadly they decided they were packing up and moving back to England. Last night I went over and said my goodbye’s as the neighbors had a little goodbye party for a few of us. As she stood there drinking her wine she said to me “I only drink my calories if there is alcohol in it”. Which I think is a great motto to follow. It reminded me of a cookbook I was sent a while back and never got around to looking at due to time crunch. But I figured if this was going to be my new motto as well, I best start learning to put booze in my milkshakes so as not to feel guilty.

Ice Cream Happy Hour is a 50 recipe book that is well about pairing booze and ice cream together. Sometimes as a dessert or sometimes making actual ice cream. I made a Cookies and Cream Vodka Shake, which isn’t a recipe from the book, just inspired. The book actually has a recipe for Cookies and Cream Vodka ice cream which is where the idea came from. They make a marshmallow ice cream now and it’s all sorts of yum. Love it in hot chocolate.

If you are going to stick with my new motto you best pick up the book, it’s under $10 so it would make a great stocking stuffer for the lush in your life.

Spiked Cookies and Cream Shake

4 cups Cookies and Cream Ice Cream
¾ cup Marshmallow Flavored vodka
Milk to thin depending on how you like your shake

Throw into a blender and let it blend until you reached desired consistency.

So most of you know my buddy Jessie from Cakespy, but you might not know she came out with a whimsical and fun cookbook as well! It’s just quirky and magical, just like her. I was asked to join her Tour de Sweet and jumped at the chance!

Jessie and I think a lot alike and without every discussing what the other one is making we literally will have often made almost the same thing…great minds. Minus the fact that she can also draw and well…I make some really lovely blobs and squiggles that I call drawings. Just like most artist, my art won’t be appreciated until I’m dead, or so I keep telling myself.

If you love Jessie you will love her book. If you don’t know Jessie, head over to her blog and take a look. Her book is of course somewhat like her blog…but a little more unicorn action (not that action) and who can’t use that?
I decided I would interview her for my portion of the blog tour she is doing. My interviews are usually less than traditional and I think you will get quite a kick out of it. So without further ado, here is Jessie:

Where does your obsession with unicorns originate? I blame my parents, who had rules against me and my two sisters doing all of the best things from the late 1980s: watching Full House, eating Cool Ranch Doritos, and buying Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers. Basically, I am making up for lost time now. And yes, I am watching Full House and typing with one hand as the other is in a bag of Doritos as I type.

Why did you choose the name CakeSpy? I chose the name because I liked the idea of myself as a sweets sleuth, finding all of the best sweet stuff and presenting my “findings” to the world. Kind of like your own private detective, but for high-fat sugary deliciousness.

In an ultimate death match between the Keebler Elf and the Pillsbury Dough Boy, who wins and why? The Elf, no question. That Dough Boy is just begging to be poked too hard one of these days.

Which of the baked goods in your cookbook are the most aerodynamic for a food fight? I believe that the cakes baked in orange shells would fly through the air beautifully and offer a most supremely satisfying smack as they hit their intended target.

Are you genetically blessed? I know you eat as I saw you inhale quite a few cupcakes at your birthday party one year, yet you are the size of my leg. If you are genetically blessed, do I have your permission to secretly loathe that about you? Oh, you can loathe me for a variety of reasons, but not for not-eating. My two “secrets” I guess are that first off, if I want a dessert, I don’t deny myself, because that always seems to end up with me eating an entire bag of Oreos and then feeling bad about myself. Better to just let yourself have some of the good stuff because it satisfies your mind as well as your cravings. Second, I walk everywhere. Like, everywhere. I once clocked how much I walk in an average day and it’s usually 6 or so miles.

What do you think is the most overrated dessert trend right now? The new wave of tart frozen yogurt shops leaves me deeply unsatisfied and underwhelmed.

Which dessert do you think gets overlooked the most? Nanaimo Bars. I consider myself a Nanaimo Bar ambassador: too few people know what they are, and I want the world to know about this treat.

Chocolate chip cookies….nuts, no nuts? I love nuts.

Other than the obvious choice of me, who is your blog idol? There is no other you, Peabody. Three other sites I love are Joy the Baker, Cookie Madness, and Baking Bites. I’m only saying three because there are so many others, and if I listed them all you’d get bored reading all the words.

If someone were to build you a shrine and it couldn’t be made out of cupcakes, what other sweet/dessert would you want it to be made out of? Example…I want mine made out of Swedish Fish. Crumb cake, the east coast style with fat brown sugar crumbs on top of a buttery cake, which is possibly the world’s most perfect food. Second choice, Magic Cookie Bars.

Who is your celebrity chef crush? Dorie Greenspan and Paula Deen are high on my list. Very different, but both so reverent about butter.

Best dessert you ever ate that was homemade? That was from a restaurant? Homemade: my mom’s birthday cake. From a restaurant: I freaking love the Hummingbird cake at Kingfish Cafe in Seattle.

If you got stuck singing at Karaoke, what song would you choose to sing and why? Total Eclipse of the Heart, because I’m so soulful and romantic.

Let’s get morbid; what do you want your tombstone to read? Butter made it better.

Favorite kind of donut? Vanilla Kreme from Dunkin’ Donuts. So bad, but so good.

Favorite cupcake flavor of all time (we are talking last meal cupcake here)? Vanilla cake with pink frosting. Vanilla flavor, but it MUST be pink frosting. It tastes better because you have a prettier visual, I think. So yes, I am telling you my last meal cupcake would be to eat my own cupcake character.

I love your idea in the cookbook of the Pop Tart Ice Cream Sandwiches…what is your favorite flavor of Pop Tarts? Tie between Frosted Strawberry (don’t even waste my time with unfrosted) and Chocolate Frosted. Although I am intrigued by their recent addition of Funfetti Pop-Tarts to the line.

What’s next on the horizon for Cakespy? My amazing book tour, and then I believe a biopic should be made about my life. Do you hear me, Hollywood?

I decided in honor of Jessie’s desire to try the Confetti Cake (think Funfetti) Pop Tarts that I would make her ice cream sandwiches from the book using them! Yay!!! Great book Jessie, so happy for you!

Confetti Cake Pop Tart Ice Cream Sandwiches

4 toaster pastries, homemade or store bought, I used the new Confetti Cake Pop Tart
4 large scoops of ice cream, softened (I used vanilla)
Multi colored sprinkles

Cut each toaster pastry in half, horizontally, so that you have two smaller rectangles.

Place a generous spoonful of ice cream on the inside of four pastry halves. Top them with the remaining pastry pieces, frosting side up. Lightly press together then gently smooth the ice cream on the sides for an even, finished look.

Place the sprinkles in the shallow dish. Roll the edges of each sandwich in sprinkles. Wrap individually in waxed paper or plastic wrap; freeze for about 2 hours or until firm.

Go and see the rest of the Tour de Sweet for Jessie!