Sprinkles Biscotti

I'm somewhat in denial.

My little cousin is a college student. After graduating high school last spring, Carly is now a Freshman at Gonzaga. How did this happen?

I swear she was only recently that little girl who sent ME care packages (with Nonni's help) when I was away at Central. I even still have the paper fall wreath she made me.

Like it or not, it's now her turn to be away for school. So of course I had to send her a care package. Right away I knew I wanted to send her some cookies like my mom used to send me. Obviously the cookies had to have sprinkles in them. This is where my 24/7 Food Network-watching came in handy: one of the network's newer stars is a food blogger and cook named Molly Yeh and she's just as obsessed with sprinkles as Carly is. She even made Sprinkles Biscotti in an episode of her show Girl Meets Farm, something I immediately decided to eventually make for Carly (why not the birthday that followed, I'm not sure). They seem like the kind of cookie that travels well.

Fireworks Pudding Cookies

We have many opportunities to work overtime on Saturdays at my job. This year I started working the occasional Saturday (between season tickets to The 5th Avenue Theatre and to the Seattle Mariners, I need the extra cash for meals). I've noticed on Mondays that food is usually brought in on Saturdays (start time is 7 a.m. after all) so I decided to do that too. For a late June Saturday overtime, I figured patriotic cookies for the upcoming 4th of July holiday would be perfect. I searched my Patriotic/4th of July Pinterest board and found a recipe similar to what I made two years ago. I even bought the ingredients the week before so I didn't have to rush to the store after work on Friday then rush home.

And then Saturday overtime was cancelled.

So after spending a few days trying to figure out what to do with the ingredients (specifically the pudding mix - I'm not really a pudding eater), I decided to still make the cookies. Like two years ago, we had a work day between the 4th and the weekend. Cookies seemed like the perfect thing to make up for it (again). The recipe is from Crazy for Crust.

Chewy Sprinkle Cookies

Birthdays are a call for celebration - especially the milestone ages. And what says celebration more than funfetti/sprinkles? So of course I had to keep Carly's birthday sprinkle treats tradition going for her 18th birthday. I even found a sprinkle-themed card:

I looked through my entire cake batter and funfetti Pinterest board until I found what is probably the most appropriate treat I can bake for Carly: sprinkle cookies. The way the blogger at Pear Tree Kitchen described them, they're basically snickerdoodle cookies but rolled in sprinkles instead of a cinnamon-sugar mixture. For the sprinkles I decided to use jimmies since that's what I have on hand; however, the blogger used nonpareils and said you can use pretty much any kind of sprinkles.

Margarita Pinata Cupcakes

A couple Christmases ago my mom got me a cupcake corer (it was on one of my Amazon Wish Lists that I'd given her for inspiration so she didn't buy me more shirts to stuff into my closet). And then I never had a chance to use it. Until Auntie Lisa gave me inspiration. She, my uncle, and my cousins were coming up for an event with my uncle's family and they decided to have a Cinco de Mayo party with our family. My original plan was to make the Sopapilla Cheesecake; however, Auntie Lisa sent me a recipe for pinata cupcakes with the suggestion that I make them for our party. I didn't want to use that specific recipe since it required ingredients that I rarely use so I started looking elsewhere. None of the recipes I found were what I wanted though. Which is when I had an epiphany: I could use any cupcake recipe and just core them and fill them with sprinkles (The Kitchen on Food Network had a segment on how to do this last year). So I started searching for lime cupcakes (it felt like an appropriate flavor for Cinco de Mayo) and found Margarita Cupcakes in one of the Betty Crocker recipe magazines on my bookshelf.

Golden Oreo Fudge

Oreos are a bit of a staple in my family. Even I buy them and I'm not that big a fan of them (sadly, my hands are magnets to yummy-sounding new flavors of my favorite sugary treats). Which is why it was a no-brainer when trying to figure out what kind of "golden" treat to make for Carly for her golden birthday that I should find a recipe that uses golden Oreos. After a quick search I decided on Golden Oreo Fudge from Annie's Noms (probably one of the quickest decisions I've ever made in picking out a recipe).

Lemon Cutouts

For Kati I also decided to stay away from chocolate. I focused specifically on lemon since I remembered that she likes limoncello, an Italian lemon liqueur (like my mom, she has happily embraced being an Italian-by-marriage). When I came across Lemon Cutouts in a Taste of Home Best-Loved Cookies & Candies magazine, it seemed perfect: a couple years ago for my birthday, she, Anthony, Kevin, and Helen got me a set of cookie cutters but I hadn't yet had the opportunity to use them. Until now.

Fireworks Cookies & Cream Cookies

A few years ago I had a temp job gave employees a 4-day weekend because the 4th of July was on a Thursday that year. They probably did the same this year since the holiday was on a Tuesday. My current job isn't that generous (government/federal jobs must be like this in general since I had to work the day after Thanksgiving when I had a temp job at a bank one year). So to make up for it I decided to make some patriotic cookies to take into work on Monday. After looking at my patriotic treats Pinterest board (because really, where else do I have to look? 😏) I decided on Fireworks Cookies & Cream Cookies from Inside Bru Crew Life.

Funfetti Cookie Dough Balls

Ever since she was a little girl, my cousin Carly has loved sprinkles on her ice cream. I remember every year in Chelan, there'd be a container of the stuff in the cabinets that her parents had brought. It's pretty much the only topping she'd have (it's possible this has changed as she's gotten older and she's added chocolate syrup or something but I'm a horrible person who doesn't pay attention so I'm not sure). So when picking out her 16th birthday present, I decided to stick with sprinkles (a.k.a. funfetti). Since I was on limited time and ingredients, I also looked at no-bake posts on my Pinterest boards (because apparently I have no other sources for recipes...) and finally decided on edible cookie dough. Because what teenager/person doesn't like edible cookie dough?