Funtalia (fun-tal-ya)

St. Patrick’s Day is done and gone - today is National Lacy Oatmeal Cookie Day!  (Love the name, don’t you?)  Thanks to my SIL, M, for making me aware of this special day.  Oddly enough, I just had these delish cookies for the first time this past Christmas.  I didn’t make them; I bought them (and admittedly purely because of their lovely name).  If I did make them though, I think I would use the recipe below.  It looks so good!  (Of course, I had to find a recipe that included chocolate!)  Make this special treat for your fam and friends tonight, and then tell me if there is anything cool out there that boasts your name in the title.

Chocolate-Drizzled Lacy Oatmeal Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
For the cookies:
1/2 cup oats, chopped in food processor
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
6 tbsp melted butter (until the foam subsides)
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Pinch of salt

For the ganache:
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 tbsp heavy cream

DIRECTIONS:
In a food processor, pulse the raw oats several times until they become small pieces.  While that is going, melt the butter in a small saucepan.

Combine all ingredients for the cookies in a large bowl, and stir to combine.  Spoon onto baking sheets by the teaspoon, placing each cookie at least 3″ apart from others - they spread a lot!  Bake at 425 for 6-8 minutes, or until cookies have spread and are just beginning to brown around the edges.  Let them cool completely on the baking sheets before sliding them off with a spatula.

For the chocolate drizzle, melt chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons heavy cream for 15 seconds in the microwave on high heat.  Stir to combine.  If there are lumps, heat for an additional 5 seconds at a time.  Spoon the ganache into a squeeze bottle, and use it to drizzle chocolate onto the cookies either on the cooled baking sheets or on a wire rack.  Serve!  (Makes about 24-30 cookies.)

So yum!  Enjoy!

Leprechauns are said to be cobblers or shoemakers yet are known for their hidden pots of treasures and riches.  Huh?  Like Judge Judy says, “If it doesn’t make sense, it’s not true!”  Therefore, leprechauns are liars.  They are also completely terrifying.

Go ahead - I dare you not to have any nightmares tonight!

What’s been the cause for your bad dreams in the past?  Small mythical creatures with a taste for trickery?  It wouldn’t surprise me.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and Sweet Dreams!

Today is Mardi Gras, which (and I sadly didn’t put this together until my early 20s) means “Fat Tuesday” in French.  It’s the “feast before the fast” - a time to live it up before the sober time of temperance known as Lent that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday.  This period before Lent is usually marked with huge street celebrations you’ve heard of, such as Mardi Gras in New Orleans or Carnaval in Brazil, the likes of which are undoubtedly defined by acts of debauchery.

Some older kids at my high school (which was located nowhere near New Orleans) liked to celebrate Fat Tuesday by giving each other Mardi Gras beads and then hanging them from their rear view mirrors as proof of their popularity to themselves for months to come.  I thought this whole charade was silly.  It seemed so copycat, so wannabe to me.  I have recently become aware of a tradition I wish I had known about during high school that blows the whole bead thing out of the water.

Pancake Day, or Pancake Tuesday, takes place on Shrove Tuesday (the same day as Fat Tuesday) in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and some parts of Canada.  As a way to use up all of their dairy, eggs, and fat (foods that were typically abstained from during Lent), original observers began making pancakes on the day before Ash Wednesday, and hence, Pancake Tuesday was born .  With so many pancakes flying about, it seemed only obvious to use the excess for such activities as pancake races and tossing games, in which participants presently range from housewives to vicars.  How had I never heard of this before?  Pancake Day is tops, no?

So this year, I suggest abandoning the beads that only remind you of where you most likely (and hopefully) AREN’T and throw your own pancake party with your family and/or friends tonight.  Admit it.  Breakfast for dinner has never seemed so cool.

Having a hard time imagining this foreign tradition?  Watch the clip above and (along with loving the narrator) enjoy watching clergymen race in their robes while flipping pancakes.  And no, this is not made up.