december brought a legendary “secret yeti” event to our workplace.

secret yeti? whaaaa? —
if you have no idea what secret yeti is, here’s a brief synopsis:

1. each of our coworkers drew one name and kept it a secret (or tried to).
2. for the five weeks leading up to christmas break, we adorned our assigned coworker with gifts/random acts of kindness/borderline-creepy emails from us— their “secret yeti”.
3. on our last day of work before the holiday break, we unveiled the secret yeti’s.

i baked for my assigned yeti—who turned out to be one of my closest friends—and was asked for the recipe of these peppermint chocolate cookie bar thingies i made up.

well, i don’t use recipes… so here’s the closest you’re gonna get.

and—for the record—these are absolutely delicious. and super easy to make.

recipe a la kerstin:

i started by mixing—WAIT! i started by pre-heating the oven to 350.
that’s a lie. i always forget to pre-heat the oven, but you should not. because i just told you to do it. so do it NOW.

how i actually started:
mixing the contents of a box of vanilla cake mix, a stick of mostly-melted butter, and one egg in a large-ish bowl.

then, with my FRESHLY-WASHED hands, i mashed that dough up.

yup. better than playdoh.

when that dough was all good and mixed, i pressed it into a 9x13 cake pan (lined with aluminum foil, which was lightly greased with cooking spray).

then i unwrapped a bunch of peppermint hershey’s kisses.

i don’t know how many— maybe 20?— but it made a fun mess:

then i put those beautiful, unwrapped kisses in a microwave-safe bowl.

and nuked them on medium-low heat for like a minute.

then i mixed it with a fork, then microwaved it a bit more.

until it looked like this:

next, i spread that nummy mixture on the cake batter crust.

then i put like ten chocolate chip cookies in a big bowl.

and i crushed them. with a whiskey tumbler, because i serve with americorps and that’s what i have available to crush things.

once the cookies were at an acceptable crumbly-state, i sprinkled them atop the already sweetastic combo i had going in the cake pan.

i sprinkled even more mini chocolate chips atop this layer.

and topped all of that with 3/4 can of sweetened condensed milk.

and baked it for 20-25 minutes.

when i removed this beauty from the oven, i chopped it up into bars.
i’m not one to tell you what a serving size is, so you can cut yours however big or small you’d like.

but they were flippin’ delicious.

ingredients:

1 stick butter
1 large egg
1 box of vanilla cake mix
3/4 can of sweetened condensed milk (the normal size, 12 oz i believe?)
1 bag of peppermint hershey’s kisses
10-12 chocolate chip cookies
handful of mini chocolate chips (optional)

[t][r][u][e] [l][i][f][e]: i binge.

i binge on adventures, and sweets, and exercise, and lack of sleep.

sometimes i get swept away in a sort of a tunnel-vision, missional sort of lifestyle that i forget to leave time for me.

time to decompress.
time to be creative,
and embrace my love of life itself.

i guess i’m not surprised that i found myself just last week at the brink of exhaustion.

i was tired, and crabby and not my usual, smiley self.
(sorry to anyone who had to deal with crabapple kerstin!)

[t][r][u][e] [l][i][f][e]: i forget to take time to relish in the things i love most.

i’d like to pose a gentle reminder that taking breaks to refocus, de-stress, and genuinely enjoy yourself is remarkably healthy for you.

it’s something i’m going to prioritize.
for my sanity, my relationships, and my health.

things i do to take time for myself:

- express emotion. dance like silly when i’m giddy, feel empathy towards others, cry during a romance chick-flick, laugh out loud (even when i’m alone).
- go for a run. or a jog. or a walk. (alone, or with a friend.)
- take photos from a different angle.
- send snail mail.
- take a nap. (and leave my alarm OFF.)
- drink peppermint tea in my bed.
- peruse the internet for cute, unique dresses.
- read cooking/baking blogs.
- look up travel tickets and plan vacations i’d like to take someday.
- hop in the car and drive to simply drive.
- build a fort. (and drink hot cocoa and watch a movie.)
- color in a jumbo coloring book.
- reflect on what i’m thankful for.
- go grocery shopping without a list or time constraint. (i love wandering grocery stores.)
- make a real adult meal.
- bake something. (then take photos of it.)
- mow the lawn. (best chore ever!)
- indulge in some sort of crafty/home decor project.
- write. haikus, blog posts, letters. yup.

how do YOU indulge in yourself?

i adore autumn
crunchy leaves, cider, crisp air
best beers, scarves, fam’ly

please allow me to make light of one of the most underrated breakfast foods i’ve yet to encounter…

STEEL-CUT OATS.

i was recently introduced to this wonderfully fibrous dish and have since integrated it into my daily diet.

so what are steel-cut oats?

“Steel-cut oats are whole grain groats (the inner portion of the oat kernel) which have been cut into only two or three pieces by steel rather than being rolled. They are golden in color and resemble small rice pieces.” (thanks, wikipedia.)

yes, it’s true: these oats have a coarser texture than their mushy, traditional breakfast oatmeal counterparts.

aaaaaaaaaand…they are DELICIOUS!

they are perfect with diced apples, bananas, or syrup, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, greek yogurt…or a delectable combination of any of the above.

the only downfall? i’ll tell you, but you must promise to stick with me through my argument.

deals?

ok.

they take about 40 minutes to prepare.

WHAT?! now you’re probably thinking, “kerstin, i don’t even have 40 minutes in the morning to do ALL of my morning routine…there’s no way i can dedicate that kind of time to my breakfast.”

neither do i.

you see, the beauty of steel-cut oats is that you can prep them in mass quantities and reheat them for days to come.

you can set aside 40 minutes sometime during the week to make these.

you probably spend more than that each day repinning healthy recipes to your pinterest board, so why don’t you actually set aside some time to MAKE something healthy?

just a thought.

i usually whip up a batch on sunday afternoon, refrigerate the batch, and just chip away at it throughout the week. they microwave beautifully, and kick-start my day with a healthy dose of fiber and smiles and… uh. yea. they’re just plain terrific.

I’m one of the “office people” at College Possible.
I use that term lightly because even as a cube-dweller, I definitely have more than enough opportunities to venture outside of the office walls.

This week was especially busy, adventure-wise.

Aside from visiting 4 of our partner high schools to complete various projects (recruiting new students, accompanying a donor on a visit, interviewing students, photographing cohorts, sitting-in on sessions), I had the opportunity to chaperone a campus visit for our juniors & seniors on Monday.

This particular group of 25 students (and 3 chaperones, including myself) boarded the bus around 7:30 AM and headed up to Ripon College for the day.

Between playing a 45-minute long game of Catch Phrase, listening to two of our students freestyle rap, seeing the students interact with one of their coaches outside of session, and eating my breakfast, the ride to Ripon was enjoyable…to say the least. It was a nice deviation from the external relations work that usually fills my schedule, and it was a pleasant reminder of WHY I do what I do!

The visit was incredible as well. I was astoundingly pleased with the students’ excellent questions and observations throughout the day. More rewarding yet was the dreams and goals that the students shared with me as we wandered the campus grounds.

One student in particular shared that he wants to eventually work on a college campus— after he graduates and crosses one other goal off his list: completing a term of service with College Possible. He went on to explain that he wants to give back to the organization that gave him so much. I wanted to hug him right there.

At College Possible, we often reflect on a speech that Robert Kennedy gave on a trip to South Africa:

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others…he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and…those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Our student is an example of what we would refer to as a “ripple”: his experience with College Possible moved him to the point where he wants to serve others in the same capacity.

I love my position at College Possible; however, sometimes serving “behind the scenes” can bog you down. It’s imperative that we have reminders, such as the “ripple” experience I had with the student at Ripon College, to keep our eyes on the ultimate prize— breaking the cycle of poverty through college access and success.