Cinnamon Sugar Candied Almonds

Mila is a good eater about 70% of the time. The other 30% of the time, she exists on mac-n-cheese, bread, peanut butter and jelly, and chik-n nuggets. We're in one of those "Nutrition? I don't need nutrition!" phases right now, so I'm disrupting it by mixing actual nutrition with junk.

And that's why I've been making candied nuts left and right. First it was pecans, then almonds, and next will probably be cashews. Sure, they're covered in sugar, but there's protein in the middle, so it's a small step in the right direction. Look, we do what we need to do.

This recipe comes via Brown-Eyed Baker. She wins for posting simple staples, e.g. if I'm looking for a basic chocolate cake recipe, that's where I'm going. Her candied pecans take about 5 minutes to throw together and then an hour to roast, which puts them high on the simple list. If I'm not standing there stirring something forever, it's a win.

Mila has eaten about a pound of them in the past two weeks, so I'd call it a double win.

Cinnamon Sugar Candied Almonds

1 pound unsalted almonds (this also works with peanuts, pecans, cashews, etc)
1 large egg white
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 250° F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together the egg white, water, and vanilla.

3. Toss in the nuts and use a rubber spatula to mix things up until the nuts are well-coated with the egg mixture.

4. Toss the sugar and cinnamon in a large plastic zipper bag and shake them up. Toss the nuts in the bag and shake things up some more, right up until every little nut is happily coated in sugar. IF you need to add a little more cinnamon and sugar to feel right about how things look, go right ahead.

5. Spread the nuts out evenly acrss the parchment paper.

6. Bake at 250° for one hour, stirring about every 15-20 minutes. They will start up goopy and moist, but will dry out and turn very perfect as they bake.

You Rang?

I've written a time or ten about how Mila is REALLY good at finding the things that make her happy. On top of that, her problem solving skills are AMAZING, considering she's a tiny little 7-year old. The way she combines her "I'm just going to chase joy" philosophy with that ability to solve problems is a thing I wish I could bottle and sell. We could all use it.

A very straight-forward example happened earlier today. The first snowfall is full of delight and wide-eyed wonder, of course, and the notion of a snowball fight is enough to make the Tiny Human do a little happy dance. She found some co-conspirators to make the snowball fight just a little bit bigger, but then Mila ran into a wall.

She ran into me. I'm the wall.

I insisted that Mila dress appropriately for a snowball fight. I know it sounds mean, but maybe a t-shirt and skirt aren't enough? Like, maybe there should be gloves involved? And snow pants? Snow pants sound like a very good idea.

Mila couldn't find her snow pants. That's her own fault, for what it's worth. She has a magical ability to strip layers off all over the house and random clothes end up in the oddest of places. Those snow pants could be in a toy box in her bedroom, the linen closet, stuffed in a bathroom cabinet ... really they could be anywhere. I wasn't about to look for them, but it didn't matter because Mila had it ALL figured out.

She decided to wear pants.

All of her pants.

Remember when Joey Tribbiani decided the opposite of going commando was to wear every bit of clothing possible? That's what Mila did. She literally wore six pairs of pants, three sweatshirts, a coat, two masks, and a crochet Minions hat that hasn't fit her since she was a toddler. She couldn't bend her elbows or knees, but did it matter? Of course not. She had more fun than any person should be allowed to have.

And then there's her newest hobby. Did you know that you can tell an Echo Dot to call someone? And it will? Even if you don't have a cell phone? Guess who turned that discovery into her own personal room service.

Oh, she did.

Mila has taken to calling me from the comfort of her bed. She requests water, tells me she needs me to come give her a hug, requests that I fetch things from the floor for her, and asks for snacks to be delivered. Literally, she has set herself up with room service. She doesn't tip very well either. Oh, and it's 24/7 service. 2:00 am and she wakes up thirsty? She knows how to solve that problem.

It's swell.

So swell.

The good news is that I'm pretty sure that providing room service earns me a better retirement home. Right, Mila? RIGHT?

IT BETTER.

Shut Up About Bruno, Please

I think somewhere there are some experts that have opinions and data and stuff about how much screen time kids should have, but PANDEMIC. I will damn well hand my kid a TV remote and access to Disney+ if I need/want to. At least we have Disney+ to help some of the minutes feel less like hours? I mean, imagine the past two years without on-demand television. We would have all found bridges to jump from by now.

ANYWAY.

That's my long-winded way of saying that Mila consumes a lot of Disney+ content. It's her go-to screen time obsession, which is great since it's primarily content that isn't terribly annoying and she's not going to run into something she shouldn't watch.

UNTIL NOW.

Look, I recognize that Encanto is a good movie. I would have stood on a mountain top and proclaimed just that about a week ago, but ... it's been over a week since it was released. Do you know how many times Mila has watched it so far?

Survey says ... there isn't a number big enough. I know infinity exists, but Mila has watched Encanto infinity + infinity times, and maybe more. She just keeps watching it and watching it and when she's not watching it, she's listening to the soundtrack.

So. Question. If we aren't supposed to talk about Bruno, why is there a whole song about Bruno? And why was it blasting from my kitchen at 6:30 am this morning? I need answers, y'all. But mostly I need a break from that song. We've been over here singing about Bruno non-stop for DAYS. I'm pretty sure that's going to bring a curse down upon us all.

I cannot handle a curse on top of a pandemic.