Hostess Gifts

Since I was staying with two different friends, I had to find two sets of hostess gifts. My friends were putting up with me and giving me a place to stay (plus driving me around everywhere), so I wanted to give them something special. And nothing like giving the type of gift you want to receive right? Everyone does this I think. Niki got a Sprinkles cupcake mix (dark chocolate of course) and a Le Creuset silicon spatula. She is a proud picky eater, but I figured who doesn't like chocolate cupcakes? And the ones at the Sprinkles store are amazing, so let's hope the mix is good too. Her boyfriend Andy said he will be the one that actually gets around to making them though. Ha.

Anika got a similar present, though clearly more catered to her needs - another Le Creuset spatula, but this time accompanied by The Gluten-Free Gourmet Makes Dessert. Anika is new to the gluten-free eating thing, so I figured I would start her off right - by focusing on dessert first. The cookbook requires a lot of special gluten-free flours in order to get the right tastes and textures, but hopefully the recipes are good. We made flourless chocolate cookies from a different cookbook, which I will report on later. Safe to say, gluten-free baking is a bit difficult.

I had a great time in Chicago, which I will be writing about more this week. For now, I'm going to crawl into my own bed and start a new book. This new book may or may not be from the Twilight series.