Sprinkles

There are those things from childhood which just show up from time to time and make you smile. Take, for instance, the pink frosting hearts I talked about a couple of days ago. Or the dessert I made to take when Christopher and I went to play cards with friends tonight: cupcakes with sprinkles. 

The people we were visiting are "foodies" (which, I guess, Christopher and I are, as well), and they were preparing snacks while we brought dessert. I did some serious contemplation, going through lists of menu items in my head, and finally went downstairs into the "auxiliary pantry" to see what we had on hand. What jumped out first was a boxed Devil's Food cake mix and a tub of white frosting, with Valentine's Day sprinkles. I'm not sure why, but that's what sounded good. 

I brought that option upstairs, along with 2 others, and presented them all to Christopher for his input. He says that I looked like a very excited three-year-old when I said "And we have sprinkles!" and then he agreed that cupcakes would be the best option. (I suspect there was some amount of humoring me going on, but I'm okay with that.)

So, tonight, we arrived at our destination and even from the hallway could smell the aromas of amazing food inside. As we settled in around the table for an evening of conversation and games, the table became crowded with plates of the "few snacky things." There was hummus with crackers; bruschetta with a garlic-y spread, greens and thinly-sliced red onion; and meatballs with cilantro and ginger and sesame oil skewered with crisp snow pea pods. And there was enough to make this a full dinner. (Yes. It was just four of us. Yes. It was a "casual snacky" event. And, yes. It was over the top even for them. Luckily, our bewilderment was lessened when it was explained that our hosts are beginning to try out recipes for a wedding they'll be catering in a few months.)

For a few moments, I was a little nervous about the dessert we had brought. But then we popped the top off of our Tupperware and when the cupcakes came into view the first comments we heard were "I love cupcakes!" and "Ohhh. Sprinkles!"

Before we left, there was a trade-off of the leftovers. Christopher and I came home with bruschetta, and we left the remaining cupcakes behind. Well... Not all of the remaining cupcakes... We still have some here at home which didn't travel with us. After all, sometimes you have to keep a few sprinkles for yourself (and your inner child), too.