AMA with AMA - Answering YOUR questions!

Mistaken Identity + The Worst Cookie Ever?!

Dear Kula Diaries,

Hello and welcome to another AMA — our first weekly ‘Ask Me Anything’ in a brand new year of writing! As always, if you’d like to submit a question anonymously, you can use The Kula Diaries Vault to add your query.

I wanted to give a few updates on some things that I mentioned in my Sunday post:

1. Jasper Sprinkles the cat remains elusive. While he is still arriving for food on a nightly basis, he remains un-tempted by the food that we’ve placed in our cat trap on the porch. This week, we plan to try using some more enticing and smelly food — such as canned tuna. Fingers crossed, it will be enough to sway this incredibly savvy cat into the cage!

2. For Book Club this month, we are reading a very short book called Don’t Believe Everything You Think. This book arrived in my space of awareness by way of a bumper sticker that I saw a few months ago. While driving down the road, I noticed a bumper sticker on the back of a car that simply said, Don’t Believe Everything You Think. I was immediately enamored by the phrase, and a quick Google search revealed that there was a book by the same name. I purchased it on the spot, and I’ve been reading it over the past few days… it’s short, but powerful and I can’t wait to read it with all of you! I’m particularly excited, because this is definitely the first book that I’ve chosen (in my several years of hosting this book club!) that arrived via bumper sticker.

3. Most of you know that I have a very regular meditation practice. I did this meditation a few times this week, and really enjoyed it, and wanted to share it with all of you:

   

4. As a reminder, I also assembled a week’s worth of meditations for anybody who is wanting to get started with the practice, but not sure where to begin. If you’d like me to add more of my favorites, just let me know — this is a powerful practice, and the power of meditation is in the consistency over time.

5. At my tea tasting class this past weekend, I had the opportunity to taste some really amazing teas from Floating Leaves Tea. One of the teas that I purchased at the end of the class was called Alishan Black — it’s a red oolong tea, and it’s probably one of the best teas I’ve ever had. It has a beautiful, cocoa flavor and it’s pretty remarkable. They haven’t asked me to share this at all (they have no idea that I’m posting this), but you can find the tea here:

   

   They also have an amazing video about how to brew tea properly, which you can find right here…. and you can find some teaware on their website here, if you’d like to try brewing tea with a gaiwan. I’ve been having so much fun with my daily tea practice (which is really like a meditation!), and I’d definitely encourage anybody who feels interested to see how you feel with the addition of a tea time in your life!

Ok, enough randomness… let’s get to the questions — and thank you for being here!

Dear AMA,

There was NO breakfast sandwich for me when I walked into my kitchen this morning. Can you please send me one? Hold the bacon. [Actually I would just like to hear about 1-3 times you got a message that was meant for someone else]

Dearest Kula Diaries Reader,

Your AMA request arrived very serendipitously, because I received a curious message last week that was very much intended for somebody else…and, if you can believe this, it was about a breakfast sandwich. I can’t make this up - ha!

Some of you may or may not know that my husband Aaron and I co-founded a very small motorcycle apparel company called Milk Run Moto. The name for Milk Run Moto was very intentional, and it doesn’t (really) have anything to do with milk. When Aaron left his job a few years ago, we realized that our relationship had been on ‘auto pilot’ for too many years — partly due to a slowly, unintentional erosion that was amplified by spending very little time together. Aaron worked 12-14 hour days at the railroad — and every other month, he worked graveyard shifts, so we rarely saw each other… and when we did, it was mostly for logistical conversations. For example: “Did you pack your lunch?”. We had lost the sense of our previously strong connection, which had been built on curiosity and adventure. So, we decided that we had to get it back if we wanted our marriage to survive. We ended up purchasing motorcycles, because we both knew how to ride… but it was something we had never done together. Very quickly, motorcycling became a fun, exciting and new way to connect with each other — each little trip on our motorcycles felt like a fun adventure and we loved venturing down new roads… visiting new places… going to coffee shops… and seeing the world on two wheels. When we first started riding our motorcycles, we would make any excuse possible to use them… which meant that we did a lot of, ‘milk runs’ into town… even though we don’t really even drink milk. The what of the errand didn’t matter — we just really wanted to ride the motorcycles and spend time together. But, the milk runs were really important as we re-connected and had fun exploring something new.

Riding on San Juan Island!

So, that’s a long explanation for the name of Milk Run Moto… so you will now understand why I was confused when I received this message last week:

As you can imagine, I was a little bit confused. Milk Run Moto sells underwear, a few motorcycle-themed shirts, and the Rapunzel Fleece gaiter. So, I did a little bit of Googling, and discovered that this race existed:

This race takes place at the Minnesota State Fair in St. Paul, Minnesota… and the entry form clearly states that participants will receive a breakfast sandwich. Now, normally, I would think that a message like this was a bit ridiculous — however, given my passion for breakfast sandwiches… I can empathize with this participant. Just imagine this:

You’ve just run a 5k and you didn’t eat breakfast in the morning… because you didn’t want to puke during the race, and because you were eagerly anticipating the buttery, salty, cheesy goodness of the aforementioned breakfast sandwich that was included with your race ticket. You run your little heart out at the 5k (which isn’t the easiest thing to do)… and now the hunger has reared its ugly head… and you’re HANGRY. The craving for the salty breakfast sandwich is almost unbearable… you can almost feel the textures of the sandwich in your mouth, which has started to over-produce saliva like Pavlov’s dog at the sound of a bell. As you make your way to the breakfast sandwich area… your anticipation builds as you notice other runners, happily eating their sandwiches. In fact, you notice that some of the runners don’t even appear to have race bibs on… and a few of them are even eating two sandwiches… such is the abundance of sandwiches available! The sandwich station comes into view, and you eagerly approach to retrieve your reward for waking up early and running 3.1 miles for no reason whatsoever (other than to get this sandwich)… and ALAS. OH ALAS!! Your heart shatters… your mind swims with utter shock and disbelief as you are informed that the unthinkable has happened: there are no more sandwiches left.

As a self-proclaimed breakfast sandwich aficionado, I want to say: I see you, friend. I see your pain — but I also want to assure you that absolutely zero amount of mass produced breakfast sandwiches could possibly equal the breakfast sandwich that you could make at home. There has never been a scenario where I have eaten a breakfast sandwich outside of my house and thought to myself: I like this better than the ones I make. No, in fact, I am always disappointed. Every single time.

This is how to make the perfect breakfast sandwich:

1. Two slices of sourdough bread (homemade is great, but Seattle Sourdough bread is fantastic if you have it available).

2. Place two pieces of bacon or plant based ‘meat’ of your choice in a skillet and begin to brown. Bacon will produce its own grease, but plant based meat might need the addition of some ‘butter’ — I really like the Mikyoko Plant Based butter.

3. Lightly toast your bread slices in a toaster to warm them up, and then spread a very thin layer of the butter of your choice on the outside of the bread — sprinkle with salt.

4. Slice a desired amount of your favorite cheese (I use Beecher’s Flagship Cheese) and place it on the ‘inside’ of the bread slice. The bread slices should now be patiently ‘waiting’ near your stove-top, for the addition of the bacon or plant-based protein. Once the bacon or protein has finished browning, remove it from the skillet and place it on top of the cheese on one side of your sandwich bread.

5. Crack an egg into the skillet — into the bacon grease if it’s there, or add more butter if needed. Add additional egg whites if needed for more protein (I usually will fill the entire bottom of my skillet with additional egg whites).

6. Sprinkle the entire egg with a generous amount of salt while it is cooking. Cover with a lid to speed up the cooking process.

7. Once the egg is starting to cook through, the yolk will develop a sheer white glaze over it. Fold the egg in half like an omelet and then place the piece of your bread that contains the cheese and bacon on the empty side of the pan. Cover the pan to allow the heat to melt the cheese.

8. Watch closely and make sure your bread doesn’t get burned, but do ensure that it develops a delicious, brown crust. Once it’s ready, pull it out of the pan and set on the plate.

9. Flip the folded egg over so that the other side of the egg can cook more.

10. Add the 2nd piece of bread into the empty side of the pan (butter side down) so that it can toast.

11. After another minute or so, remove the egg from the pan and place it on top of the bacon/cheese/bread slice.

12. Once the second piece of bread is toasted appropriately, place it on the plate with the toasted side down so that the sandwich can cool off for a little bit before you eat it.

13. Trust me. I’ve learned this the hard way. You don’t want to gnaw into it immediately.

14. Spend approximately 5 minutes reading something that makes you feel good as you sit, and/or do a 5 minute long meditation while you are waiting. Slowly sip your coffee and enjoy the aroma.

15. Then, with zero distractions, take your first bite and just enjoy everything that there is to enjoy about all of the different textures and flavors in this sandwich! Enjoy the feeling of being where you are — and sense the goodness and abundance that exists in each bite.

Actual art.

So, somehow this mistaken message has taken me on a journey from motorcycle riding… to a 5k in Minnesota… to a breakfast sandwich tutorial.

As I’m writing this answer, I’m currently post-breakfast-sandwich. Eating my breakfast sandwich is probably one of my favorite parts of the day — so I completely understand how it could be disappointing not to get one (especially when you paid for a race ticket that included one). You might be wondering — did I write back to this human? And the answer to that is: yes, I did. I informed them that they very likely had written to the wrong Milk Run, and that I was the co-founder of a small motorcycle company called Milk Run Moto. I included the link to the Milk Run Race in Minnesota so that they could reach out to the race organizers directly. I wanted to say a little more than that… I wanted to say… you don’t need their dumb sandwich!!! I wanted to say: Trust me, this is a good thing… and there are much worse things that could happen to you. But, I didn’t. Because, maybe that person really needed that breakfast sandwich that day. Maybe it wasn’t about the breakfast sandwich. Maybe they just wanted to feel that familiar feeling of home.

It’s worth mentioning one other case of mistaken identity… when I first started Kula Cloth, I got a very confusing e-mail from somebody who said that they had gotten a Kula Cloth, but that they were not sure why I had also mailed them a hair scrunchie. I was so confused. I tried to figure out how I could have possibly mailed somebody a hair scrunchie with their Kula Cloth. This was particularly confusing, because I couldn’t remember that last time that I had seen or used a hair scrunchie.

In moments like these, you start to doubt what you know and trust about yourself… I quickly created an imaginary scenario in my mind where I had carelessly packed a used scrunchie in with a customer’s order. I was nearing the moment of profuse and apologetic submission, when I had one last idea: I sent the customer an e-mail and asked them to send me a photograph of their Kula Cloth. The customer responded with a photograph of an entirely different pee cloth — and a pattern that I didn’t recognize. I took a deep breath: it wasn’t a Kula Cloth, and I hadn’t sent them my DNA on a used hair tie. I e-mailed them back and let them know that they had purchased their pee cloth elsewhere… and I felt secretly humbled that the term ‘Kula Cloth’ was becoming so prevalent, that it was simply synonymous with the pee cloth itself.

Identity is a funny thing — because it begs the question: do we allow our stories to define who we are? Is it possible that there are, indeed, no mistakes — and that even the strangest instances of communication by happenstance are somehow a part of the bigger, unknown picture of life? I enjoy living like that — I enjoy waiting and expecting the next accidental e-mail or message … and wondering who I will get to meet next.

Dear AMA:

Sid said in the comments: “When I first saw this recipe of the day, I thought it was an early April Fool's joke, but... no. Try these. They're a life-changing experience.” … are you ready to change your life? Or are you more like Catherine in the comments: “I’ve never found a chocolate chip cookie that I hated…until now.”

Here’s the recipe referenced in the quotes (click photo to see the recipe):

I had never made cookies that contained pink peppercorns, nor had I ever made cookies that contained bay leaf infused butter, nor had I ever made cookies that contained SOY SAUCE or apple cider vinegar. A few years ago, I did make cookies that contained gochujang (a Korean red pepper paste), but I’m a creature of habit, and I usually stick to my standard Kula Chocolate Chip Cookies.

However, I have really enjoyed the fun of baking new things, so I decided to take on the challenge of baking these cookies. To get started, I had to purchase pink peppercorns:

My favorite part of making the dough was browning the butter while simultaneously infusing it with a few dried bay leaves — the smell was heavenly! This inspired me to try infusing my next batch of Kula Cookies with a dried vanilla bean infused butter (doesn’t that sound amazing?).

Next, I mixed up the dough — which, naturally, involved eating the raw dough at the end of the process. This dough is intense. It’s deeply complex and flavorful… and very different. I gave a bite to my husband and he said it was, “interesting”. It definitely was not dough that I wanted to eat by the giant scoopful… but I did enjoy eating it by the miniature spoonful.

Then, I put the dough in the fridge overnight, because the directions said that letting the dough sit overnight would produce a deeply caramelized flavor.

In the morning, I woke up and tasted the dough — wow! It’s very richly flavored dough, and I could tell that I probably wouldn’t want to have a gigantic cookie (like I normally do), so I scooped a small sized blob onto a baking sheet. Then, I toasted some of the pink peppercorns and sprinkled my cookie dough blobs with the toasted peppercorns and some salt. Note: the photo in the recipe above had decidedly pink peppercorns on top, whereas, my toasted peppercorns were decidedly not pink. So, I’m not sure if I over-toasted them… but mine were brown in color.

I baked the cookies, and they flattened out relatively thin on the pan — very different than my normal Kula Cookies, which I bake from frozen and usually end up with a hockey-puck sized cookie. This is what the final cookie looked like:

So now, the moment you’ve been waiting for… am I more like Sid (who thought the cookies were life-changing) or like Catherine (who hated the cookies)?! Well — not to be bland or predictable… but I think I probably fall somewhere in the middle — but probably closer to the Catherine end of the spectrum. I definitely didn’t hate these cookies, but I also don’t think that I’d anxiously bake and devour them. I ended up eating 1/4th of one cookie (and I also gave my husband 1/4th of the cookie) — and that was enough. They are almost too flavorful and too overpowering, and too much of a departure from a normal chocolate chip cookie.

I asked Aaron for his honest opinion of the cookie and he said, “There’s a party in my mouth and I wish I hadn’t been invited.”

The best way that I can describe the ‘experience’ of these cookies is this: One time, I drank Coconut Curry Beer. It was a cool, interesting flavor… for about 5 sips… and then I was done with it. I also had the same experience when I went to a brewery and tried Maple Bacon Beer. Again, it was a novelty — but not something that I’d want to drink on a regular basis (or ever again). I’m glad that I made these cookies — because they were interesting to try — but I probably wouldn’t make them again, and I don’t think I’d bring them to a party, because they are just too polarizing (for a cookie). I absolutely would never replace my normal cookie with these cookies.

Sometimes, the original thing really just doesn’t need to be improved upon.

Well folks — that’s it for this edition of AMA with AMA, as always… thank you so much for being here and for sending me questions each week and for reading the things that I write. I am wishing all of you an absolutely beautiful week, and I hope that you can experience a sense of ease, peace and joy in your life.

You are loved, friends!