With Christmas only a couple days away, I imagine that most people already have finalized their holiday baking, but I thought I would throw one more recipe in the mix for all the tea lovers out there. Fun fact: I actually made these cookies at the beginning of the month for our condo’s holiday party, but I forgot to post the recipe until now. Pregnancy brain will do that to you!

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A couple weeks ago, I discovered the magic powers of dulce de leche. Dulce de leche is a thick, creamy, very addicting caramel spread that is made by heating milk and sugars for several hours. It can be purchased ready-made in grocery stores, but if you are feeling little more domestic, you can also cheat a little by using a can of sweetened condensed milk. There’s a ton of resources on the internet for how to make homemade dulce de leche using condensed milk, so instead, I’m going to share a cookie recipe you can make once you forcibly stop yourself from eating it straight from the jar.

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I’m hoping that by posting this recipe today, I’m putting it out there in the universe that we could really use some snow. I checked the weather this morning and I can’t believe it’s early December and it’s raining. To be quite honest, I’m not sure how I feel about that. A couple of weeks ago it was a little chilly and I bought a new winter jacket, but jokes on me because I’ve only been able to wear it once. Maybe I’ll re-watch the “Winter” episode of the Gilmore Girls Revival on Netflix and hopefully, that will set off something (PS: those #finalfourwords, am I right?).

While it doesn’t look like December outside, it’s starting to feel like the holiday season in our little condo. We haven’t yet made the trip down to our storage locker to get our Christmas decorations, but I’m already starting to prep some holiday treats and make lists for the upcoming cooking and baking I need to do. My office is holding it’s annual cookie exchange in a couple weeks and I’ve already signed an armload of cookbooks out of the library to conjure up some inspiration. During our weekend cleaning, I also found a couple of old holiday magazines from 2013/2014 that may come in handy. Hoarding magazines for the win!

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I realize that this may not be considered “the best time” to post a stuffing recipe, what with Canadian Thanksgiving come and gone and American Thanksgiving over a month away. But as the temperature continues to drop and the evenings get cooler, I know this stuffing will still make a nice hot side dish to go alongside a Sunday roasted chicken or weekend glazed ham. Just because Thanksgiving is over for us Canadians (and is still on the horizon for those south of the border) doesn’t dismiss the fact that snow and winter are on their way. Now may actually be the best time to stock up on comfort food ideas for the long cold months ahead.

In all honestly, though, I did originally plan to remake and take photos of this recipe at some time at the end of the year. But it worked out that I was the first person to finish my supper (lupper?) on Thanksgiving and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to use my camera in the natural daylight. You may notice that the staging in these photos are a little rough and all of the food is awkwardly piled on one side of the dish. But that day I was fueled by turkey, gravy, and determination, so nothing was going to stop me. Plus I like to think that the holidays are not so much about getting things perfect as they are about eating good food and spending time with the people you love.

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If I had to pick something that puts me in the holiday spirit, I would have to say it’s my Grandma’s Christmas shortbread cookies. These bad boys are buttery, crumbly and the specks of red and green maraschino cherries just put me in the holiday spirit. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if you bottled up Christmas in a cookie, this would be it. Every December, like clockwork, I look forward to consuming my weight in these cookies. This year Trevor and I are spending our holidays in Toronto, so I knew that if I wanted to get my annual fill, I needed to make these cookies on my own.

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In early November, I started taking hot yoga classes at a studio near our condo. Nothing too crazy, just something to help me stretch and unwind a couple nights a week. It’s been especially good because my job is very sedentary and much of my morning and afternoon is spent sitting at a computer desk. The last time I did any hot yoga was a little over two years ago, so the first few classes were a little rough to say the least. However, it’s now been a little over a month and I’m amazed at how quickly I was able to gain back some flexibility. The human body is a pretty cool thing.

Besides flexibility, I’ve also had to deal with an increased need to eat ALL the food around me. Luckily it’s a pretty great time of year for food. Between holiday parties, cookie swaps, and baking up a storm on the weekends, my hungry yoga belly has never been happier.

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Despite my large collection of cookie recipes on She Bakes Here, there is one type that I don’t make very often, and that is whoopie pies. The last time I tried to make them was back in 2011 during my first months of blogging. This was also when I was really into making healthy versions of everything, even if it didn’t always taste very good. One of my more common substitutions was full whole wheat flour in the place of regular all-purpose flour and in the end, without fail, the dough would always be dense, resulting in heavier cupcakes, cakes and cookies. I know I had good intentions with my first whoopie pie cookies (made for a bake sale no less….ugggh), but I knew that if I was to try making them again, I would have to ditch the healthy substitutions.

I’m not familiar with any bakeries in Toronto that sell whoopie pies, so making these cookies was definitely a treat. I’ve seen cookbooks dedicated solely to the different varieties that are out there, but seeing as how it’s the holiday season, I felt the need to further exhaust my favourite mint and chocolate flavour combination. Besides, who can turn down what essentially is a beautiful fluffy mountain of mint icing sandwiched between two soft, chocolate cake-like cookies. I’m not even a huge fan of chocolate cake and I’ve already proclaimed my undying love to these cookies.

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My December started off with the most epic of recipe fails for She Bakes Here. It was a recipe that was supposed to yield puffy, dark chocolate cookies, only my end result was flat, crispy and very messy little bricks that kind of resembled cookies. I thought something was up when the dough had more of a consistency of very thick brownie batter than dough you should be able to roll and flatten with your fingers, but I thought I could still salvage it with some extra flour and then some time in the fridge to firm up. Nope, the end result was huge disaster. The dough was sticky and a pain to scoop, and then the baked cookies stuck to my non-stick silicone baking mats and crumbled while cooling on the counter.

Trevor offered some sympathy with the idea that at least the cookies smelled good and were still edible, but I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone. As therapeutic baking can be, it can also be a little frustrating if the end result is not what you were expecting. Especially when it’s an online recipe.

This little disaster freed up the remainder of my Sunday, so in search for a reason to leave the apartment and avoid doing the dishes, we decided to check out the Toronto Christmas Market in the Distillery District. The last time we visited that Market was in 2011 and had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Since it was December 1st, we also figured that this would be a good way to put us in a festive holiday mood despite all the rain we were experiencing.

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I may be addicted to vanilla beans.

It started innocently enough. Back in August, I was given a few vanilla beans by a good friend (and awesome cook) and I felt so intimidated that I didn’t look at them for two months. The beans lived in their little glass vial in the back of my spice cupboard and became a precious commodity in my kitchen. Every time I opened the cupboard door I would see the vial and it would taunt me and mock me for not thinking of a worthy recipe to use them in.

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A couple days ago, my Dad sent me an email appropriately titled “Its here!!!!!” with two photos of my parents’ front deck covered in between 2-3 feet of snow. As much as living and working in Toronto can sometimes drive me crazy, I will take the winter here any day. I’m yet to see a flake of snow this season (knock on wood), but that’s not to say that it hasn’t been cold. There were a couple evenings where we slept with an extra blanket on our bed and when it hasn’t been raining (I know, sorry), the wind has been so strong that I thought my feet were going to be lifted off the sidewalk.

In preparation of this snow that is most likely coming our way (thanks for the warning, Dad!), my winter jacket, scarf and mitts have all been pulled out and I purchased a new pair of waterproof winter boots to make waiting for the bus seem a little warmer. I’ve already made use of my winter jacket and mitts, but I’m holding out on the first snowfall to really break in the boots properly.

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