The last two weeks have been super busy, hence the lack of baking posts. This is the first weekend since the beginning of March where I have no plans and I get to sleep in, and in the comfort of my own bed. The same goes for my parents, who’ve spent the last two weeks in Southern Ontario watching my brother and sister’s curling tournaments. It was great though, both of the teams emerged from their separate tournaments with silver medals (a national title for my brother, a provincial for my sister). I’m the non-curling black sheep of my family, but it was still great to see everyone since the only other time we’re all in the same place is during the Christmas holidays.
Now I’ve spent the last few days trying to get back into a routine. Trevor started a new job and now we both commute to work. The biggest thing I’ve had to give up is coming home to an already-made supper. I’m home over an hour before him, so supper isn’t on the table until after 7pm and after having my meals mostly prepared for me, I’ve been forced to remember what I used to cook all the time. With the weather staying warm, I see a lot of salads in our future. 🙂
After making my Green Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies (which only lasted two days between Trevor and I), I knew I had to bake something else minty and chocolatey. Did I mention that these are my two favourite dessert combinations?
When getting ice cream as a kid, I always picked the mint chocolate flavour if they carried it (and I preferred the chocolate chunks over the chocolate chips – picky, I know). When I used to drink hot chocolate, I would go through tubs of mint flavoured kind. Now a days, while still enjoying mint chocolate desserts, I even go as far as carrying mint flavoured lip gloss and gum in my purse.
If I had my way, I’m sure I would even have a mint chocolate flavoured wedding cake!
Apparently February 19th was National Chocolate Mint Day, which explains so much that my birthday was only a few days beforehand. 🙂
With my love of all things chocolate and mint, this recipe was bound to happen.
With St. Patrick’s coming up, I’ve had a lot of green on the brain. Of course it doesn’t hurt that we’ve barely had a winter season here, so every time I step outside I’m greeted with bare lawns and trees. I guess its not the green paradise I’m hoping for….yet.
I do have a little green in my life though as I’ve decided to start an indoor garden. Since the weather has been so warm, our apartment has been a melting pot of heat (our landlord controls the heat in the building). I decided to take advantage of the warmth, so opened my Jiffy greenhouse package a little earlier than planned and set to work on germinating my tomato and spinach seeds.
A few days ago, when checking in on them, I was created with a little green surprise.
Last week on Twitter, I expressed my exasperation at my last visit to Bulk Barn. Since I have to drive there, I try to space out the visits so I can make one big trip to pick up everything. A normal visit usually consists of buying soft whole wheat flour, quick oats, regular oats, brown sugar, ground flax seed, carob chips and any other baking supplies I’ll need for the next few weeks.
Only last week when I arrived home with my bulging bags of goods did I realize that I didn’t have my flour. I remember scooping the flour from the bin into a bag, placing it in my basket and later placing it on the checkout counter with the rest of my purchases. Somehow it didn’t end up in bag, nor (thankfully) my receipt. I was mildly annoyed, but not as annoyed as I would have been had I actually paid for it and then forgotten it.
Most of the recipes posted here come from inspiration outside of my kitchen. Sometimes I’ll see a candy or chocolate and the wheels in my head will start turning (see Cookies ‘n’ Creme Kissed Cookies). Other times it will be a recipe I wanted to share because I’ve eaten it a lot and it’s pretty much become a staple in our home (see Cheese and Garlic “Red Lobster” Biscuits).
Sometimes though, a recipe can take shape because of the need to use up a certain item in my fridge before the expiry date. In this case, it was a small container of fat-free sour cream. I knew beforehand that it needed to be turned into coffee cake muffins.
Eating coffee cake takes me back to high school when I used to live in Saskatchewan. We used to go to a friend’s house in the afternoons to drink team, hang out and play cards (I know, we were the cool kids). I learned a lot of different card games back then, none of which I could probably remember now. The desserts that always came out of those afternoons were the best. It was never too overly sweet, but more savoury and always went well with tea. I became a fan of early grey tea during that time, and an even bigger fan of coffee cake.
Canadian food blogger, baking and eating her way through life. Musical theatre fanatic. Personal finance nerd. Sometimes runner/yogi. Green smoothies are pretty amazing.
