wanna come with? - Page 14 of 16 - I'm gonna go bake something…

gingerbread caramels

December 14, 2013 Comments: 7

There’s a little chocolate shop in my neighbourhood that I would shop at daily if I could (I’m limited both by my wallet and my waistline… although I could stand to be more careful of both as it is… ahem…). They’re amazing. If you’re ever in Vancouver, you should definitely check them out. Everything is made from scratch using the freshest ingredients. They do a lot of seasonal flavours that I make a point of getting while they’re available. One of their recurring winter flavours is gingerbread caramel. It’s amazing. I could easily spend all my money on them alone, but I decided to try to make my own instead. (more…)

lemon shortbread

December 13, 2013 Comments: 14

This isn’t a totally new recipe to me, but it is new to the blog – does that count? I hope so, because I’ve got a few more older recipes up my sleeve that I’m looking forward to sharing. I’ve only made this cookie once before – last Christmas – and I remember it being pretty popular. If you’ve read my blog before, then you must be well aware how much I love lemon cookies. And based on how quickly my friends and coworkers eat them, I’m not alone in this. (more…)

spiced cardamom cookies

December 8, 2013 Comments: 5

When I made my gingerbread a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I love it so much that I knew I’d have a hard time trying alternative recipes. I did manage to break away long enough to make a chocolate-ginger cookie variation last week, but this week, I swear I was this close to making it again! I can’t help it. I really like that gingerbread. And it’s become tradition for me to make it at Christmas. But the whole point of this blog is trying new recipes, right? So in the end, I decided to be brave and try something completely different. And I’ve had my eye on this recipe for awhile anyway. (more…)

peppermint marshmallows

December 5, 2013 Comments: 7

It’s become something of a tradition for me to make marshmallows at Christmas-time. When I first started making them, I just did plain vanilla, and then over the years began experimenting with different flavours and coatings. Some years I’ll go all-out and make several variations; but these days, if I’m only going to make one? It’s peppermint. It just seems so Christmas-y, right? (more…)

morning glory muffins

November 26, 2013 Comments: 8

I felt so decadent having date oatmeal muffins the last couple weeks instead of my regular bran, but as much as I love those bran muffins, it was time to switch it up a bit. Plus it’s getting cold here in Vancouver, and I’m craving sweet comfort foods. It’s natural to want to bulk up in the winter months, right? Right. This week I decided to try a muffin from a new book that I just got (because apparently I don’t have quite enough books yet – sigh). (more…)

chocolate ginger cookies

November 19, 2013 Comments: 8

I’m sure most of you in the northern hemisphere are finished with fall and are well into winter already. Here in Vancouver, we’re still in fall – or what we call wet leaf season. Although to be completely honest, it’s not always wet. Sometimes it’s dry and windy and the leaves are flying at you full speed so you get bits of them in your eyes. The weekend I baked these, we had a windstorm and it was raining. Wheeee! Perfect weather to stay home and bake. (more…)

coconut chocolate chip cookies

November 16, 2013 Comments: 2

The cookie gods were not smiling on me this week. I had planned to make a spiced chocolate cookie, but at the last minute realized I needed fresh ginger (which I didn’t have). Oh well. Save that one for another day. So I picked out another recipe that didn’t call for any odd ingredients, and started prepping. I had everything all measured out, and just had to prep the walnuts and dried cranberries… and realized I’d used them all in the chocolate chip cookies I made awhile ago and the oatmeal date muffins I made last week. D’oh.

I guess I need to do some restocking. (more…)

playing catch-up

November 14, 2013 No comments

If anyone’s wondering why I have posts showing up in a weird order (if anyone has even noticed), it’s because I’m playing catch-up with things I wasn’t able to post in August/September because of the issues I was having – first with my hard drive and then with my service provider. I don’t want to have a huge dump of 15 recipes in one month, so I’m posting them close to their original date. So even though we’re in November now, you’ll be seeing new posts pop up that are dated a month or two ago. Once these are out of the way, I’ll be back to weekly posts.

You’d think I would’ve taken advantage of that downtime to get them all ready to go, but no. Apparently one of us is lazy (hint: it’s me). Right now, I’ve still got 9 posts I need to finish off. Nine. I’m really good at writing the post right away. And the photos are all taken. But the sorting and editing of the photos? I totally drag my feet there. I don’t even really know why, because once I sit down and force myself to get to it, it doesn’t take me that long. I can definitely get them done in an evening.

I think it’s that I have a hard time choosing which photos to use and editing them down to a reasonable number. I’ll waffle. There are times I’ll have several almost identical photos and every time I look at them I’ll pick a different favourite. So I end up second-guessing my choices. There have even been a couple times where after I’ve posted something, I’ll change my mind about a photo and sneak back in and change it, hoping that no one notices. (Is that wrong?)

How about other bloggers? What’s the one task that you always find yourself putting off?

crunchy sugar cookies

November 13, 2013 Comments: 10

I love these cookie cutters! But I feel like moustaches have been done to death. When I first bought them, they were unique and cute and quirky. And now there are moustaches everywhere. Like every store I go into now has a moustache section. What do you think? Jumped the shark? Yeah. But it’s Movember, so they seemed appropriate. And did I mention I love them? I’m hoping if I hang onto them long enough, eventually they’ll be unique again (does that sound totally hipster-ish? I swear I’m not…). (more…)

BlogLovin – a new way to follow!

November 13, 2013 Comments: 2

Follow my blog with Bloglovin. I just discovered this site when it popped up in my analytics. Does everyone else know about it already? I’m so out of the loop…

It’s a handy way to keep track of all the blogs you love in one place. You don’t need to visit them each individually anymore. Sweet!

I just signed up this morning and am still in the process of entering all the blogs I want to follow (so many), so I can’t say yet how well it works. But it sounds like it does exactly what I want it to do.

oatmeal muffins with dates, cranberries and pecans

November 12, 2013 Comments: 8

On the weekends, I’m likely to make myself a bowl of steel cut oats or splurge and make some french toast. But during the week, when I’m working, I like to just grab a coffee and a muffin. I usually have a supply of bran muffins in the freezer at the office so I can just pop one in the microwave in the morning. I love that bran muffin, but sometimes I just need to mix it up. This muffin has been a welcome change – it feels like a real treat. (more…)

my favourite gingerbread

November 3, 2013 Comments: 28

Like the title says, this is my absolute favourite gingerbread. I’ve tried several recipes over the years, and this one is the clear winner. It’s got a lovely soft texture; it holds its shape well and doesn’t spread, so it’s perfect for cookie cutters; and most importantly, it’s absolutely loaded with flavour. We’ve all had those gingerbread cookies that are bland and forgettable, ginger in colour only. Not this one. This has been my go-to gingerbread recipe for years now. I make it every Christmas, and often in the fall as well. Pretty much any time I want to use my cookie cutters during the colder months, this is the cookie I make. (more…)

chocolate chip cookies

October 10, 2013 1 comment

One of my coworkers just came back from a trip to San Francisco and was raving about a little bakery she found there, Miette. I have their cookbook! I’ve made a few things from it – including lemon shortbread and thumbprint cookies as part of my xmas baking last year (both amazingly good!) – but none since I started this blog. I took this as a sign. (more…)

dark chocolate toffee cookies

September 24, 2013 No comments

It’s still pretty warm here in Vancouver (I’m determined to wear sandals every day for as long as possible), but we’re starting to get a bit of rain (finally! we broke a record this summer, did you know that?), it’s getting cooler in the evenings and darker earlier, and I’m starting to crave fall flavours. Last week I made some ginger cookies. This week I’ve gone for rich dark chocolate and buttery toffee. (more…)

fresh ginger molasses cookies

September 18, 2013 Comments: 14

Ginger cookies are one of those foods I associate with colder weather. I always start thinking about making them in the fall, and I always make a couple variations as part of my Christmas baking too. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever made them at any other time of year before… But I was just flipping through a new recipe book and this one caught my eye. (Note: I actually made these back in August, before the server problems I was having.) (more…)