Thin Mints

I made my first attempt at homemade thin mints (or peppermint patties) around Christmastime. They were edible but, being made primarily of coconut butter, had a bit of an odd texture. So, I tinkered around with the recipe and, while it still needs a bit of work, I think I have developed a pretty tasty additive-free and minimally processed replacement for thin mints.

Thin Mints

(Warning: I did not measure so all quantities are approximate)

(1) Melt 1/2 cup semi- or bitter-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave. Coat the bottom of each section of a silicone mini muffin pan/candy mould with 1/2 teaspoon melted chocolate. Place in fridge to set.

(2) Boil 2 tablespoons maple syrup on the stove until slightly thickened.

(3) Add 1/3 cup coconut butter, 1/3 cup coconut cream and 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract to hot maple syrup. Once melted, whisk until a caramel like consistency is attained. Allow to cool.

(4) Spoon 1 teaspoon of cooled filling into each section of the muffin pan, over chocolate. Place in fridge to cool and harden.

(5) Melt another 1/2 cup of chocolate chips in microwave and allow to cool. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon of chocolate over hardened filling. Tap tray on countertop to remove bubbles.

(6) Place in fridge to harden overnight. The next day, pop the chocolates from the mould and enjoy!

Objects in this picture are smaller than they appear.

Detox

Is it just me or was last week a universally bad week?

I wasn't feeling well with some weird fluish-probably-allergy-type symptoms. The whole internet was annoying me. And then, the world stomped her feet. I am not one to anthropomorphize*, but I am starting to feel like the earth would say "stop messing around and get it together people!", if she could talk. Sheesh.

By the time the weekend arrived, I decided it was time for some serious detox. For me, this meant (1) no internet**, (2) Gilmore Girls and (3) smoothies.

* That's a lie, I totally am

** I tried very hard and only surfed the net after 8:00pm

The Smoothies were delicious. I don't have formal recipes, but this is what I made:

Vanilla - cashews (soaked overnight), soy milk, banana, maple syrup, ice cubes and vanilla bean seeds.

Chocolate - Banana, frozen grapes, soy milk, coconut tofu, cocoa and honey.

Beetnik - Cooked beets, frozen grapes, cashews (soaked), raspberry juice and cinnamon.

Wintergreen - Spinach, mint, green apple, frozen green grapes, honey and soy milk. Mmmm green is good!

By the end of the weekend (and about 8 episodes of Gilmore Girls), I felt much better. If only Monday hadn't come so quickly!

Chocolate Chews

I am not sure how I came across the recipe for these cookies, but I had a craving for chocolate and limited ingredients in the cupboards.

As I was going for something light and sweet, I omitted the filling the recipe calls for and shaped the cookies into disks. The final product was a winner - easy to make, grain free, chewy and delicious.

I will be making these again. Soon.

Schmoo

I attended an Oscar party last Sunday (yay Colin!) and, of course, I brought dessert. It was supposed to be a tasting party, but I am not well equipped to make small bites of things. I do not have small pans or small dishes or small ideas. Only my cupcakes are miniature and, having just baked a batch of those, I was ready for something different.

First, I was going to make French Macarons, but I soon discovered that a food processor was required. My food processor died recently in a terrible fall. No Macarons for me.

Then, I was going to make Pavlova, but quickly decided that Pavlova is more appropriate for a sunny spring day, not a wet and dreary winter day.

Finally, I decided on Schmoo.

Mmmm, Schmoo. I love you.

Schmoo, trifle style.

I had my first bite of Schmoo when living in Manitoba over 10 years ago. Every time I went into the city, I'd HAVE to track down a restaurant or cafe serving my beloved Schmoo. At the time, I thought Schmoo was a newfangled dessert sweeping the nation as I toiled out in the wilds of northern Manitoba. However, it turns out that Schmoo existed in Manitoba long before 1999 and, in fact, it still seems to exist only in central Canada.

Once you try Schmoo, you will wonder why everyone, everywhere is not eating this dessert.

Layers of an pecan studded angelfood-like cake, sweetened whipped cream and butterscotch sauce might all seem a bit run of the mill but, in combination, I can assure you that they are anything but.

I followed a recipe from the Food Network, but was inspired by Mennonite Girls Can Cook to serve it trifle style. Much better for transportation. It was an absolute and complete hit.

If you have never made or tasted Schmoo, go make it right now. You won't regret it!

Snow Day

Last Wednesday was a snow day.

Actually, it was a snow-can't get out of parking garage-transformer explodes at work and catches trees on fire-power outage-cars crashing all over the place kind of day. Work was cancelled.

In other parts of the country, this might be par for the course but, in my neck of the woods, it was a pretty big deal. In fact, it was a pretty big deal for me. Despite having lived from coast to coast to coast and a few spots in between, I think that I have had a total 3 "bad weather days" requiring school or work cancellation over the course of my 34 years. Even after moving to Halifax for three year specifically for snow days (and graduate school), they eluded me.

It's been sad.

So, last Wednesday, I celebrated. With brownies!

It's a rule to bake on snow days, right?

PS Happy 100th post!

The Weekend Homemaker

I found my dairy-wheat-sugar-egg free cleanse extremely helpful in getting my diet re-calibrated. Even though I feel like I eat pretty healthily in general, completing the cleanse helped me to realize several things:

* I eat way too much sugar (as an additive in other products)

* My grain to vegetable ratios are way off

* I wasn't eating 5-10 vegetables a day even though I thought I was

Most significantly, however, the cleanse showed me that it is not realistic for me to eat a diary-wheat-sugar-egg free diet all the time. Eliminating these foods from my diet, in combination with my desire to eat real food and eat locally, made food planning and preparation extremely time consuming.

In other words, I am very happy to be back in my weekend cooking mode!

My food box arrived last Thursday and I spent the weekend cooking; preparing enough meals to last me for the next two weeks (although I will probably need a few additions to avoid maltime boredom)!

My very wintery looking food box.

My box contained pears, apples, oranges, romaine lettuce, collard greens, onions, carrots, potatoes, garlic and a lemon.

I started off my weekend with a lovely salad of lettuce, dried figs, pine nuts and a homemade honey balsamic dressing. This salad is even better with spinach and some chopped mint, but you've gotta work with what you've got! I ate this along side some sunflower bread spread with local goat chevre.

On Saturday, I made chicken noodle soup from scratch. I had made some homemade chicken stock from a roast chicken the previous week and decided to go whole hog (or whole chicken, as the case may be) and make my own noodles as well.

Mmmm. Cooking from scratch is SO worth the effort. I am usually not a fan of chunky soups, but this soup is delicious and definitely the best chicken noodle soup I have ever eaten! And, in total, I will get 14 meals out of my $24 local chicken. At $1.71 per meal, eating local, pasture-raised chickens doesn't seem so extravagant!

I had never seen or eaten collard greens before they arrived in my food box this past week. I wasn't sure how I would like them and thought they might end up on my "never send" list, but after I boiled and sautéed them, they were actually pretty good.

I ate these greens along with Red Lentil Dahl and rice, which I did not take a picture of. Dahl is tasty, but not particularly photogenic.

Lastly, I made Baked Pear-Apple Sauce. I will use this throughout the week in my morning muesli, a favourite discovery from my cleanse!

I still have the carrots, parsnips, potatoes and garlic to deal with and I am looking forward to roasting them up this coming weekend, perhaps along with another roast chicken!

Day 15 - Chocolate, Chocolate!

I finished my two week cleanse on Sunday. Yay! I was not completely sugar-free, but I think I did pretty well over all. I am planning on continuing to keep my diet low in sugar, wheat and eggs for the rest of the month.

Except for one wee little thing . . .

Cupcakes!

I had been thinking about making a sweet Valentine treat since my cleanse began. First, I was going to make Chocolate Sugar Cookies but, I couldn't quite handle the thought of royal icing.

Then, I decided to make White and Dark Hearted Brownies and set out to Michael's to find a tiny heart shaped cookie cutter. However, when I arrived at the store, all I could find was flowers, bunnies and eggs. No good.

Who knew that Valentine's treats required so much advanced preparation?

In the end, I decided on my old standby, cupcakes. Sweet, chocolaty and loved by all.

Chocolate, Chocolate Baby Cakes, mmm.