Caramel-Filled Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy first of April, everyone! My mind is having a difficult time wrapping itself around the fact that my food blog is four years old. Sometimes at 2:18 am, when I can't sleep, and in between playing with my Monopoly app (Al cheats!), I find myself trying to come with a clever tagline. Everything that floats through my head sounds cheesy, or trite, or phony - like a too-much-makeup induced infomercial perma-grin. So, if it's all the same, I'll stick with my usual nonsensical style of food blogging.

It's a lot like me, this little blog - full of idiosyncrasies, random bouts of self-deprecation, and an innate ability to go from speaking with flowery words to tripping, gracelessly, over comma's and the phrase "super-*insert ambiguous adjective*."

But *cheers* to another four + years. And a huge Thank You - to everyone who visits (new and old!). And thank you to my fellow food bloggers too! You're an amazing group of beautiful people. (Even if I am, at times, super-jealous of your fancy cameras, product giveaways, and Anthropologie photo props.)  XO

Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

Since I'm the only person within edible distance who enjoys the sweet flakes, I feel delightfully selfish when I bake with coconut - it almost makes me question the depths of my wickedness. Almost.

Alas, it had been far too long since my last coconut-ing - I may have gone overboard on the amount used in this recipe (although I don't recall hearing myself complain). Rather than traversing the preferred soft and chewy route, these cookies took an unexpected Friar Tuck-in-Sherwood Forest-like detour; one that was nubby, and bumpy, and plumpy and pleasantly crisp (unless inhaled directly from the oven).

*Think* ginormous versions of chocolate coconut haystacks!

Cadbury Creme Egg Brownies

I can't believe that it's been a week since we last saw each other - my fault, I'm afraid. Between house sitting, a pulled tooth & misplacing my camera, I have not had much time to play, sing, dance or bake in the kitchen. Luckily I know some fabulous food bloggers who are willing to step in and keep une gamine going; and my camera was discovered hiding inside the bowl of my stand mixer (apparently after enough wine, a silver bowl bears a striking resemblance to a wooden cabinet).

Last December I did a guest post on Roxana's Home Baking. Today I'm more than happy to have Roxana on une gamine Until I'm elbow deep in flour and sugar again, I'm positive that her delightful Cadbury Creme Egg brownies will satisfy your sweet teeth!

Thank you, Roxana! Take it away...

Crème de Menthe World Peace Cookies

Wednesday, as I was walking down my long driveway to retrieve the mail from a tragically windswept mailbox, I felt spring stretch out her lethargic limbs and yawn like a sunbathing cat. It was a soft rustle, followed by the unforgettable aroma of moist earth and green rain. It was brief- like a kiss from someone in a dream, someone you know but haven't met (yet?). Such intimate moments of forgotten nostalgia never last long enough. But then again, neither does spring. Yet despite my tendency to lament the passing of things before they even arrive, I always relish the subtle nuances of early spring. She's quiet, and lacks the look-at-me drama of summer and winter- we get along beautifully.

Another sweet prelude to spring - Girl Scout cookies. Sadly, I was never a girl scout myself (not even a brownie!). In some way, buying boxes of Thin Mints and Samoas makes me feel as though I'm making up for lost opportunities.

If I'm completely honest with myself, I just really, really...really love the cookies.

salt + pepper chocolate sandwich cookies with strawberry jam

During these bitterly cold and blustery winter days, I like to indulge. Spring is still a watercoloured, half-remembered dream. It's so easy and softly tempting to toss wrinkled thoughts of strappy sandals and swimsuits on the shelf and simply listen to the windswept siren's call of indulgence. My happy undoing usually comes in the form of a creamy soup, an all-butter encrusted pie, a ridiculously-rich layer cake, cured roasted meats, salty-sweet brownies, and cookies. Always cookies...my true North in stormy weather.

Sweet & Salty Brownies

"An opaque, gentle, vulnerable day,
as if it had been making love all night,
a day when the past has no bitter taste,
when the future retreats without a fight…" ~Vera Pavlova,  If There Is Something To Desire

I used to loathe mid-January - with its stark, almost-industrial ambiance and icy fingers that reach through every exposed crack in my drafty house. Now, little by little, we are starting to develop a mutual respect for each other. It's a tentative relationship- we're still both tiptoeing on egg shells during my chilly morning showers and windy three blanket nights- but I think we are ready to sit down and have a cup of bittersweet snow tea.

January ignites my love for cosy comfort food- all things laden with butter, and cream, and salt, and yes, even chocolate. To return January's aloof favour, I promised to not complain about its frigidity- too much. And to bake decadent, dramatic brownies that are so sinfully rich, you have to squeeze your eyes shut *tightly now* whilst biting into one. 

Nutella Toffee Scones

Sometimes, especially on weekends (and especially in winter), I like to stay in my grey and yellow-striped flannel pajamas well past what is considered acceptable and/or appropriate. When this happens someone almost always knocks on the door. Refusing to be seen in my nighttime garb with tousled hair standing at attention- giving me the appearance of a walking q-tip, I hide. There is a rather large window that people can easily squint into during the day, so I quickly crawl to the safety of my kitchen, artfully weaving between chairs and a coffee table that seems to be in love with my knees and ankles.

Goat Cheese Brownies {revisited}

If I had my own goat(s) I'd be ridiculously content with life. So much, in fact, that any placid contentment would quickly morph into an unfounded fear that a storm was brewing on the horizon. Too much happiness scares me. So for now I'll hold off on snatching up one of the adorable pygmy goats that I pass by once a week- grazing adorably in a field- next to an equally adorbs rustic cabin. *Super-jealous*

I'm not sure if my obsession with goats has anything to do with my equally absurd obsession with their cheese (does it matter?), I love both. I smear the crumbly, creamy, earthy cheese on just about everything, from crackers to bagels, to dark chocolate bars. So making this recipe again didn't take very much arm pulling.

It was more like: "Valerie, will you make those goat ch..." Me: "ok."

Spicy Brownies {and a Baked cookbook giveaway!}

"...you're east of East St. Louis
and the wind is making speeches
and the rain sounds like a round of applause." ~ Tom Waits "Time"

Today is splendid. The weather's soundtrack has been a fine performance of late autumn in blustery-grey minor. Mine is Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. (I just watched Melancholia for the 5th time last night.)

I hope that everyone had a peachy Thanksgiving! As of now, I'm just starting to be able to move around again without the safety net of stretchy pants. Pilates, however, is still out of the question. Sorry, Mari Winsor.

If you're out shopping today, I hope you make it back home without too many bruises or Scrooge-ish thoughts playing around in your head. I have never ventured outside on the day after Thanksgiving...I prefer to stay huddled within the safe confines of my cosy kitchen and remain anti-social until the chaos settles down.

Dark Chocolate & Walnut Caramel Tartlets

Happy Monday! And to my East coast friends who are about to ride out the Frankenstorm, please be careful. (And remember to stock up on the essentials...batteries, blankets, pet supplies, cookies, brownies, and rum!)

Can you believe that Halloween is this Wednesday already?! I love Halloween. I just wish that we could relish the autumn season a little bit longer instead of having to run face-first into a barrage of holiday paraphernalia. As soon as Halloween is over it's a crazy-mad race until the end of December.

I still want to be enveloped by shades of orange, and russet, and earthy browns. And I want to inhale the smoky scent of burning leaves, spiced apple cider, and warm cinnamon-sugar doughnuts. My finger-less Oliver Twist gloves are not ready for retirement. Nor is my desire to bake with pumpkin, and butterscotch, and caramel.

Yes, caramel is an ingredient for all seasons. But its sultry-burnt flavour will always procure swirling images of falling leaves and cadet blue skies tinged with a smoldering, hazy sun.

Caramel-Chocolate Apple Tart

Smitten taste buds are intoxicating.

I can't dig deep enough into my eclectic bag of vocabulary to find the words that will properly convey the jaw-dropping elation that your taste buds will encounter upon biting into this tart.

If you're familiar with the delirious, beautiful anxiety that's felt just before seeing someone you're madly in love with, it's kind of like that...only the epic story is unfolding inside your mouth.

And before you know it, the excitement, that giddy feeling of walking on clouds, has spread to your stomach and your hands and finally your toes. Chairs are no longer chairs, but dance partners. Dance partners who won't mind that you're waltzing around with a forkfull of sticky caramel tart. And you won't mind the sticky caramel that's falling on the newly-washed floor, because you'll be too busy listening to your humming taste buds.

You might even be convinced that it's May, and that the sunshine outside is hazy, not icy. And that the coloured leaves are just tree confetti, because the trees are so that You're happy.

Isn't being in love wonderful? Even if it's brief, and especially if it's a caramel-chocolate apple tart.

Butterscotch Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

One of the many ways I'm trying to save the planet is by jotting down recipes and ideas in a little journal. Unless the recipe includes a fantastic Cirque du Soleil feat of baking acrobatics, all I really need to know are the ingredients. (I've also been out of printer ink for months.)

Apparently I need to read what I've actually written down, instead of allowing my mind to fill in the pot holes with panic-induced images of recipe Fail hashtags.

When I made the butterscotch filling for these cookies, it seized up on me. Twice. The third time wasn't quite the charm, but I somehow managed to pull it off. It wasn't until I took another look at the recipe this morning that I realized I'd forgotten to add cream.

Cream.

It was in my notes. I just overlooked it...the same way I sometimes overlook silly editing errors in my blog posts. ;) Sometimes my brain only sees intentions, instead of what's actually There.

Double Chocolate, Double Peanut Butter Cookies

Can you believe that we've reached the end of August? It seems like I was just complaining about June coming to an end. Time baffles me. Constantly.  I mean, forget the fact that summer flew by like a favourite song (the one you were so excited to find playing, only to discover that it was already half-over). Oh, wait...that's it. That's summer. A song I'm endlessly humming in my head, but never quite tuned into.

Salty Fudge Brownies

I'm not a chocoholic, but every now and then people need brownies the way a cat needs her catnip.

They're a guilty pleasure. The kind that makes us want to stretch out in the sun and purrr with happiness, just before taking a smug little nap.

I love to enjoy my brownie(s) with a tall glass of milk and small dose of privacy. (Please. At least for 10 minutes.)

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Chunk Bars

My neurotic need for cleanliness and making everything more difficult is in a constant battle with a free spirited-leave-the-dishes-in-the-sink-overnight...just this once, chaos monster. Things are much more relaxing when the latter wins, but sometimes over complicating things actually pays off.

This recipe would have been much easier if I had used a bag of caramels,  instead of making homemade caramel sauce. But there's just something so rewarding, so magic, so "chefy," about making caramel from scratch. Perfect caramel is mesmerizing. It makes you want to keep lifting it up with a whisk so you can watch it oooze, seductively, back into thick drops of deep amber deliciousness. *sigh**purr*

Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella-Peanut Butter Frosting

I love happy reunions. (Not those awkward, Holiday-induced family reunions -- the kind that force us to sit with people who don't share our political viewpoints whilst they look at me you with saccharin-laced "Oh, but you're still single," glances.)  Just the happy reunions...they're my absolute favorite.

Today, after almost 10 sweltering days, my oven and I met over dessert. 

Boy, did we have a lot to catch up on!

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Fresh Mint Buttercream Filling

Last week my Internet service was down for about 8 years hours. Of course my mind, with its flair for drama, went into panic mode. "What if something happens somewhere to someone and I'm the last person on the planet to find out?" "What if someone has a question about a recipe that will be ruined if I don't answer within the next five seconds?" What if that same person ends up hating me and tells everyone that I'm mean and that I ignore emails?" And perhaps the most frightening; "What if service is never restored, and I'll never be able to post a recipe, or Tweet, or know what Tom Hiddleston is doing!?"

After I calmed down enough to be semi-rational, I took a breath, went outside, and read a book for 2 hours straight. (Something that I usually reserve for my bedtime ritual...it rarely lasts longer than 30 minutes.) It was surprisingly enjoyable, and relaxing, and rejuvenating.

Chocolate-Stout Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

I'm not a fan of romantic comedies. I like romance and comedy, but I don't think they need to be fused into 90 minutes of predictable "quirky girl" antics, and yawn-inducing happy endings. I like movies that throw curve balls. Sorry, 95% of Jennifer Aniston movies. (Ouch, I know.) Apologies.

Okay, I admit that I'm slightly jealous of the fact that the quirky girl always gets the guy. And while I'm outwardly showing my disdain by muttering sarcastic zingers, inside I'm actually huddled in a blue Slanket eating a rapidly-disappearing pint of Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream and sipping from a never ending grasshopper.

Just like the movies, I think food sometimes needs a good plot twist...something that will keep people guessing and prevent self-deprecating inner-monologues, and lethargy.

Dark Chocolate Brownies

If humans could purr, we'd surely do so after eating chocolate.

When Niles was a kitten, he used to sleep on my chest at night. (Unlike me, he didn't seem to mind the lack of substantial cushioning.) I always loved the way it felt when he began to purr. The repetitive humming buzz was comforting. Niles is still my aloof shadow when I'm rocking things out in kitchen, but now that he's all grown up, he doesn't sleep in my bed anymore. However, as soon as I pull out The brush, he turns back into a playful, needy, purring kitten. I love that loud, intrusive, purr.

Aries Chocolate Constellation Sablés

!

This little food blog is three years old! I know that it's technically called a Blogoversary, but I think "birthday" sounds much more festive, and I rarely go with the technical terms of anything.

My blog is a confident Aries. I'm a detail oriented Virgo (as proof, I painstakingly picked out only the perfect, unbroken stars to make these cookies). We have an excellent rapport, Aries and I.

In true Aries fashion, this blog has gently rammed me out of my warm, cosy, happy comfort zone and opened up a whole new chapter in my life. But I make sure to keep things focused + down to Earth. (I'm not quite ready to tackle someone's wedding cake!) It's a perfect mix of determined, headstrong drive, tempered with my own disaster-fearing, worst case scenario-imagining restraint. :-)