This past weekend was glorious. Not only was it a long weekend (though, I did have two weeks off for spring break), it was also the warmest Easter I can remember in a long time. There were record-breaking temperatures all over the lower mainland.

Adam and I went to Osoyoos to celebrate Easter with my family. Osoyoos is ‘Canada’s only desert’ –  so it’s
already usually hotter than elsewhere – and this weekend it was especially hot. I couldn’t believe that it was March and we were walking into town in shorts and dresses, I even got burnt. Definitely a nice welcome to Spring.

It’s amazing and scary that my practicum for teaching is over next week. Four months has absolutely flown by and I am going to be very sad to leave my little grade two’s. Although, it was a breath of fresh air having two weeks off to regroup – with plenty of time spent in the kitchen cooking and baking. My ultimate stress relief and relaxing pastime.

In other news – Lainey finally got a hair cut. She is also the perfect size for our small throw pillow.

I always make a road-trip snack, it’s about a 4 hour drive up, and apparently I like to make something hearty that consists of banana and oats. Last May long-weekend I made these Blackberry, Oat & Banana Muffins for Adam and I to eat on the road.

Ever since we went to Seattle the weekend before, I had been craving and dreaming of the cookies we ate at Chaco Canyon Cafe. My two favourite fruits are Apples and Bananas – both are even better smothered in a nut butter, or perhaps my new love of sunflower seed butter (school approved. allergy safe). However, in baked goods I prefer bananas to apples. I think I’d take a slice of banana bread over a slice of apple pie (sorry Adam; apple pie is his favourite).

Both cookies at Chaco Canyon had a hint of banana in them, and I loved it. Adam liked the other cookie better, but I devoured the Vegan Cowboy Cookie – again, I like hearty baked goods, which is probably why I prefer a dense piece of banana bread with nuts than a piece of flakey apple pie.

This cookie is hearty.

It’s packed with nuts, toasted coconut, banana, oats and chocolate. It’s almost Vegan – they contain no egg, though I did not have vegan butter but if you have it on hand feel free to use it. I used two medium sized ripe bananas in place of half of the butter. Note they were not overly ripe bananas as in they were not brown or spotted like the type used for banana bread; just ripe with no green showing and still semi-firm. I love the combination of banana and chocolate, and I wanted to re-create the cookie from Chaco. I used leftover toasted coconut from my Bird’s Nest Cupcakes last week and Trader Joe’s Wheat Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free rolled oats. I subbed 2/3 of the flour for Coconut Flour that I received from iHerb and Trader Joe’s Almond Meal.

Almost-Vegan Cowboy Cookies 

adapted from: Hell Yeah It’s Vegan!

** If you don’t have coconut flour or almond meal you can use whole wheat flour, or all purpose for all amounts. And if you have vegan butter sub for regular butter **

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Toast coconut over medium heat in pan for 5 minutes until fragrant and browned, stirring frequently.
3. In mixer with paddle attachment, whip the butter until creamy. Add in Banana and beat until incorporated on medium speed.
4. Add in the sugar and splash of vanilla and mix again.
5. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours. Add in the almond meal along with cinnamon and use a whisk to stir together.
6. Add dry ingredients 1/4 at a time to the banana mixture incorporating together.
7. Remove from stand and mix in oats, chocolate chips, coconut and nuts by hand using wooden spoon.
8. Create 1” balls of dough using scoop or by hand, and roll into ball. Flatten slightly with palm of your hand, then using the tines of the fork flatten the centre.
9. Bake on very lightly greased cookie sheet or baking mat for 10-12 minutes until golden on the edges. Remove from oven and transfer to cookie sheet. The cookies will set once cool, so be careful not to over-bake, the centre may look a little soft.

These cookies are crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. They’re great for a snack on the go.

You can freeze the dough easily, once formed into balls freeze flat in Ziploc bag, or in tupperware placing wax paper between layers.

I made these brownies for a girls night last week and thought they would also be great for any Super Bowl Sunday get togethers this weekend! I wanted something easy, but not a regular brownie like my usual go-to. I also apparently can’t make great cookies lately (dry, too puffy, rise too much) – but something that combines the two? Perfect.

I don’t think we’ll be doing anything special for the Super Bowl – except for maybe make a turkey Sunday night that we forgot to take out of the freezer until yesterday morning, so it’s likely not defrosted enough to eat tonight like originally planned. I’m not sure a turkey dinner is ‘Super Bowl’ meal equivalent, but we’ve eaten our fair share of chili last month, plus I really wanted turkey leftovers.

I don’t exactly follow the sport, nor do I pretend to understand what the rules are or what is happening on the field. The only football I was ever interested in was my high school football team – the Sun Devils – I helped my friend one night as a ‘water girl’  - we handed out water bottles to the players during the game. That’s the closest I’ve been to on the field action. Needless to say I never really caught on to the game – I was more just a supporter of my friends who played on the team – school spirit and all.

The only sport I do follow however, is Hockey – and thankfully the NHL is back and so are our Canucks. Last night we watched the game at my cousins with some friends, and they won their second game in a row, miraculously by shoot out! Well done Lou.

Now for the brownies – I had seen recipes like this before but hadn’t tried making them yet. There are a lot of ridiculous brownie recipes out there, like the ones with ten layers of fudge brownie cookie pretzel Oreo madness. These are sort of on the same page as those Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies – I keep seeing them but haven’t made them.

However now that I’ve made them, it’s a bad bad thing. I combined my regular brownies with a half batch of my chocolate chip cookie recipe. And they are really good – like, really good. The fudgey brownie layer and the gooey chocolate chip layer are delicious together. You’ve been warned.

If you’re heading out to a Super Bowl Party tomorrow I suggest making a batch and bringing them along – just try not to eat the entire platter.

Another delicious brownie combo is the Pumpkin Swirl Brownies I made in October.

Chocolate Chip Brownies

Ingredients

Brownie Layer

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder (I used the Organic Rapunzel CocoaPowder I got from iHerb last month)
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature

Chocolate Chip Cookie Layer

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup  flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8×8 inch baking dish.

First Make the Brownie Layer:

In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder.

In a large mixing bowl of stand mixer, or hand mixer, beat together butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs until just combined. Gradually add in flour mixture on low until just combined. Spoon batter into prepared baking dish.

Use a spatula to ‘clean’ bowl completely.

For the Cookie Layer:

Using the same bowl from the first flour mixture, sift together flour and baking powder.

Melt butter in microwave, or stove top.

Using the same bowl as the brownie batter, beat together brown sugar, granulated sugar and melted butter. Beat in the vanilla and egg until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon cookie dough on top of brownie layer and spread out evenly with a knife or spatula.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown. You want the middle to be slightly gooey, not fully baked/dry when you do the ‘knife test’

Let cool completely before slicing. You can also place it in the fridge for a bit – I always find brownies become fudgier once refrigerated.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a relaxing holiday season and a splendid New Years Eve.

{Stanley Park Christmas Train for our Anniversary Tradition 12/23} (also note the colour difference between this and my ‘about me’ picture. Summer vs. Winter. *sigh*)

Our Christmas was busy, between my family and Adams, we had 5 events between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day that we attended. Christmas eve, I did the Italian thing with my Dad’s side of the family, as mentioned here. My Zia made a delicious Cioppino, an Italian fish soup/stew.

We enjoyed it along with anchovy + olive oil pasta, and a third course of Italian cabbage, baccala, and salad. On Christmas eve, we spent the night at Adam’s parents, so I drove over there after my dinner, and woke up with them to do the present thing. Something I had never really done before last year, when we first spent Christmas together.

When my brother Nick and I were little, and we were the only grand-kids for a good while on my father’s side as we are the oldest, we would have to stay up until Midnight on Christmas Eve before we could open presents. We would literally be falling asleep on the couches at my Nonna and Nonno’s, full from a huge seafood feast, waiting until my Nonno or Zio would dress up in a Santa suit. So, Christmas morning I really never had that ‘wake up santa’s been here!’ deal. But, we had the advantage to wake up and play with our toys immediately. So, when Adam and I spent our first christmas together last year, I got to experience ‘waking up on Christmas morning to open presents’ for the first time. I’m 23. Last year however, we woke up while it was still dark outside to open presents, I think we were all a little excited. But, this year, we woke up at a reasonable time of 9 am. Next year will be even better, as the first grandchild of the family will be born in just under two months! Adam’s sister is expecting their first, and Christmas will definitely be even more exciting with a little one around!

After Christmas morning with Adam’s family, we came home, got changed, and headed to my moms for more present opening and turkey dinner. The dinner was so good, and we both got spoiled this year. After dinner and visiting with everyone, we headed back over to Adam’s aunt’s house for some more dessert and drinks, and ended the night chatting with his cousins. It was a very busy Christmas, but we are both so thankful we have a large family who love us.

A few of the many gifts..

{Pasta hanger from Adam’s Parents! No more using clothes hangers for me!}

{From Adam. He understands my obsession with Seinfeld, and is constantly adding to my collection :)}

{My own ‘A’ mug from Anthropologie! Gifted by Adam’s mom :) You may remember my lamenting about it here ;)}

{Some delicious sea salts! Cannot wait to use these}

New Years Eve, however, did not go so smoothly. We decided to head to the States for a few days, shopping in Seattle on the 30th and staying with his parents at their little vacation place just over the border. It was cold, but nice to get away. Certainly not as cold as last year, when it was -10.

{We hit up West Elm and Z Gallerie! One happy girl. PS West Elm may be heading ot Vancouver..}

On New Years Eve I woke up feeling not so great, and thus, the idea of going out and celebrating was less than appealing to me. I slept til about 1:30, showered and got dressed enough to go to Trader Joe’s and a hardware store Adam had been dying to visit.

{I pretended I knew what things were, and Lainey and I waited patiently. Apparently little dogs are a big hit in hardware stores. She was quite popular.}

{One happy guy}

We were going to meet up with my friend who also happened to be in the States for New Years, and just 10 minutes away. But, I still wasn’t feeling it, so we stayed in and made ourselves a nice steak dinner.

{Lainey, my dog who you’ve probably seen before here, here, here, here, here & here, and Chubby, Adam’s parents wiener dog}

We celebrated at midnight with these two, who did not make it to watch the ball drop.

Wow, this post is getting long! My apologies, but one last thing. 2012. This year is going to bring some exciting things for me! This will by my last semester as an undergrad, and I will be officially graduating with my Bachelor’s Degree, Major in English, Minor in History, in June!! And I am planning on going travelling to Europe this summer, before returning in the Fall to hopefully begin my PDP to become an Elementary School Teacher! Adam is also going back to school this year, as he is finishing up his Electrical Apprenticeship! It’s his second degree, and second career. So, we’ll both be students! And both be graduating this summer!

I couldn’t help myself, and had to make a ‘back-to-school’ recipe. We were shopping and granola bars weren’t on sale, and I said I could make some. Adam was not about to argue. I wanted something simple, and these no-bake bars are perfect.

I even set some of the dry granola aside before adding the honey-sugar mixture, to sprinkle over top of my yogurt. You can add in whatever you like, or whatever is on hand. This is actually so easy, and I love that the ingredients are simple and requires no baking. I would definitely make these again, maybe once a month and keep them in the fridge/freezer. They will warm up by lunch time.

No-Bake Granola Bars

Recipe from Kitchen Simplicity found here

• 2 .5 cups rolled oats
• 1 cups nuts (I used leftover Pistachio’s from Christmas Bark)
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup cranberries
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 6 tablespoons salted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1.5 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons honey

1. Toast oats, nuts and coconut in a large skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant, stirring often. Remove to a large bowl and toss with raisins.
2. Place butter, sugar, cinnamon, and honey in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and stir into oat mixture until evenly coated. Let sit just until cool enough to handle.
3. Spoon mixture into 8 1/2 x 11 pan, pressing down to compact. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up. Remove from pan, peel away plastic wrap and slice into 16 bars (half lengthwise and then into 8). Wrap individually in plastic wrap or parchment paper, if desired. Store covered at room temperature.

Makes: 16 servings