Mayhem in the Kitchen!

Family Christmas Cookie 2: Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles were a recipe in the first edition of my husband’s family cookbook, and a favorite at many of my own family gatherings. These were some of the first I cookies I baked and distributed at PAX as a member of the Cookie Brigade, and not only did they sell out faster than my monster…

Family Christmas Cookie 1: Gingersnaps

These classic Gingersnaps are made from a recipe passed down by my husband’s Grandma Lorraine. While I wasn’t lucky enough to meet Lorraine, these hold a special place in my heart as one of the family recipes we shared on our wedding dessert buffet. This post is day 1 in the series Mayhem’s 12 Days…

Drop Sugar Cookies

I hope all of my American readers had a fabulous Thanksgiving – I know I sure did! Most of the time we need to juggle holidays between my side of the family and my husband’s side, but this year we were fortunate enough to celebrate twice, once on Thursday with my family, and once on…

Cranberry Almond Coffee Cake

It dawned on me that once I mentioned my Quest for Brunch Excellence, that I should probably make good on sharing some of those wonderful recipes. This morning we had friends coming over for a little vacation planning, which I thought was a perfect excuse for breakfast coffee cake! As I’ve mentioned before, my favorite…

Bakery Style BIG Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tomorrow we’re celebrating another colleague’s birthday at work, and he’s not much into sweets. Since it’s a Friday, I’d toyed with the idea of just bringing in a bottle of gin, or perhaps a nice liqueur, but what’s a birthday without treats? Instead of going crazy with cake, I opted for some simple crowd-pleasing cookies,…

Cinnamon-Nutmeg Coffee Cake

I have mixed feelings about Daylight Savings Time. On one hand, I really love the long summer nights – there’s something so freeing about having 3 or 4 hours of daylight after work. On the other hand, twice a year I am left feeling like a zombie for a couple weeks while my sleep schedule…

Double Fudge Brownie Bites

Last night was the absolute perfect time to create an ultra chocolatey dessert – my work colleague requested “something chocolate” for her birthday treat, meanwhile, the Vikings were absolutely decimated by their biggest rival, the Green Bay Packers, so I was in a mood to eat my feelings. A few years back there was a…

Double Birthday pt 2 | Ice Cream Birthday Cake

If you’re looking for a cake that’s truly opposite to my mum’s 100% from scratch traditional birthday cake, my brother’s ice cream birthday cake might be just the ticket. As I mentioned before, my brother and mum share the same birthday, and I always make an effort to celebrate them as two distinct occasions, even…

Double Birthday pt 1 | One-Bowl Chocolate Cake with Almond Buttercream

The end of September marks a very busy time in my kitchen – not only is it my mum’s birthday, but she shares the very same day with my brother! When we were kids, most of the time my brother’s birthday overshadowed my mum’s. If he wasn’t having a party with his friends, he at…

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

It was one of those nights again – we had a relatively light dinner, and were all cuddled up on the couch watching Downton when the sweets craving hit us. Of course there wasn’t any junk in the house, and while fruit is my usual go-to sugar source, we both agreed we needed something a…

Roasted Cauliflower and Sauteed Green Beans

Guess what I had for dinner last night? Yep. You know it! Roasted veggies. I’m not going to say I’m addicted to roasted vegetables, but I might be addicted to roasted vegetables. Then again, I could eat my weight in sauteed vegetables too. And, the same applies to raw broccoli and hummus, my favorite snack…

Bulgur Salatasi

Anyone else love salads as much as I do? I swear I could eat a green salad 7 days a week, and when we aren’t on a Fresh20 day, that’s usually what I’m lobbying for! My omnivore partner is a pretty good sport about it, but he needs a little variety in his life, so…

Ginger Pear Blueberry Crisp

Remember that fridge and freezer cleanout I was talking about? Turns out there were even more mediocre pears left (I guess that’s the downside of Costco, when it’s bad, it’s really bad) so I was thinking I’d try to repeat the success of that lower sugar pear crisp, but then I found a pint of…

Raw Cherry Chia Jam

Every fall I start making great big batches of soup to freeze into individual portions for wonderful winter work lunches or a quick dinners, and every fall, I need to clear out the deep freezer to make room! This year, at the bottom of the freezer I found an unopened bag of cherries, and I…

Jalapeño Egg Salad

Since subscribing to The Fresh 20 meal planning service last summer, I’ve made a point of trying to embrace the idea of expanding my culinary palate. As a result, some recipes I never would have touched again on my own have become a base with which to experiment. A few weeks ago, our menu included…