Showing posts with label Chocolate Chip Cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chocolate Chip Cookies. Show all posts

Friday, March 5, 2010

Cookies!



So I've been craving everything and anything sweet lately. I know, I tried to cut back on sugar a little while ago, but I've seriously been feeling deprived - and hadn't baked in forever, so I figured it was time to whip up a batch of cookies.

I used my new favorite recipe, that I got off of Chef at Home, and ventured off the path of your average chocolate chip cookie.

I divided the dough in half and for one half used eggnog flavored chocolate pieces, and for the other half used a mixture of white chocolate bits, dried cranberries, and a good handful of hemp seeds!





The white chocolate/cranberry/hemp seed cookies turned out so beautiful! I love pretty colour combinations in my food...




The cookies turned out perfect again. This is honestly the best no-fail cookie recipe I've ever used! The cookies always turn out with the perfect crunch/chewy ratio, and stay chewy, too!




Mmmm...




xoxo

Mariel

Monday, February 15, 2010

Valentine's Day in Toronto

Hello lovelies! Get ready to read aaall about my wonderful Valentine's Day spent in Toronto with two lovely women! It was such a good first day in Toronto, from start to finish! Us girls started off our day fairly early, and went out for a nice little Valentine's breakky! 

Tatomme took us to the cutest, and busiest little breakfast/brunch spot/hole in the wall I'd ever seen, Aunties and Uncles. We got there at the perfect time as we just missed a HUGE line that formed, practically curving down the street.




See what I mean? This place does NOT look like it would serve incredible breakfast...but looks are deceiving! The line was way past the little white golf you see there at one point!




After a not-too-long wait, we got to enter this adorable little spot! As we fought our way through the crowds of major hipster/scenesters to crawl up the most dangerous set of stairs I've ever climbed, we walked past the tiniest little kitchen I have ever seen! They were whippin' out the food (gigantic servings and all) in this place too! I was impressed.

The interior was a perfectly eclectic blend of bizarre art, 50's/60's diner and just...knick knacks really!




We got a table on the 2nd floor of this two level little restaurant. It was so cozy, you actually felt like you were at your aunty and uncles!

Tucked away in the corner of the upstairs was a cute little sink/counter area where the waitress served up our coffee from. So homey.




Pretty quickly, our food arrived! It looked incredible! All three of us ordered the same thing...because it just sounded too good not to order (I know, we must have looked SO boring).

What we picked was: the omelette of the day which was roasted vegetables and goat cheese, which came with incredible, sweet challah toast, amazing home-made hash browns and "greens"(a yummy little breakfast salad). We ordered some fruit too, which was stewed pears.




I can honestly not get over this toast! It was so, so, melt-in-your-mouth delicious.




To make things even more incredible, they make their own home-made ketchup at Aunties and Uncles. Mmm.




After breakky we went for a brisk stroll down to the Kensington Market area, which I fell in love with.




There were so many adorable vintage shops, unique restaurants and great little health food stores and bakeries!

We wandered into Wanda's Pie in the Sky, which Tatomme told us we "had to see".



This packed little pie shop reminded us of what day it was with adorable little conversation heart sugar cookies!




Loved them.




The pies were so pretty!




Then on our little adventure, we came across the most incredible little kitchen store ever, Good Egg. Stores like this are really detrimental to my wallet...




They even have all sorts of classes going on all the time! This one looks so tempting and right up my alley! I wish I was here for this! 

Also, here's a little fact for you! Apparently Rachel McAdams took some knife sharpening/cutting classes at this spot! I liked her even more than I already did after hearing that!




Before I knew it, we were in what I'm sure was "little mexico"...which was filled with dried fruit stores and graffiti-ed alleyways. Don't I have such gorgeous cousins??




After our slightly chilly walk through Kensington, we headed to a grocery store to pick up a good load of groceries for the week!

We got home and were all majorly cravin' some nachos...so we whipped up a large batch. 




We made yummy guac with the avocados that Chloaye did end up bringing, and a black bean dip. The salsa we bought...




After we filled up on chips we headed out to a little pub not too far from Tate's place, which had 35 beers on tap. It was difficult to choose!




I finally ended up deciding on a chocolate cherry stout, because it was Valentine's day after all, and I hadn't had any chocolate all day (which is so wrong)! It was a good choice...




It was Sunday evening though, so we packed 'er in fairly early and headed back to Tatomme's place on the trolley. 

Such a great, noms-packed day though! I absolutely loved spending Valentine's with my two wonderful cousins! I am really loving my first taste of Toronto. Look forward to many, many more food adventures from over here!

xoxo 

Mariel

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Comfort in Chocolate Chip Cookies


Have you ever had one of those crazy days where you feel like you've got absolutely nothing under control?? Well, I had one of those today! Let's just say it included cramming to finish an essay for 2 PM today, only to find out it's due NEXT thursday, missing a few buses and getting a little case of "sports induced asthma" (from running across campus from the bus terminal to "hand in my essay")...

So when I got home, wheezy and still feeling like my head wasn't on my shoulders, I plopped down on the couch to endulge in my favorite comfort activity: watching the food network. And guess what?! One of my favorite comfort shows ever was just starting when I flipped on the T.V., Michael Smith's Chef at Home! Things were starting to look up! And even better, his theme for this afternoon is: COMFORT FOOD!

First on the menu came "the perfect chocolate chip cookie". I had to try out the recipe (and was majorly craving chocolate, too). Don't you find that you're always on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie? I do, and let me tell you, this recipe comes pretty close to perfection in my books (the best I've ever produced, at least)!



Michael Smith's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 salt
1 cup (or more) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Mix all the wet ingredients together thoroughly until smooth (the sugar, butter, corn syrup, egg, and vanilla).
Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, and then mix them into the wet.
Finally, fold in the chocolate chips!
Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased or parchment papered cookie sheet.
Bake for 12 minutes EXACTLY (Michael really stressed this one...he said it's the last key to the perfect cookie)!




Enjoy!

xoxo

Mariel