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Catfe

10 Apr

Catfe is a word, I swear! It is cat+cafe…get it, a Catfe! Meow!

A friend and I went to the Catfe for her birthday, I heard about it a while ago but then stopped hearing about it and thought it went the way of most businesses and died. Lucky for us it is still around. 🙂

You only get to go in for an hour, but really, an hour chilling in a room with a bunch of cats that may or may not be interested in you is a perfectly acceptable length of time.

There is a coffee shop / gift shop right when you enter and you are only allowed in the area with the cats once you have paid and been told the rules, which mostly consisted of don’t be a jerk to the cats…I may be slightly paraphrasing that…

The room with the cats has one long wall covered in shelves that are all linked together via holes cut in the sides so the cats can go in and out and up and down. Some shelves had beds or toys on them, others had hiding spots. It is basically something all cat owners who wish they could spoil their cats like crazy wish they had in their place.

Oh, there was also a tv, placed at cat height, that was showing fish swimming. That’s it. Just fish swimming around. I guess the idea was they might want to watch the fish on the tv the way cats like to watch aquariums but cats being the fickle creatures that they are, none of them paid any attention to it. I however found myself distracted by it often. Because ya know, apparently I have the attention span of a gnat. *rolls eyes* lol

It was a soothing room to be in, and I think if I could be the only person in there, with a comfortable chair to sit on, I could easily chill in that room reading while surrounded by cats for quite a while. But since that is never gonna happen I’ll stick with cuddling the cat I get to live with…who is right this minute on my lap trying to get in my way so I stop typing and start petting him cause priorities!

At first I thought that space would be a great place to take someone who has high anxiety, or stress, or who needs therapy in some way. I mean, a soothing room with cats, what could be better? But then I realized putting an emotionally vulnerable person in a room where they are most likely going to be rejected by all the cats because ya know, that is what cats do best, would probably be more hurtful to their self-esteem than soothing lol So probably best dogs and horses keep being therapy animals and cats be left to doing cat things, like laying in sun patches, and putting claw marks on their human’s favourite clothes, and coughing up furballs on blankets.

The Catfe is connected to the BCSPCA so all the cats in there are available for adoption. I’m surprised they aren’t all adopted by the end of the week considering the level of furry cuteness in that room.

Some of the things you can buy…

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And of course, here are some of the cats…

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The only cat whose name I remember is the white and ginger cat, his name is Simba. My friend and I were sitting at the table by the window and thought for a brief and shining moment that the cats were interested in us because they came over but they ignored us completely lol, they were totally absorbed by something outside only they could see.

And then there are these pictures that I couldn’t help but caption…

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I’m not looking at you, la-la-la-la-la.

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I was serious, I’m not looking at you.

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Fiiiine, maybe I’ll raise my paw to you…

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Psyc! I’m just washing my paw! Fooled you! bwahahaha

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Fine. *deep sigh* I’ll let you pet me, but don’t expect me to purr. 

If you want to see tonnes of pictures of adorable cats, and get a better look at the inside of this place since my pics kinda suck, check them out on Instagram, their name is catfe_vancouver or go to their website at http://www.catfe.ca or ya know, just stop on by and check the place out for yourself. But be warned! You’re going to want to buy stuff, and adopt a cat, so enter at your own risk…or at least the risk of your wallet! 😉

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Triple Berry Cobbler

25 Mar

Last week I went to a pot luck and me being me I took a dessert.

The only rules were not to bring too large of a dish as it was a smaller sized gathering and to bring something healthy.

A healthy dessert. That soooo isn’t how I bake lol One of the other people going suggested cobbler and that was the end of my hunt for a food idea. Of course it immediately started a hunt for a new recipe, but hey, who doesn’t like scouring through recipe ideas online until they find the right one?

I didn’t want to spend a lot on fruit, unfortunately for me it is not optimal fruit season so all fruit is expensive, all fruit except frozen! Well, to be fair some frozen fruit is stupid expensive, it should be illegal how much I spend on one bag of frozen raspberries. *sigh* WalMart came to my rescue though and I was able to buy a bag of frozen berries in a family pack size, which means I now have frozen berries for the rest of my life…or a month or so…ya know, if you want to get technical. 😉

The recipe I found is from Pinterest and is specifically for frozen berries. Yay for cobbler recipes that are specifically for frozen berries! Way to make my life easier lol

I’ll leave a link to the original site but fair warning, her post goes on forever about her dog and school and vacation and omg it takes her ages to get to the recipe *rolls eyes* To save you scrolling through all that I’ll write the recipe here…says the lady who wrote forever about potlucks and online recipe searches 😛

Berry Filling:

4 cups frozen mixed berries, not thawed

3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

3 Tablespoons all purpose flour

zest from one lemon

pinch of salt

Oat Crumble Topping:

1 Cup old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 Cup brown sugar

6 Tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 Cup salted butter, cold, cut in to small cubes

The Deets:

Preheat oven to 350C

Make the berry filling by combining all ingredients and tossing.

In a separate bowl make the oat crumble by combining all ingredients. Use your fingers to pinch the butter and incorporate it with the dry ingredients. Keep pinching and mixing together with your hands until evenly combined. You will have some pea sized pieces of butter in the mixture, that’s ok.

Pour the berry filling in to a 1-1/2 quart baking dish (or 8×8 baking dish, a pie baking dish, basically anything that can go in the oven). Top with the oat crumble topping, and spread to an even layer.

Bake uncovered until the berry filling is bubbling, and the oat crumble is golden brown, about 1 hour.

Let cool for 1 hour before serving. Serve at room temp with ice cream. It will keep covered at room temp for about 3 days…if it isn’t all eaten by then.

The berry mixture I used had strawberries, blackberries and blueberries but really, you can use whatever fruit you want.

I’d love to be able to tell you how this dish turned out but I didn’t actually get to eat any of it. I had to leave before we got to the dessert section of the evening so I left it with the group and crossed fingers it was edible. I did tell them to feel free to compost it if they wanted, I wouldn’t be offended.

I got a text later that night that all but one serving was gone and three people were eyeing it and by the next day I had a text saying it was gone. I guess it can’t be all that bad if it was eaten in under 24 hours lol

I baked it the day before, let it get to room temperature for an hour than covered it and put it in the fridge over night. We left it on the counter at the party so it could come back up to room temp but I’m sure you could warm it in an oven so you could serve it warm with some ice cream melted on top, yum!

It was super easy to make, which means I’ll probably end up baking one again, if only so I can try a piece!

 

Here is the link to the original recipe:

Easy Triple Berry Crumble Recipe (with Frozen Berries!)

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Hello Quiche

13 Mar

Say hello to my newest kitchen creation, quiche!

quiche

Granted, not the best pictures out there of quiche, but they could be worse, theoretically lol

I did some googling and found multiple recipes for single serving quiche, hey now, don’t judge, some of us are single and cooking for one.

They all seemed to be pretty much the same. Sure some had you making your own crust from scratch, while others had you not using any crust, and the fillings got swapped out, but the general base of it seemed pretty standard and lucky for me, easy to copy.

I didn’t feel like making my own crust and was going to make the crust-less version only but this is me, and why do one thing when you can do two?

The mix, batter, filling, I don’t know what to call it, the quiche part? That is made up of:

2 eggs and 2 Tablespoons of milk whisked together, oh and add whatever seasonings you want before whisking…I put in dill and pepper.

Add 2 to 4 Tablespoons of stuff, by stuff I mean any combo of veggie, meat, and cheese you so desire. I did a mixture of diced super tiny orange pepper, diced super tiny mushroom, light marble cheese, and minced garlic.

Once it is all mixed together either evenly distribute it between tart shells or pour in to a greased (I sprayed with Pam) oven safe dish (I used my mini Corningware), and pop it in the oven at 375C for 20 to 30 minutes. My oven took 20 minutes and it was not quite at 375C, more like the halfway point between 350C and 375C. I was worried about the temperature because according to the tart shell box they should be baked at a lower temp for a shorter amount of time and I had visions of burning them and once again setting off my smoke detector. *rolls eyes*

Oh, so just to clarify, one combo of the above mixture was used in my mini Corningware, and a separate batch filled the 5 tarts.

When the timer beeped and I took them all out of the oven I realized I had no idea how to tell if a quiche is done so I poked it with a cake tester and it came out clean. Then I realized how stupid that is so I googled lol Google, and a friend I happened to be texting with at the time, both said if it doesn’t jiggle then it is done so I gave them all a good shake, decided I didn’t see any jiggling and declared them perfect.

The quiche mixture in the tart shells was super poofy when I first took them out of the oven but they flattened quickly, the mixture in the dish might have poofed as well but the flattening maybe wasn’t as obvious because it is in a dish and it was never higher than the edges, that and I was so distracted by the tart shell versions I kinda ignored the one in the dish lol

In case you were wondering, it turns out I make pretty decent quiche. 😉 I ate one of the tart versions and the egg mixture was light, and fluffy, and quite good. I forgot to put the diced turkey in there, which I only clued in to once I was tasting one of them, oops! Guess that means I’ll hafta make them again and try a new combo of ingredients, such a hard life! 😉

I was trying to find a link to my mini Corningware in case anyone was wanting one for themselves, I find them incredibly useful when cooking…course that could be a single girl thing lol…but I can’t find them on Amazon so instead here is a link to a simple Corningware 7 ounce ramekin which I think would also be pretty good for making a quiche in. If you click on the picture it should take you to the Amazon page where you can read the deets about them.

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A Little Bran

3 Mar

Bran muffins, I love em! I never make them, but I love em. When they are warm, fresh from the oven, ripped in half with a bit of butter melting on the soft middle. Mmm!

Since I love them, and most of the ones you find for sale have raisins in them, and I hate raisins more than any other food on the planet, I figured why not bake some?

I asked my mom for her recipe, and she sent me three. I had, unfortunately, already found one online before she sent her three so I stuck with the one I found, figured I’d give it a try, and next time I bake a batch I’ll try one of hers.

Really, I should have just tried one of her recipes, mom’s always know best, am-I-right?

It isn’t that there was anything wrong with the bran muffins, they just weren’t amazing, they didn’t live up to my expectation. They were a bit dry, kinda bland, I guess they perfectly fit the stereotype of a bran muffin…you know, created by those poor souls who have never gotten to eat a good bran muffin.

This recipe had such potential, sigh. I’m thinking that I should have replaced the raisins with some other fruit. The recipe clearly said I didn’t have to add the raisins and it would be fine…I think it lied to me…rude! 😉

I won’t actually type out the recipe, since it didn’t turn out all that great, but I will bore you with some pictures of the finished product…

Ignore the different colours of the muffins, that is my poor kitchen lighting lol

Something fun that came from this little bran muffin experiment was that I got to use this lovely new tool…

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My new fave gadget!

I got this for Christmas and I love it! I’ve wanted one for a while but couldn’t justify buying one. I could of course justify putting it on my Christmas wish list! lol

So far I’ve used it for scooping cookie dough and the bran muffins and it is perfect. Everything being the same size without as much eye balling as in the past, I’m getting much more uniform batches of baked goods. Which is probably making you non-bakers roll your eyes but to me it matters. 😛

I believe the above one is from Michael’s, but don’t quote me on that. I found the same one, Wilton brand, on Amazon.ca and have put a picture just below. If you click on the picture it will direct you to the item on Amazon so you can check it out and purchase if you so desire.

So yeah, Bran Muffins: 1, Me: 0. But never fear! I will try again, and I will conquer the bran muffin challenge!

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Good Times On Mt Seymour

28 Feb

Snowshoeing, I hate typing that word, it feels awkward, but it is a fun activity so alas, I will be doomed to keep typing it. Oh what a hard life I lead *pauses for a dramatic swoon*

swoon

Some friends and I went up to Mt. Seymour to go snowshoeing and had a blast! Hmm…I’ve really gotta learn some new slang…

The day started with dragon boat practice (for two of us), then brunch, then snowshoeing. So ya know, just a slightly active day. 😉

I wasn’t sure my suv would be allowed up the mountain, if the roads are bad they make you park at the bottom and take a shuttle up but nobody checked us so up we went…slowly…as in old granny slow…the higher we got the more the snow was swirling around and the more wintry it became. It always amazes me how you can go from city to mountain so quickly here.

Because we were snowshoeing and not skiing or snowboarding we had to park farther away, snowshoe discrimination! 😉 It is actually ok because it gave us time to get used to walking on the snowshoes.

Once we were strapped in and on our way it was basically just fun. The whole time. I mean c’mon, get four friends together, strap their feet to snowshoes, set them on a trail, and how could that not be fun?

I did learn that all my survival knowledge is basically theoretical and does not kick in as an automatic response when faced with a potentially dangerous situation…great thing to learn up on a mountain in winter lol

See, we were trekking along this one narrow stretch where you have to go single file and all of a sudden snow is falling on us. And not the snow that had been falling all day, no no, I mean big poofy coming from the side of the mountain snow. There is technically a potential of avalanche and part of my brain kept thinking “keep moving. you have to keep moving. woman move your feet!” but in actuality all the four of us did was turn around, look up at the mountain to see where the snow was coming from, start laughing and wondering what was happening. So yeah, the survival skills of my friends and I are maybe not the absolute highest they could be…but I’m sure somewhere out there someone is worse than us…right?

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All in all it was a great day, as you can see in the above pictures. I wish there could be more like that. 🙂

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Women’s Canada vs USA Gold Medal Hockey Game 2018

22 Feb

Words.

I don’t know that I have the words to properly describe just how proud I am of our Women’s Olympic Hockey Team.

2018-womens-olympic-team-announcement-photo

They were amazing! That final game against the USA had me feeling all the possible emotions. There was excitement, fear, nerves, stress, joy, and yes some grief when the Americans scored the winning goal. For those of you who scoff at the idea of feeling grief during a hockey game, well, hey, it’s a Canadian thing. 😉

canada-hockey-fanatic

Did I start watching that game expecting my team to win gold? Sure. How could I not? I expect all the Canadian athletes to win gold whether the stats show they most likely will or not. Am I delusional? No. I like to think of it as hopeful, and proud of our athletes.

Now, I’m not some expert hockey watcher, I can’t pick apart the game and discuss what was done wrong, what should be changed for next time, things like that. I can tell you that as a spectator that game had it all. At various times throughout the game I was leaping from my seat to cheer, yelling at the ref’s calls, sitting on the edge of my seat, fist pumping the air, swearing, rocking back and forth in an attempt to self-soothe, and I will admit, at the end my head was hanging and I had tears in my eyes. Not for me. Not even for my nation’s pride (which is so closely tied to our hockey), but for our athletes who worked so hard, pushed themselves so far, were riding on adrenaline to help mask the exhaustion their bodies were feeling. I was overwhelmed with sadness for them. Knowing that they not only are feeling the deepest levels of despair but that it is being televised and will be picked apart for years to come.

Our Women’s Olympic Hockey Team won SILVER! And that is awesome!

That should be celebrated, not discussed like it is a failure. All those people who think the Silver isn’t good enough, I’d love to know what medals they have won at the Olympics lately.

 

 

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Accidental Brownie

21 Feb

Sooooo, I sorta made a brownie-in-a-mug this evening when I thought I was going to be making hot chocolate.

Oops?

Although, are brownies ever reeeally an accident? 😉

My mom received a cute little jar with dry ingredients layered in it and instructions as to how to turn the contents in to a brownie-in-a-mug. She oh so sweetly gave it to me…mostly she gave it to me because she has stronger will power while I tend to go off the rails a tad more often, so really, I think it was to get temptation out of her pantry and put it in mine lol

For some reason when I read the tag I thought it said it was to make hot chocolate, which confused me because the instructions say to add melted butter, and why would I put melted butter in to hot chocolate? So instead of, oh I dunno, re-reading what it was, I just assumed it was some sort of fancy hot chocolate deal and tucked it aside for when I wanted fancy hot chocolate.

Today was the perfect day for hot chocolate! It was snowy, and chilly but not cold, a great day for being cozy inside with a cup of hot chocolate and a book. 🙂

Again, without re-reading the name of what I was making I poured the dry ingredients in to a mug, added the milk and melted butter, popped the whole thing in the microwave and eagerly awaited my hot chocolate.

Now, the instructions say to let it cool because it will be very hot but you can’t let hot chocolate cool too much or it becomes not as yummy, plus I have noooo patience lol. So it was out of the microwave maybe 30 seconds and I took a spoon to it – I’m that weirdo that likes to drink my hot chocolate by the spoonful instead of sipping from the side of the cup.

I dipped my spoon in and came up with some mighty thick hot chocolate *rolls eyes at self* Not to be deterred, and hello, it is chocolate so no matter what it is going to be good, I tried it and oh man was it good!

Definitely not hot chocolate though! 😛

It turned in to a fudgey, gooey, chocolate brownie….that just so happened to be in a mug.

There were milk and dark chocolate chips in it, which did not melt, but they were soft so when you got one on the spoon that bite had a little extra Mmm! to it. The bottom part of the brownie was a bit more dry than the top part, but still delish.

I did go take a second look at the instructions that came with the jar and only then noticed that is clearly says “Double Chocolate Mug Brownie”…hey, I never claimed to be super observant…

cake in mug 2

How I thought “hot chocolate” after seeing this I do not know.

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The little jar it came in. The doily was on top of the lid to make it cuter.

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Trust me, it tastes better than it looks!

cake in mug 1

The back of the tag – who doesn’t go “awww” when seeing those two hug?

So yeah, not quite the treat I was expecting, but lovely all the same. Now if only I could figure out exactly what was in the dry ingredients and the quantities so I could make it again! I can figure out the basics, but I’ve had cake-in-a-mug before and it was never as good as this one so something is different here…just not sure what.

Looks like I’ll be forced to taste test experiments until I figure it out – oh what a hard life! 😉

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Book Review: Before We Were Yours

13 Feb

I did that thing that pisses me off when other people do it. I got a book from the library that sounded good, didn’t just snatch it from the shelf but took the time to request it and then go pick it up once my name got to the top of the list. Then I bring the book home and…don’t read it. I Just kinda put it in a pile with other books I want to read and left it there. sigh.

Then when the book is due and I try to renew it only to discover I can’t because 22 other people are waiting for it I don’t immediately return it, I keep it another couple days and finally read it.

I get so irritated when I’m on a waiting list for a book and people have over due copies and yet, this week, that person was me. *rolls eyes*

On a good note, I read the book today and am taking it back tomorrow, so others can stop cursing me lol

On to the book review!

before we were yours

I can’t remember where I heard about “Before We Were Yours” by Lisa Wingate but I’m glad the book popped in to my radar.

It is a fictional story based on a true event, something I tend to find fascinating, well, if it is written well, which this book is.

The story is told in two timelines. We follow Avery in present day who is part of a prominent family, has her life all mapped out for her, she stumbles across what might be an old family scandal so she goes digging to find out more. Then there is Rill, her story starts back in the late 1930’s, she is the oldest child in a poor but happy family. All the children are taken to a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage even though they aren’t orphans and experience horrible things over the coming months all while trying to figure out how to get back to their parents.

The story of Rill and her siblings intersects with Avery and her family in ways I won’t detail since I don’t want to spoil the story for you. Suffice to say you are left to do some detective work alongside Avery as you try to sort out the mystery, while suffering alongside poor Rill and her siblings as they go through things no children should.

Avery, Rill, and the other children and family members in this book are fiction, the orphanage, woman who ran it, and the way children were sold as commodities, are true. A woman named Georgia Tann ran a bizarre organization that flourished thanks to bribing various officials, having a large spotting network to help her find suitable looking children to kidnap, and the lack of regulation within the adoption system at that time.

It really is amazing, in a horrible way, what she was able to get away with for so long.

Despite how dark I am making it seem it isn’t a depressing book. It is an easy read, it all just sort of flows along. I liked a lot of the characters, even the annoying ones lol, I don’t want to discuss the ending because I don’t like giving spoilers but it won’t make you unhappy…probably…how would I know what ending you would prefer? 😉 lol

So there you have it, my first book review…hopefully I get better at this! 😀

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Chicken Pot Pie

10 Feb

Time for another recipe! Well…it was sort-of a recipe, more like recommendations of ingredients with vague comments about how to put them together lol

I wanted to try making Chicken Pot Pie, the kind with the biscuits on top, but had no idea how. So I did what I always do, I YouTubed and Googled and came up with lots of recipes but also lots of questions.

All the recipes mentioned needing whatever quantity of cooked chicken, but none of them said how to cook the chicken. Am I supposed to bake it? Grill it? Boil it? Why don’t these recipes start with “Step 1: cook the chicken in such-n-such a manner”? Won’t the chicken cook when it is in the oven mixed with all the other ingredients?

That was my main line of confusion, so then I did what I always do when confused by recipes, I emailed my mom. I basically sent her the questions I typed in the above paragraph with a desperate plea for help.

She took pity on me, probably while shaking her head wondering how I function as an adult when left to my own devices, and replied with the tidbit of information that chicken pot pie is designed to use up left over chicken, which is why the recipes don’t say how to cook the chicken.

Oops!

Then she sent a recipe for chicken pot pie she has from a relative…

1 can mushroom or celery soup (Aunt Jude used one of each as she was making a 9 x 13 pan)
Cooked chicken, cubed
chopped onion, celery, mushrooms
frozen mixed vegetables, or left over veggies
seasonings
milk
Mix soup and small amount of milk in a large bowl. Stir in cooked chicken and chopped onion, celery and mushrooms, add frozen veggies (or a mix of frozen/left over veg) till you like the quantity. Pour into casserole dish, top with pastry lid. Bake at 375 for 25 mins, or until pastry looks cooked.
This is not a recipe!
This has vague measurements, and even vaguer details.  A small amount of milk? What is a “small amount”? When I asked her she said “until it looks right”. *rolls eyes*
And uh, hello, “seasonings”…what seasonings? Which ones? How much of each?
Some of us need a detailed road map when cooking and the above recipe was not that!
Not wanting to admit defeat I attempted to make the recipe, only smaller as I didn’t want endless left overs. I used one can of the mushroom soup, 1/4 of a can of milk, half a bag of mixed frozen veggies (Compliments brand, they are meant for soup so lots of celery, carrots, things like that), a bunch of shredded chicken that I bought from Safeway, and for seasonings I used parsley, oregano, basil, and jalapeno red pepper flakes…what can I say, I wanted a bit of a kick to the flavour.
The kick didn’t really happen, it is a bit bland but not in a bad way, which sounds weird I know. It actually ended up tasting fairly good, it isn’t pretty but oh well. It also isn’t some strongly flavoured dish but I don’t think it is supposed to be and maybe it wouldn’t taste like chicken pot pie if it was…deep thoughts to ponder on some other day lol
I didn’t make the biscuits, or give it a pastry top. I was going to make an individual biscuit using the two ingredient dough that has exploded in popularity all over the internet but was too lazy and didn’t lol I didn’t want to make the biscuits or pastry lid like on traditional pot pies because I thought they would get soggy after being on there for a while and since it is only me eating this thing I was betting on the leftovers lasting for days, and days, and then being frozen to last a little bit longer…and none of that made me feel confident in the biscuit life span. Go figure, I’m a bit of a cynic 😉
chicken pot pie
chicken pot pie 2
It turns out that the recipe that isn’t a recipe made a pretty good meal, that has fed me for daaaaays. Tomorrow will be my last serving of it and I’m gonna kinda miss it. I just might have to add this one in to my rotation of meals I make on a more regular basis…not that I actually have a list like that, but grown-ups seem to so maybe I should make a list…can putting “ordering pizza”on the top of a list like that count? Hmm…more deep thoughts to ponder… 😉

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A New Cookie

1 Feb

A found a recipe for a cookie I wanted to try and oh boy were they a hit! I made them for someone at work as a going away present (so she got all the really pretty ones lol) and the rest I gave away, most of them to other people at work and some to my landlords.

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It’s actually a pretty easy recipe, which I will put right here…

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:

1 Cup Butter

2 Cups Sugar

3 Eggs

2 tsp. Almond Extract

4 Cups Flour

1 tbsp. Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

1/2 tsp Salt

Cream together the butter and sugar until blended.

Add in the eggs, mix well.

Add in the rest of the ingredients.

Don’t panic! The batter will be very thick!

Add in a few drops of red food colouring and stir through for a pretty pink colour. You don’t want to over mix at this point, you want the batter to have pink swirls in it, not be entirely pink.

Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Roll into balls and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Flatten the balls slightly before baking. Or do what I did and use your snazzy new cookie dough scoop (think ice cream scoop) so your hands don’t get messy and your cookies are all the same size.

Bake in a Preheated 350 degree oven for around 10 to 12 minutes. Careful, they burn easy! (not that I’m speaking from experience or anything 😉 )

Once removed from the oven, glaze the cookies with the following glaze recipe, make sure to do this while they are still warm.

1 Cup Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp. Almond Extract

1 to 3 Tbsp. milk

1 to 2 drops red food colouring – you want a pretty pink glaze

When making this glaze, if it is quite thick, add more milk or if too runny, add more powdered sugar, until you get it to a spreading consistency.

I don’t recommend topping with sprinkles, I tried that and they melted, making the cookie look like it had smeared drops of blood in the glaze (I used red sprinkles) lol When I tried topping a different cookie with sprinkles, once it and the glaze had cooled a bit, it was too late and the glaze wouldn’t hold the sprinkles. Finicky little things!

The recipe makes a huge amount of cookies, I burned one entire tray (oops!) and still ended up with more than I knew what to do with.

My dough ended up thicker and a bit dryer than the mixture I saw in the original recipe, and because of that my pink swirls ended up more like pink dots, which taste wise is fine, they were still good. But looks wise, could use improvement. I didn’t take in to account change in atmosphere, humidity, etc, when making the cookies. Next time I might make them a tad less dry so I can swirl the colour, see what result that gets me.

The cookie itself has a lovely soft middle with a slight crunch on the outside. The addition of the almond extract in both the cookie and glaze is what people love (I think), because it is different and not the flavour you are expecting when you bite in.

I think it would be a great cookie to make if you needed something to give away, say in a cookie exchange, or for presents, or even to take to a gathering, because it makes so many, isn’t overly sweet, and is pretty. 🙂

Aaaaand because it is always important to give credit where credit is due here is a link to the YouTube video where I got the recipe from…

 

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