Merry Christmas Everyone!

Here are some mini cupcakes I whipped up a couple of weeks ago for our neighbour's annual Christmas party.  There were both vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and I topped them with some classic vanilla buttercream. Yum!

The beautiful lights at the Alberta Legislature Grounds

I hope everyone is having a fabulous Christmas season! Ours has been busy as busy can be, but a total blast at the same time.

My Aunt/Godmother and I at her Christmas party

At John's work Christmas party

From Christmas parties to Christmas baking to shopping and everything in between, this Christmas is gearing up to be a fabulous one!

Decorating can be so tiring!

From our family to yours, I hope you have an absolutely wonderful Christmas this year! Thank you to each and every one of you for making this year so amazing :)

Dill Pickle Soup

One of our favourite restaurants these days is the Continental Fine Treat Bistro. The food is warm comfort food with a classy twist and we have always had both excellent meals and awesome service at this restaurant.  One of our favourite items it their Dill Pickle Soup, and I recently found out that the recipe for this soup had been in an article in our city's paper! 

As soon as I realized this could be made at home, it became dinner that night.  This soup is really easy to make, and tastes even better the next day so it makes an awesome soup to take to work for lunch.

The creaminess paired with the dill pickle flavour is out of this world! I know it sounds strange, but man is it good!

This recipe is enough for two generous servings.


Dill Pickle Soup

• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 celery stick, sliced
• 1 medium potato, cubed
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 3 medium to large dill pickles, shredded
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• salt and pepper, to taste
• chopped fresh dill
• chopped fresh parsley

1. In a large pot over medium heat, bring the vegetable stock to a simmer and add the celery, potato, and shredded carrot
2. Let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, and then add the shredded dill pickle
3. Mix together the flour with the water in a small bowl and then whisk it into the soup
4. Bring the soup to a simmer, and season to taste with the salt and pepper
5. When ready to serve, whisk in the whipping cream and garnish with the chopped parsley and dill
6. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: this restaurant has no idea who I am. We just love their food!

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

The other day I had two sad looking banana's so I decided to whip up my husband's favourite muffin, the Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins that are a stable at our house. After quickly scanning my fridge I realized that we were out of sour cream! Since I couldn't make these specific muffins, I checked out my Mostly Muffins cookbook for another option.


Poor John, as soon as I saw these Peanut Butter Banana muffins I knew they had to be made! They just sounded delicious and perfect to take for breakfast at work. Why poor John?  For some reason he doesn't like peanut butter messing with his favourite muffins, but even he had to agree that these were good.

I used chunky peanut butter, but smooth would work really well too.  I made 16 muffins from this recipe, but it originally states that it makes 12 if you want big muffin tops on your muffins :). If you don't have cupcake liners, be sure to grease your muffin cups so that they don't stick to the pan.


Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 2 overripe bananas, mashed
• 2/3 cup peanut butter (I used chunky peanut butter)
• 2/3 cup soy milk
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and fill your muffin pans with cupcake liners
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt
3. In a second large bowl, whisk together the egg, mashed bananas, peanut butter, soy milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla
4. Create a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients
5. Add the chocolate chips and mix until just combined
6. Fill your prepared muffin cups, and bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the centre of a muffin
7. Let stand in the pan for about 5 minutes before carefully removing
8. Enjoy!

Baby Shower Cake - Welcome Mason!

‘Tis the season for baby showers I think! After making the desserts for my friend’s baby shower a few weeks ago, I was asked to make a cake for a bouncing baby boy that has made a recent arrival.  This was another time that I was given free reign on the cake design and I wanted to try my hand at some more fondant figures.

I covered the cake in baby blue (appropriate, no?) and decorated it with green and yellow stars.  It was then topped with a bear that was made out of chocolate fondant.

The cake itself was a vanilla bean cake iced in classic vanilla buttercream. Always a crowd pleaser!

Welcome baby Mason!

Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

You know how sometimes you are walking through the grocery store, grabbing healthy options for your week and doing your best to resist the temptation of the candy aisle, and then when you look at your basket at the till you find that it has a bag of candy in it? And you have no idea how it even got there?

No? um, me neither

But these randomly showed up in my shopping bag the other day and I figured it would be best for all parties if they were consumed as soon as possible. You know, to remove the temptation and all that.

I figured the colourful candy shell would be ridiculously cute in cookie form, and pairing chocolate and peanut butter is always a winner. I used my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe as a base, and added some chopped up peanut butter M&Ms and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

I had some when they were still warm from the oven and they were unreal! I ate 6 in one sitting. SIX cookies, in one sitting. And that doesn’t even count the rest of the day! oops. Good thing it is sweater season. Puffy sweaters are in fashion, right? please?

I made my cookies a bit smaller than usual, so I was able to get about 4 dozen from this recipe.

Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup chopped peanut butter M&Ms
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chipes

1. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper (or spray it with cooking spray) and preheat your oven to 350F
2. Whisk together the flour and baking soda
3. Mix butter and the two sugars together until light and fluffy
4. Add the eggs, vanilla, and salt to the sugar mixture and mix until completely incorporated
5. Add the flour mixture, followed by the chocolate chips and mix until the chocolate chips are evenly distributed
6. Using a tablespoon, drop the cookie dough onto the baking sheets.  Each baking sheet can hold about 1 dozen cookies 
7. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes and remove when the edges are golden brown and the middle of the cookie is still soft.  The cookies will finish setting after they are removed from the oven
8. Enjoy!

I seem to be on a bit of a cookie kick lately! Must be the holiday dessert platters calling me :)