s'mores ice cream

I've moved over to a new blog!  Head over to The Farmer's Daughter for the full post and recipe!

coconut mint blueberry cookies

I adore blueberries. They're definitely one of my favourite summer fruits and I've been buying and eating them by the crateful! These cookies were inspired by our blueberry coconut mojitos recipe, and I won't lie... I was extremely nervous about how these would turn out! I was craving blueberries and lemon and mint and coconut, but wanted them in pastry form... so I took a leap of faith and made these cookies and am sooo happy with how delicious these babies turned out! If you're a blueberry lover, I promise you can't go wrong with these.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of coconut oil

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/3 cup coconut flakes

1 cup fresh (or frozen!) blueberries

1/4 cup of shredded mint leaves

Preheat your oven to 35 degrees. Sift together your dry ingredients while in a separate bowl, mix together your wet ingredients. Slowly mix both parts in together. Leave your blueberries for last and gently mix them in so that they don't explode and make a big mess! Then bake for 12-15 minutes.

*sidenote: not that it'll be a problem... but I recommend that you eat ALL of these the day you make them! I saved a half dozen of them and found that because of the milk and blueberries that the cookies got a little soggy the next day and weren't as scrumptious :) *

Enjoy these delicious summer treats! 

p.s.  ♥ clara

rhubarb coffee cake

I've moved over to a new blog!  Head over to The Farmer's Daughter for the full post and recipe!

-kels

the mountains are calling, and I must go...

The rocky mountains in their white capped glory. Salt-loving mountain goats. Crisp, summer rainfalls. The best friends anyone could ever ask for. Warm, open fires to cuddle in front of. The roar of rushing water falling down a mountain side. Thought-provoking, witty reads, and glorious amounts of delicious, fire-roasted eats. 

And then banana boats, of course.  

funky monkey bars

I moved to a new blog!  Head over to The Farmer's Daughter for the full post and recipe!

p.s.  ♥ kelsey & jordyn

spicy thai coconut peanut shrimp

Oh hi there. It's Clara.

Yep.

Clara is doing a food post for the first time since....well, lets not actually go there, since it's a little embarrassing. So on to the good stuff!

I adore Thai food. It has a wicked kick to it (think Chuck Norris), it's colourful, healthy, intense on flavour, smells glorious, and is the best Asian cuisine in the world (don't tell my Korean relatives...). I'm seriously hooked on Thai food, which means that although I honestly do love my roots and Korean food, Thai gets cooked a lot more at home.

It's just that good.

Thank goodness Caleb likes it just as much as I do, cause I'm a little obsessed and crave it all the time. And if you've never had any experience with Thai before... please, please, pleaseee do yourself favor, go find a good Thai restaurant or make this dish at home.

And then prepare your tastebuds for some crazy epicness.

Ingredients: 

2/3 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups of coconut milk

2 tbsp of corn starch

3 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp red curry paste

1 tbsp sriracha sauce

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp minced fresh ginger

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

2 tbsp minced garlic

4-5 cups of sliced veggies of your choice 

(I used carrots, broccoli, and peppers...)

1/2 cup of chopped, unsalted peanuts

1/2 cup of chopped, fresh cilantro

sesame seeds

Instructions:

1. Whisk together the coconut milk and corn starch first in a medium bowl. Add in the rest of the ingredients in the first set. Set aside.

2. In a medium sized pot, boil water and boil your shrimp (if they aren't already pre-cooked) until the shrimp turn bright pink/red. Drain the pot of the water and set your shrimp aside for now.

3. In a large wok, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add your onion and garlic and cook until fragrant. Add in your remaining vegetables and saute until they are tender, but crisp. 

4. Add in the peanut mixture and shrimp to the wok and stir until it comes to a boil. 

5. Turn your stove down, add in your peanuts and cilantro, and serve over prepared rice. Garnish with additional peanuts, cilantro, and sesame seeds!

basic pancakes // mother's day inspiration

Mother's Day is quickly approaching (hint hint....to those of you who had no idea!), and I thought I'd share a super basic pancake recipe as inspiration of what you could do for your mom.  Breakfast in bed is always sweet, and these are nice and simple!  As my mom always says: "Everything tastes so much better when you don't have to make it!".

Serve these pancakes with some fresh fruit, and a quirky card, and you'll be sure to make your mom's day!

The inside of the card reads "Great moms turn the mixer off first."  Haha.  My mom definitely let me lick the beaters when I was younger....and still does!  The card came from Treat Cards, which we were recently introduced to, and they have a huge collection of hilarious, as well as gorgeous cards.  They can all be personalized as well, with photos and text, which I think is pretty rad!  

Anyway, these pancakes are nice and simple, and can easily be customized.  Throw in a few chocolate chips, or maybe some blueberries to jazz them up a bit if you feel like it.

Basic Pancakes

slightly adapted from: Martha Stewart

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 tbsp butter, melted (or vegetable oil)
1 large egg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1)  In a small bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together; set aside.

2)  In a medium bow, whisk milk, melted butter, and egg together. 

3)  Add dry ingredients to milk mixture and mix until just combined.  (a few lumps are fine here)

4)  Heat a large frying pan or griddle to medium heat.

5)  Grease pan with cooking spray, oil, or butter.

6)  Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of batter onto your pan.  You can use the back of a spoon to help spread it into a circle.  *Make sure you don't spread your batter too thinly.  You'll get flat pancakes if you do!

*If your pancakes spread out too much and are flat, you might need to add a small amount of flour to help thicken the batter up.  Or, if your batter is too thick, just add a small amount of milk to the mixture.

7)  Cook until bubbles have formed and started to burst (1-2 minutes).  Flip and cook until both sides are brown (1-2 more minutes). 

8)  Serve warm and top with syrup, jam, fruit, peanut butter and/or whipped cream!

And another gif!  This time I used a tripod, so it's a little prettier than my last one.

Let's hope you don't get sick of them...since I think they're my new favorite thing!

Please note that yellow maple syrup + a blue plate = green looking syrup.  Oops!

p.s.  ♥ kelsey

back to basics: pizza dough

Who doesn't love pizza?  With a crunchy crust, gooey cheese, and all the toppings you want, who could resist?  

It's like the Leonardo DiCaprio of food.  And like Leo, it will likely never win an Oscar, but it still gets invited to the party.

One of the best things about pizza is that it is so incredibly versatile! You can make practically any kind of pizza you can dream of.  Our go-to pizza is topped with caramelized onions, sauteed red peppers, mushrooms, garlic, spinach and chicken, finished off with feta, mozzarella, and cheddar cheese.  But we also love greek, pepperoni, and we just tried making thai for the first time.  It was the bomb!

This is our tasty recipe for homemade pizza crust.  It takes a bit of time and work, but it is definitely worth it!  The extra spices in the crust add a nice punch of flavour.

Homemade Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

1/2 cup hot water (not boiling, hot tap water is fine)

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast

1/2 tablespoon sugar

6 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp salt

1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups warm water

Directions:

1) In a medium size bowl dissolve sugar in the hot water, and then mix in yeast.  Let this rise for 15 minutes.

2) In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients.

3) Stir in the risen yeast, the warm water and the oil into the dry ingredients.

4) Mix well.

5) Turn out mixture onto a floured surface and knead until dough has a smooth texture.  About 10 minutes.

6) Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in a warm area for 1 hour.

7) Split dough in half, each will make a large pizza.

8) With a rolling pin, roll out pizza a bit larger than the pan you are using.  I used a large round pizza pan (ours is 14 inches across), and a 10 x 15 square pan.

9) Once the dough has been rolled out, place over well greased pan (I used olive oil) and tuck in the edges to make a crust, poke holes in the crust with a knife or fork (this prevents crust bubbles).

10) Bake pizza at 350 for 20 minutes.

11) Add pizza sauce and desired ingredients.

12) Bake for another 8 minutes, or until the cheese has melted (sometimes we like to broil it).

3-layer angel food peeps cake

I've moved over to a new blog!  Head over to The Farmer's Daughter for the full post and recipe!

p.s.  ♥ kelsey 

chicken vegetable soup (aka: clean out the fridge soup)

My family loves soup.  In addition to our "What's new Wednesday" - the day we try out a brand new recipe, "Fish Taco Friday" - the day we have fish tacos (recipe here!), we also have "Soup Saturday".

Yeah we really like alliterations.  And food.

If you haven't figure it out yet, "Soup Saturday" is the day we have soup. It is also bun day, (hmmm do we need an alliteration for that? Wheat Weekend?)  so we often have soup to complement my mother's delicious home made buns.  

We made this recipe when my parents were vacationing in Arizona (with our Grandparents, no fair!), so we didn't have any fresh homemade buns to enjoy.  So, on her way home from work, Kelsey stopped by a local farmer's market and picked up a fresh baked baguette!  It was delicious, and we even added some cheese and broiled it to make some cheesy bread.  It was the best.

skinny fettuccine alfredo

Not all food is photogenic.  That is the lesson of this week. Ha.

#foodphotographerproblems.

Did I just hashtag in a blog post?  Yep.  I do what I want.
Honestly, I'm quite enjoying this new venture into photographing actual meals instead of just sweets, and I can't believe it's taken me so long to get around to it.  Although I must say that this dish was an interesting challenge since I had no idea how to make a pile of noodles look mouthwatering.
Cupcakes or ice cream?  The camera loves them.  Pasta?  Yikes.

Now, Jordyn is the master chef (yet again), and this recipe is her baby.  Our family loves pasta, but we also love trying to make things a bit healthier.  This "skinny" version of uses greek yogurt in place of butter and cream, and it's oh so creamy and delicious!  And it's packed full of protein, so you can easily leave out the chicken if you wish.

Skinny Chicken Alfredo

serves: ~4

recipe by: jordyn

Ingredients:

2 cups broccoli

4 large carrots

1 cup brussel sprouts, halved

assorted spices (salt/seasoning salt, pepper, garlic powder)

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces and sauteed

8 ounces fettuccine

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced 

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup chicken broth

1/3 cup plain greek yogurt

black pepper to taste

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (freshly grated is the best, but whatever you have works!)

happy pancake day!

Mardi Gras.  (Fat Tuesday).  Shrove Tuesday.  Pancake Day.

I don't care what you call it.....I'll take any excuse to eat pancakes.

I hope you were able to enjoy some pancakes, or at least something fatty. Ha!  Calories don't count on Fat Tuesday, right?  Riggghhht?!

These pancakes are actually gluten-free, and were surprisingly fluffy and amazing. You can find the recipe here, at Mountain Mama Cooks!  Delish.  And oh so good for having in my back pocket when I have any of my gluten-free friends over for breakfast!

Anyway, Happy Tuesday friends.  Hope all of your weeks are going well....and if not, then you deserve to treat yourself to some pancakes!

p.s. ♥ kelsey

superfood salad (with shrimp)

Hold up....this is a post about food, and yet there is no caramel or chocolate in sight.

Jordyn and I have really really been wanting to start sharing our favourite meals (in addition to all the desserts we love) here on the blog, not only to share with all of you, but for ourselves and friends to have easy access to our everyday recipes.  So, be prepared (hopefully) for more legitimate meals to be appearing here.

Don't worry, there will always be a healthy dose of sweets as well!

Anywho....this is superfood salad!  It actually does have superpowers....since I'm not a huge fan of pomegranates or oranges, but since eating this salad I have been converted.  There is so much protein and goodness going on in this salad, that it makes a wonderful lunch or supper, or even a great side dish.

Superfood Salad

(heavily) adapted from: Iowa girl eats

Ingredients:

3 cups quinoa, cooked

1/2 white onion, diced finely

2 oranges, chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 to 2 avocados, chopped

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 pomegranate (seeded)

1 3/4 cup frozen corn, thawed

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

chocolate pecan caramel thumbprint cookies

Mmmhhh....caramel!  You can't say that you're surprised that it's shown up again so soon. Ha!

We made these cookies for Christmas (yeah yeah...I'm working on the whole procrastinating thing), and they were a huge hit.  Definitely a bit more work than your average cookie...but well worth it when you want something extra special.

These cookies have so many wonderful textures going on...from the crunch of the nuts, chewiness of the chocolate cookie, and finally the smooth creaminess of the caramel!

Chocolate Pecan Caramel Thumbprint Cookies

adapted from: taste of home

Yields: ~2.5 dozen

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg, separated
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely chopped pecans (walnuts would be a great alternative!)

FILLING:
12 to 14 caramels
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

mocha cheesecake

I could have titled this post: "the only cheesecake I ever make", because that is the truth.  

I've tried several other recipes for cheesecakes, but this one is my all-time favorite.  Since cheesecake is a relatively expensive dessert that I tend to only make once in a while (for special occasions!), I really don't like experimenting too much.  I just love this recipe too much!

Also, for those of you who aren't really coffee fans...fear not!  I'm totally not a coffee drinker (at all), and I can't get enough of this cake.  If you're still not sure, you can always leave out the instant coffee for an excellent chocolate cheesecake!

Mocha Cheesecake

from: Jean Pare - Company's Coming: Chocolate Everything

Ingredients:

1/3 cup margarine, melted
1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder

tasty tuesday: bison cookies (chocolate sugar cookies)

I've moved over to a new blog!  Head over to The Farmer's Daughter for the full post and recipe!

tasty tuesday: hunky bills

Now Hunky Bills are actually something we make at Christmas time, but since I'm an excellent procrastinator (and life was nuts around Christmas), I'm just blogging about them now!  Really they would be a delicious treat all year round, we just happen to only make them once a year.  Which is probably good for my waistline!

Funny story:  their real name is definitely not Hunky Bills....but rather: Uncle Bill's Cuban Lunch.  Somehow, someway, over many many Christmases.....they slowly morphed into Hunky Bills.  

My family all knows it's not right, but we can't help that we call them that!  It's pretty hilarious.

Moving on.  These babies are another easy peasy recipe, where all you do is melt chocolate and stir deliciousness into it!  (Deliciousness being chips and peanuts....yum.)  

Man, I'm such a sucker for anything  sweet and salty!  Just so darn good.

Hunky Bills
from: my Auntie Bobbi

Ingredients:

3 cups chocolate chips

3 cups reese's peanut butter chips

200 grams plain Ripple Chips, crushed (these usually come in a 200 gram bag, so measuring is easy!)

2 1/2 cups salted peanuts, chopped

Directions:

1)  In a very large saucepan, first melt the peanut butter chips.  Add chocolate chips once the peanut butter chips are melted.  Stir together.

2)  Allow mixture to cool slightly, and then add crushed chips and chopped peanuts (you want the chunks of chips and peanuts pretty small).

3)  Line a mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake papers, and spoon the mixture into the papers.  Let them cool until firm enough to remove from pan.  

*We always pop ours in the freezer for a few minutes until hardened, remove the hunky bills, and then do another pan until all of the mixture is gone.

Soooo....once you've finally caved on your healthy New Year's Resolutions, you know where to find this recipe.  Ha!  They're totally worth it.  Promise.

p.s. ♥ kelsey