Thin Bread and Wheat Thins

Every January I tell myself I'm going to dial back on the carbohydrates. After a December filled with cookies and toffee and caramel corn one doesn't need potatoes and bread and crackers. And then the cold weather comes and my body cries out for carbs. Demands, them really. Macaroni and cheese, scalloped potatoes...bread. And crackers. What's a girl to do? This girl gives in and heads to the kitchen.

Christmas Eats

Just when it seems like your husband is impossible to buy for at Christmas, you come up with the perfect gift. The gift of beef. A couple of weeks ago I decided to order a beef tenderloin for our family of four Christmas dinner (the Sunday before December 25th). Saucy came through with a lovely cut from Metzger's. I dialled up a recipe on Epicurious: Herb and Spice-Roasted Beef Tenderloin with with Red-Wine Shallot Sauce. The verdict? See above. Next year, all my husband wants for Christmas is beef tenderloin.

Smitten

I was pleased to be gifted the Smitten Kitchen cookbook for my birthday this year. I've already dived in and cooked up three recipes from this cookbook since receiving it in early December. And every time I flip through I find myself mentally filing away the next recipe I want to try. Since we were all caked out by the time David's birthday rolled around, I tried out the Brownie Roll Out Cookies as a substitute. They were definitely worthy. Then came Christmas Eve day; a great day (and eve) at our house. Everyone on holiday, no where to go, nothing in particular that needed to be done. I was skimming through Smitten Kitchen and decided that it wasn't enough that we have gingerbread, sugar cookies, two kinds of snack mix, caramel corn and fudge in the house. We needed toffee! And happily I had all of the ingredients needed to make Coffee Toffee.

Spaghetti Tacos

I can't quite remember when it happened, but sometime this year my kids discovered iCarly. First on Netflix, then on YTV. It's a pretty goofy show, and while I don't always love some of the messaging it isn't the worst show they've watched. Fairly early on in the series I remember hearing about spaghetti tacos. This is a meal served to the iCarly gang every once in a while....a dinner option that, much like the show, seems a bit goofy. Then last week both of my boys asked if we could have spaghetti tacos for dinner. And since I like to encourage them to try new foods I said "sure" and set out to find a suitable recipe.

Pumpkin Gingersnaps

Wow. These cookies are such a good idea. I love traditional gingersnaps. I have a go-to recipe for gingersnaps that has never failed me. But today I also had a couple of cups of pumpkin left over from making pumpkin muffins and I wasn't in the mood for pumpkin bread or pumpkin scones or pumpkin soup. These are not things I can sell around my house. But cookies....cookies always sell. So. Pumpkin Gingersnap cookies. So simple yet so effective!

Black Label Chicken Parmesan

This past Saturday I was gifted with a big bag of PC Black Label food products. Which came in very handy Sunday night when I was faced with deciding on dinner. I had my eye on the big box of Fiorelli pasta that was in my bag but wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, since I wasn't on grocery duty this weekend and wasn't sure what I had to work with. Then I spied a jar of Black Label Marinara sauce in the pantry that David happened to pick up, having been inspired by our gift bag bounty. Rustling through the fridge I found some chicken breasts while the freezer yielded up some grated mozzarella cheese. A quick Google search later and I decided on Baked Chicken Parmesan, using my bottled marinara and Fiorelli pasta.

Two-Bite Brownies

Two-bite brownies are still a pretty popular party offering despite their two-bite market dominance being tested by cake pops. The other day I saw that pie pops are also trying to become a thing. Ugh. Really? Mini pies or hand-held pies (turnovers?) I can get behind but pie on a stick just seems odd.

I love making homemade two-bite brownies even though when I bring them places I think people assume I bought them then arranged them on my own platter to pass off as homemade. So I overcompensate and find myself saying to anyone who will listen: "I made these. I know they look like store bought but honestly, I made these. Really." Once you taste them I think it's clear these are not a store-bought brownie. I whipped up a batch Friday night when Daniel was having a sleep over and they disappeared pronto, along with large glasses of frothy white milk.

Speaking of milk, we seem to buy an awful lot of milk these days. We buy our milk in bags and last week at one point we had nine bags of milk in our fridge. And I thought we were never going to need to buy milk again. Two days later - no milk. How is that possible? I shudder to think how much milk we're going to need to get through adolescence. Or how many of these two-bite beauties will be consumed.

I started making this recipe years ago after being gifted a wonderful cookbook called Grazing from our friends James and Lisa. I've made other treats out of this cookbook and never been disappointed.

Two Bite Brownies

At only 2 grams fat per pop, these will satisfy your need for chewy brownies. Be careful not to overbake them – they should be slightly puffed but still soft to the touch. Freeze leftovers and serve them frozen or warmed in the microwave with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. (If you don’t have mini muffin cups, the batter can be baked in an 8”x8” pan at 350°F for 25-30 minutes.)

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. instant espresso or coffee, dissolved in 1 tsp. water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, mix together butter and sugar until well combined. Add eggs, vanilla and coffee and stir until well blended and smooth.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add to the egg mixture and stir by hand just until combined.

Spoon the batter mini muffin cups that have been sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until puffed but still soft to the touch. Do not overbake! Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Makes 24 brownies.