Tested this recipe out for weheartrecipes.com, it was delicious! Although I have to admit it was far more time consuming than I thought it would be, that’s what you get for not fully reading a recipe before you start. The dough was a bit difficult to handle but by the second tart I had developed an elegant system of mushing it into the pan. As always when I bake I used organic ingredients and as many local ones as possible.

Open balcony on a cold rainy Vancouver day worked perfectly to cool these bad boys down in no time, along with everything else in my apartment. 


Recipe can be found in the featured section of weheartrecipes.com, let me know if you want an early access invite code! 

Ingredients

1 cup Flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar (or thick honey)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 Salt
1/2 cup Butter 
1 Egg
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
3/4 cup Rolled Oats
Chocolate chips, raisins or cranberries if desired

Directions

Mix first six ingredients together. Add butter, egg and vanilla. Beat well until sticky. Stir in oats and any extra goodies.
Form into small balls, dip in sugar. Place on an un-greased cookie sheet. Cook at 375F for approx 8-12 minutes depending on oven.

So these look amazing, right? Too bad they tasted like crap hahaha! I was really looking forward to this recipe because there were so many positive reviews but for some reason my batch had the strangest metallic aftertaste. I’m not sure where I went wrong but I’m willing to give it another go since they looked so good and it was my very first cracker attempt.

Mexican for dinner, all made from scratch. 

A few weeks ago I took a cheese making class, it was very interesting but I won’t be making my own “real” cheese anytime soon. I will however try hanging cheese, hang goats yogurt or creme fraiche in a cheese cloth for 24 hours and it makes a chevre or cream cheese respectively! 

Do you know what turns milk into cheese?! Rennet, an enzyme from the stomach of a feeding calf, kid or lamb. However now most cheese produced in North America is produced with a GMO version made by the lovely people who brought you Viagra… Yum! Most imported cheeses from Switzerland or France are still made with real Rennet. 

Sorry for the photo quality or lack there of, I took them all with my phone. 

Sooo easy to make, this is my new “need a chocolate fix now” dessert! So easy that if you’re not paying attention and forget to put in half the milk and only 1 of 2 eggs it still works and tastes delicious! 

Recipe

All images © Melanie Shave

Made this Double Chocolate Layer Cake for a special birthday and whoamama was it ever good. But how could it not with over a POUND of chocolate? Having never made a real from scratch cake I was a bit worried it wouldn’t turn out, I was also in such a rush to make this I didn’t get a chance to take any proper photos. Oh well an excuse to make it again some day!

Judging from my posts one might be fooled to believe I have an obsession with squash and soup. Mmmmm, not quite. I do have a fondness for buying squash at the farmers market, how could I not when they are always in season and look so cool! But then I get home and they sit on my table going bad while I try to justify why the hell I bought yet another squash. I usually end up making the squash recipes on a lazy Sunday afternoon with no time constraints and little hope that they will turn out, giving me lots of time (and daylight) to take pictures. So on that little note any squash recipe suggestions besides soup and bread would be greatly appreciated as I fear my squash buying days are far from over. 

Ingredients:
1 small butternut squash
1 carrot
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 celery stick
5 cups homemade chicken or veggie stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional Topping Suggestions:
Goat cheese
Pea Sprouts (or any other sprouts)
Cream

Directions:
Roast butternut squash and carrot in the oven at 375 or frying pan until soft. Mix remaining ingredients to the stock and simmer for 10 minutes. Add cooked squash and carrot to broth and simmer another 20 minutes until everything is nice and soft. Take a big spoon and scoop out the chunky bits (squash, carrot, onion, celery) in batches and transfer to blender. This allows you to slowly add the desired amount of stock while blending in order to customize your soup thickness.  Top with anything you might like or have plain.

Notes:
Pea Sprouts: YUM! This was the first time I’ve tried pea spouts and they went amazingly with the soup. 
Homemade stock:  THE most important thing, it will make a world of difference to your soup. I’m a horrible stock maker, I throw anything and everything into the pot, cover with water and let simmer for 2-3 hours. It wasn’t until I actually read a proper recipe that I realized how wrong I was doing it. I don’t really care if it has little floaty bits and is cloudy, it always taste good.
Ingredients: I usually eyeball all ingredients so this is a guestimate of amounts. Use your common sense and adjust everything to your liking. Don’t have something? Improvise! 

Bread made with squash - can you believe it!? I really didn’t think this was going to work but I needed something to make with the cute mini “sweet squash” I bought at the winter’s farmers market. I baked the squash and tried to eat it plain but I’m not much of a plain food kinna girl. Searching for something to make I found this recipe and decided to give it a go, reading through the comments I opted to make a few changes. I sprinkled some Italian herbs (basil, rosemary and thyme) with the flour so that when I rolled the dough out it picked up all the yummy herbs. I sprinkled a hefty amount or coarse sea salt onto the top of the braided loaf before putting it in the oven and brushed the loaf with olive oil instead of the suggested egg wash. This made an AMAZING sweet bread with the texture of a croissant and since I was too lazy to mash the squash it had beautiful little yellow squash fibres throughout. Hurrah! 

Granola doesn’t seem so boring when it’s out to kill you. As exciting as that sounds I like to live past breakfast so I’ve started making my own nut-free granola, ohhh the excitement is almost too much! 

Nut Free Granola

4 Cups Rolled Oats
1/4 Cup each of Sunflower Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds and Golden Flax, Dried Cranberries, Raisins, Goji Berries or any other seeds and/or dried fruit. 
1/2 Cup Orange Juice 
1/2 Cup Olive Oil
1/4 Cup Honey
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
fyi - I always use organic ingredients when possible =)

Combine oats, seeds, flax and brown sugar together in a bowl. Mix orange juice, oil and honey together. I use Manuka Honey which is very thick, so I heat it on low in a sauce pan in order to mix. Combine liquid mixture into oats/seeds and combine until all the dry ingredients are coated.
Place mixture into a glass casserole dish and cook at 375F for approximately 40 minutes or until granola has turned a light golden brown. Check on granola every 10 minutes and stir to brown the granola evenly. 
Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes then mix in dried fruit. Depends on what kind of honey you use and how sweet you like your granola, I sometimes dribble a little maple syrup or extra honey onto the granola when it is still a little bit warm.