Baking

When life hands me a hectic schedule and excess stress I hand myself a chocolate chip cookie... I'm not sure when the pattern started exactly but its been going strong for awhile now. My kind of baking therapy I guess. Rather than tackle some ambitious new recipe I reach for old faithful. But here's the thing -- you can make chocolate chip cookies like a zillion different ways... I've certainly made them many ways. I never follow a recipe so that sort of guarantees a different outcome every time. I love how you can take more or less the same ingredients and make something totally different. It all comes down to chemistry. Take for example hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) versus water (H2O) -- they start out with the exact same basic components, but end up with a totally different result. I think that's sort of why I love baking so much. As a baker you get to start on a level playing field -- using the same basic ingredients as everyone else -- but then you get to play around wi...

Cauliflower is having what feels like 15 minutes of fame these days..or maybe that's already over now... Praised for its health benefits and versatility, cauliflower is popping up in a ton of special diet communities -- from vegan to paleo. Its been one of my favourite veggies for awhile -- ever since I realized that it could be used instead of dairy in creamy sauces, and instead of chicken. I love it as a rice alternative too. But my latest obsession is with cauliflower wings . In case you've been living on the moon this year, cauliflower wings are a super popular thing now. Vegan bloggers love to eat them on the regular and restaurants are even serving them instead of chicken wings. Truth is they are that good.  Cauliflower is one of my favourite meat alternatives. Its super healthy, thought to help fight cancer and tastes a lot like chicken when you douse it in sauces and especially when you  batter it and bake/fry it until crispy.  Before I went vegan BBQ chicken was ...

I"ll be honest -- I have a bit of a weird relationship with peanut butter. I love it but it doesn't always love me back...   Though it may not always hold a special place in my pantry, when peanut butter eventually finds its way back into my cupboard I always wonder why it ever left. For me, the key to enjoying peanut butter is moderation...   There was once an extended period of time when I ate peanut butter every day without fail. It often left my digestion out of whack so after awhile I began to look for healthier alternatives. My favourite PB replacement is still pumpkin seed butter (FYI). Never cared for almond butter or sunflower seed butter -- but you could totally substitute them in this recipe if you want to. The thing is, there's something special about peanut butter that's hard to imitate. Sometimes a girl just needs it. Today was one of those times.   So after diving into my husband's pb stash with a spoon for awhile I decided to keep the peanut butte...