I can’t believe that I almost forgot to post this recipe for Soft-Baked Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies. Do you want to know what reminded me? Here it is – scrolling through my own Instagram account. I spotted a photo I had posted over a month ago of these cookies cooling on a rack on my kitchen counter and my jaw dropped when I found these photos still on my camera. Am I the only person who does that? Forgetting to edit photos and post recipes I mean, not scrolling through one’s own Instagram profile. I like to at least pretend that everyone secretly checks out their own account from time to time.

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I’m pretty sure this toasted coconut chocolate chip cookie dough fudge is everything I ever wanted in a dessert. As a chocolate-loving adult, it incorporates everything I love – rich milk chocolate, toasted coconut and chocolate chip cookie dough. And if you think you are too old to enjoy cookie dough in all it’s unbaked glory, one bite of this fudge will definitely change your mind.

When I was a teenager, I bought my fair share of homemade chocolate fudge from the local Christmas Market in my little hometown in northern Saskatchewan. As much as I now love living in a big city, I do miss the small-town charm of Christmas Markets filled with friendly neighbors and local vendors. I’ve visited and purchased presents at a couple of the markets in Toronto over the past few years, but sometimes the crowds can be quite suffocating (think crowded, delayed subway – ugh). Thankfully with this recipe, I can get my fix in the comfort of my home and it also gives me the opportunity to enjoy a few pieces and then give the rest away to friends and co-workers.

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For the past month I’ve been making a point of going through and cleaning up old files on my computer (call it spring cleaning if you will) and a couple days ago I came across the cookbook I made for my Grandma. I filled it with family photos, fun little snippets and of course, a round-up of her most loved, family favourite recipes. Last December I hounded my Mom to send me photos from her recipe notebook and then spent countless evenings transcribing her handwritten notes. The structure of each handwritten recipe was the same: title, ingredient list, oven temperature and then total minutes (i.e. 350*F – 11 minutes). That’s it. Luckily I spent a lot of my childhood and teen years observing her in the kitchen, so I was able to understand the lack of instruction for the most part, along with the help of a little kitchen intuition and of course, advice from my Mom.

Over the years I’ve featured a couple of my Grandma’s recipes here on the blog, but it wasn’t until I started the cookbook project that I was able to get her recipe for monster cookies. And after having a blast stacking cookies, taking photos and getting crumbs everywhere, I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to finally share the recipe. Always a crowd pleaser, monster cookies are fun, chewy cookies that are notably made with peanut butter, rolled oats and filled with lots of chocolate chips and M& M’s. As former peanut butter loathing child, I always wondered why my Grandma had jars of the stuff in her pantry and now I think I have my answer.

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Living in a large highrise building means that there are lots of people moving in and out on a regular basis. In the 14 months since we moved in, we’ve watched lots of moving trucks come and go. Having moved many, many times, I understand the stress of packing up your personal belongings and entrusting movers (or close friends) to take care of your things as you move your life from Point A to Point B.

Besides packing for a move, you have to make the conscious decision of what to keep verses what to throw out, give away or donate. Is it really worth it to move our 7-year old broken couch when we plan on purchasing a new one in the near future? Do we even have room for this extra bookshelf? These were definitely things I had to keep in mind when we moved downtown since we were swapping a larger living space for a shorter commute (still one of the best decisions we’ve made).

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It’s been pretty quiet here on the baking front. Even though we have air conditioning, our desire to eat anything flour or sugar-based has reached an all-time low. But if you shift through my archives, you’ll notice that this happens every summer. With the weather being as nice as it is, I tend to spend less time in the kitchen and more time outside. It’s not a bad thing, but I like to acknowledge it because the summer season is so short and we need to all get outside and enjoy it while it’s still here. Pretty soon we’ll be swapping our iced coffees for pumpkin spiced lattes and pulling our boots and winter coats out of storage. Ugh.

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A couple days ago my office held a charity bake sale. I love bake sales because it gives me a chance to go crazy and bake something fun while at the same time give it all away. Plus, for very obvious reasons they are one of my favourite work events. It brings everyone in the building together and it creates a sense of community while raising money for a great cause.

However, I’ve been known to get a little carried away when baking for others, so in order to have fun and maintain my sanity, there are a few things I have to keep in mind when baking something for work:

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I never thought I would be the type of person who makes her own ice cream. This idea changed when I was diagnosed as lactose-intolerant as a child and later even more so when Trevor and I started dating.

Back when I was diagnosed, there wasn’t a lot of dairy-free food options like there are now. So for a good number of years, I relied on taking those funny tasting Lactaid pills so I wouldn’t have to give up my love of cheese, chocolate and most importantly ice cream. Social events like birthday parties were always a little weird and I soon became known as that kid who had to pop pills in order to eat a slice of pizza or birthday cake.

Years later I was in university, I was on a strict budget and as I slowly stopped taking (or forgetting to buy) the pills, I found that I was able to tolerate eating dairy in small to medium doses. Today I no longer have to take the pills, but since I started dating Trevor, I also don’t purchase as many dairy products since I’m usually stuck eating it myself. When I do buy ice cream or pizza, I tend to feel a little guilty when I eat it in front of him. Food isn’t really that fun unless you get to share.

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I’m going to be honest with you all and admit that I have no idea what happened to summer. We didn’t get blasted by the snowfall that everyone in the prairies experienced (like most of Trevor’s family), but I’m still finding myself in denial about the chilly weather and don’t get me started on the lack of sunlight in the morning. We’re still trying to find our groove in our new place and now when my alarm goes off, I’m not only disoriented that our bed is facing a completely different way, but now the lack of natural light is throwing me off. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I walk into the wall or trip over the mountain of laundry I’ve managed to create in the past week.

I also haven’t been baking as much as I usually do because I’m still learning my way around my new(er) kitchen. The space is a little bit tighter and I’m still trying to figure out where I put everything in the haste that was unpacking everything and jumping on a plane to England. All in due time I suppose, but hopefully I’ll be able to find my groove by the end of this month as I have a few more recipes that I’ve been meaning to try out.

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What’s a girl to do when her life is packed away in boxes and she is having trouble navigating her own living room? Why, eat chocolate of course!

One of my most popular recipes on the blog is my Healthy Chocolate Avocado Muffins, but due to my obsession with eating them on everything (veggie burgers, pasta, smoothies, a slice of toast), I don’t always have a ripe avocado on hand every time a chocolate craving hits. Up until recently, I’ve resorted to eating handfuls of the frozen milk chocolate chips I keep finding in half-open bags the back of our freezer. I’m convinced that in doing so, I’m helping to clean out the freezer, so the guilt hasn’t set in yet.

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Every year, without fail, I get the spring cleaning bug and nothing in our apartment is safe. The weather is only just starting to warm up now, but I’ve already completed our bedroom closets, bathroom storage, the DVD/bookshelves and our kitchen cupboards. Recently, I had tackled the fridge and freezer and uncovered about a dozen half-bags of chocolate chips, flavoured baking chips, Hershey chocolates, Skor bar bits and a variety of chopped nuts. At first, I was very tempted to just snack on what little was left in each bag, but as I gradually discovered more and more bags, I realized that I had enough to make a decent “everything” cookie recipe.

“Everything” cookies go by many names. Loaded cookies, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink cookies, and even the somewhat questionable “garbage can cookies.” But no matter what you want to call them, everything cookies are a great way to get rid of, well, everything in your pantry. I ended up saving the chopped nuts to make homemade granola (my currently breakfast addiction), but below is what I added to my cookies.

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