I’ve been cautiously enjoying the warm weather we’ve been experiencing as of late. Cautious because I know it won’t last. Concerned because it’s a little unnatural to have double digit weather in the middle of February. I think this Sarah Scribbles comic I recently saw on Facebook properly sums up my feelings best.

Despite my conflicted feelings, I took advantage of this nice weather a couple weeks ago and shot these cookie photos outside. I normally don’t do any photography on our little south-facing balcony, but I really wanted to make use of this old table I snagged a couple years ago from the furniture recycle drop-off room in our building. The last few wet winters have not been kind to this table, but this makes for an excellent surface for food photography. I’ll take what I can get, especially since our limited condo space makes hoarding multiple photography surfaces pretty difficult. In fact, at this point, I’m pretty sure my days of dragging this musty table inside for photos are now over.

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Last week I was hit with a horrendous case of the common cold that left me sniffling, sneezing and hacking for days on end. Monday, I was fine. Tuesday, I was a little congested. But by Wednesday, I was a mess and had to call in sick. I think my co-workers were secretly gracious because besides being contagious, they were able to get a break from listening to me sneeze and blow my nose every 5 minutes.

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Trevor and I have a running joke called “not enough hours in the day” which can be applied to many, many things:

“You live in Toronto and you haven’t been to [blank]? You need to go!”

“I recently read [blank] and really enjoyed it. You should read it.”

“[Blank] is a really great TV show and you would definitely like it. It’s on Netflix and there are only 999,999,999 seasons, so it’s easy to catch up.”

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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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I’m always completely giddy this time of year. It probably has to do with wearing sweaters and boots all the time, walking through parks that are sprinkled with colourful, falling leaves and eating lots of apples, squash, and pumpkins. This season is so short (at least in my opinion), so I try to make the most of it and soak up everything all at once.

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Hello! I was going to start by saying how I can’t believe it’s already June, but we’re actually nearing the end of the second week of the month. Hopefully, the rest of summer slows down. My balcony garden is starting to show some promise (Instagram photo here) and already there’s so much seasonal food I want to stuff my face with. Recently an urban farmer’s market set up shop across the street from our condo building and yesterday I had to resist the urge to purchase multiple baskets of local ruby red strawberries. We have an out of town trip planned for this weekend, part of which involves a visit to my favourite market ever (!!), so I’m trying to make sure the fridge is nice and empty before we leave.

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The post Whole Wheat Chocolate Covered “Digestive” Cookies appeared first on She Bakes Here.

There is nothing worse than a tease. Especially a warm weather tease.

Case in point: I have five zucchini plants, a spinach plant, a lettuce plant, and a rosemary plant crowded in large, over-sized pots on our living room floor. All lined up against the window like prisoners on death row, fighting for valuable sunlight, day in and day out, as the sun passes by our south facing windows. I haven’t been able to put them back out on the balcony since last Saturday before the weather dropped and the wind decided it was back with a vengeance. My poor little plants look a little cooped up and after this long winter, I know exactly how they feel.

It’s partially my fault because I definitely started my indoor seeds too early. I blame it on my excitement because this summer we finally have a (small) piece of outdoor space. In my ignorance, I also didn’t think that all five zucchini seeds would take and now I’m staring down at five plants covered in little buds. If all five plants flower and produce fruit, I may be in trouble. If that’s the case, be prepared for a lot of zucchini recipes this summer.

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Posting here has been a little bit of a struggle lately. Nothing sad or serious going on, it’s just recently I’ve been having the worst luck in my kitchen. Earlier this month I was on the third version of a scones recipe that I absolutely refused to give up on and something in me just…..snapped. Not in an angry way, but it was definitely a moment I realized that to maintain my sanity, this creative outlet and most importantly my love of baking, I had to put down the flour, hide my baking notebook and step away from the oven for a brief period. Call it baking burnout if you will.

Except for making supper and the occasional bowl of kale chips, the oven hasn’t  been getting much use. Last night I flipped through my baking notebook for the first time in over a week and I was nicely reminded of all the ideas and plans I have for future posts. I’m hopeful about a new recipe I’m planning to make later today and I’m crossing my fingers that this time away from my oven has done some good.

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The post Coconut Oil Cookies with Toasted Pecans and Cacao Nibs appeared first on She Bakes Here.

I’m a big fan of looking through my old recipe archives. It may sound weird, but one of my favourite things to do is look back and see when the last time was that I made something from a certain category. I recently started a notebook full of recipes and flavour combinations that I’ve been meaning to try and flipping through my archives is a good way to keep some variety in my baking (such as posting 6 cookie recipes in a row and not realizing it until after the fact). Plus going through my archives can be a nice reminder to see if I’ve already posted a similar recipe. As of this month, I’ve been blogging on SBH for four years and those early years of posting are especially fuzzy.

One interesting thing of note in my recipe categories was that there were a total of 15 muffin recipes posted in 2012 and 2013. That’s a lot of muffins, especially when you consider that in 2014 I only posted 2 muffin recipes.

So to make up for my seeming lack of muffin recipes last year, I thought it would be fun to get a jump start and post the first one of 2015 in January.

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The urge to hibernate has been hitting me really hard as the winter days are getting colder and the nights continue to be dark. Some days I feel like I have energy to burn (do ALL the things!) and other days I just want to wrap myself in a warm blanket and plant myself on the couch. Preferably in front of the TV or with a good book and a large mug of tea.

Along with this urge to lounge around comes the desire to eat all things sugary and starchy. We’re really big on comfort food kick right now, with pasta and casseroles being our favourite go-to for supper. Most nights I try to pair it with a kale salad to keep up our vegetable intake, but it’s not always the case. Winter is a weird time and I seem to have misplaced my desire to eat my vegetables even when I know I should be. I’ve even been turning my nose up at the idea of making green smoothies. Who am I and where did the real Jessica go?

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