Try as I may, I’m not a very good plan-ahead-of-time-food-blogging person. And you know what? I’m okay with that.

I’ve always enjoyed reading special milestone posts from other bloggers, such as blog anniversaries (blogoversaries?), birthdays, wedding anniversaries…generally anything that celebrates this day as being just a little bit more special . For some of my favourite food bloggers, I can tell you exactly when their birthday is, the date they were married and even when they started their blog based on the above and beyond creativity of these posts.

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“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
― Charles M. Schulz

This first month of 2014 can best be summed up as writer’s block. I have no idea why it’s been such a struggle to write this month, only that all of my posts would have been published much sooner without this sudden huddle I’ve had to face. For some reason as of late, when I sit down to write, my mind goes completely blank. And then when I do start typing, it becomes a mumble-jumble of thoughts and ideas with no real structure and then I turn into the Queen of Random Ideas and Run-On Sentences.  I’ve completely run out of new ways to say “delicious” that now I feel like it’s easier if I just call a recipe “awesome.”

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I’m pretty sure I’ve filled my apple baking quota for the year. Of course, we still have a fridge half full of apples, but now I’m setting my sights on my other favourite fall flavour – pumpkin. I only have two other pumpkin recipes on the blog and one of them wasn’t even posted during the fall season. So for the remainder of fall (or at least until it turns bitterly cold), I’m going to attempt some more pumpkin recipes.

I realize now that in saying this, I’m actually cheating a bit on this first recipe. There is no actual pumpkin in these cookies because I wasn’t sure how to combine egg whites and pureed pumpkin and come out with a meringue cookie that was still light, airy and look appealing enough to eat. Instead I made meringue cookies by replacing the white sugar with brown sugar and adding some pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg). Originally, I was a little worried that the egg whites wouldn’t peak properly because of the higher moisture content in brown sugar verses white sugar, but I was pleasantly surprised when these cookies came together. While they were baking, the kitchen was wafted in a nice pumpkin pie smell and once they cooled, the first bite was sweet and chewy with a crisp outer shell. Perfection.

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I’m embarrassed to admit how long I’ve been holding to this recipe. Remember when I went to visit my Grandma’s house and we made cinnamon buns? That’s how long. Trevor and I didn’t even have a wedding date picked out yet. And now here we are, as newlyweds, and I’m proud to say that I finally made my Grandma’s honey castella cake recipe.

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Trevor and I had a mild panic attack over the weekend when we logged into our WeddingWire account and the countdown kindly reminded us that it was 20 days until our wedding.

Ummmmm, say what? Seriously where did all this time go? Did we not just celebrate the 4-month before wedding date yesterday? (Not really, but you get the picture).

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Although Easter is over and I am sure that everyone is sick of carrot-related recipes, I couldn’t help but share this one. I have been meaning to make carrot cupcakes for a while now, only I couldn’t figure out how to make the cream cheese icing without being stuck eating the whole thing myself (see: Trevor’s lactose intolerance). It’s also worth pointing out that I refused to make carrot cupcakes with plain vanilla icing, which is practically criminal in my books. Carrot cake has to be paired with cream cheese icing, just like peanut butter and chocolate, mint and chocolate, everything and chocolate.

The only way I could make this recipe was if I used a milk free cream cheese substitute. I had been hearing about milk free cream cheese substitutes for some time now, only I was a little worried about how they would turn out. How close to cream cheese were we talking? Sure, it could look and smell like cream cheese, but I wanted something that tasted as close to the real thing as possible.

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I’ve been toying with the idea of making my own cereal for a couple weeks now. The amount of boxed cereal we go through is insane and as much as I want to believe it, the cereal we eat isn’t exactly considered healthy. We may not be stuffing our faces with Corn Pops or Lucky Charms, but most cereals on the market that are marketed as healthy are also loaded with less “whole grains” and more sugar and high fructose corn syrup than many people realize. HFCS is pretty must one of the worst things you can put in your body (thanks Jillian Michaels!). I stopped baking with corn syrup a few years ago and I even remember throwing out the giant bottle I had in my cupboard, which I probably only had so I could make puff wheat squares.

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This Valentine’s Day-ish treat has been brought to you by the flavour vanilla.

I know, I know. You’re all sitting there scratching your heads thinking “but where is the chocolate? Won’t somebody think of the chocolate?”

As it goes, every year sometime between the months of December to February, I always find myself growing sick of chocolate. I see it littering the grocery store seasonal aisles and instead of feeling inspired, I just want to run. This year is no different and now I feel that if I see another foil-covered shaped treat, I’ll throw it to the floor and step on it.

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Although a lot of people use the month of January to make resolutions, I find that I make a lot of little mental resolutions throughout the whole year. They usually consist of spur-of-the-moment things such as “eat healthier” when I’m in the grocery store salivating over the candy aisle or “exercise more” when I find myself planted on the couch in front of the TV. The problem is that these kinds of resolutions never last because I never remember them until I find myself in the same situation again. And then I feel guilty for not really sticking to them.

One of last year’s more memorable mental resolutions was to try and eat more varieties of fruit. Back in the summer, I bought a large bag of frozen mango chunks from Costco in hopes of getting out of my then smoothie rut. I was getting tired of consuming the same fruit over and over and decided that frozen mangoes would cure me of this problem. It was later that I realized that it wasn’t a fruit rut I was suffering from, it was a sick-of-summer feeling. I was tired of the sticky humidity and eating cold food for supper every night, including smoothies. By December, I still had 3/4 of the Costco-sized bag taking up my precious freezer space.

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After last week’s butter cookie coma, I decided to bake something less heavy and with a little more spice.

These crispy, yet chewy spiced ginger cookies definitely fit the bill.

As much as it is the season for sweet, buttery baking, I believe that there is always room for spiced cookies. Of course, gingerbread cookies are a popular holiday treat, but walk into any corporate coffee shop at this time of year and you’ll find the poor little gingerbread men slathered in thick icing. Compared to the heaviness of most holiday baking, I found these cookies to be light and refreshing. Plus they are so little that you can just pop one in your mouth every time you walk into the kitchen.

Those calories won’t count, I promise. 🙂

Bonus points – you can impress your vegan friends with this recipe because there is no eggs and no butter.

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