holiday baking & gift ideas

If you are like me, you probably haven't started your holiday baking yet. I'm making plans but I just need a nice chunk of time to immerse myself in butter, chocolate and flour. To get myself started, I took a look at some tried and true favorites from my archives, along with a few links to other food blogs.

I also wanted to give a little something more than a bunch of links. So this year I made up a bunch of gift tags that I can package up with whatever I'm making this year. And I'm passing them along to you. All you will need is a PDF reader and a printer. Just download the pdf, print onto card stock or sticker paper and cut along the dotted lines. Attach it to your hand crafted gift. It's easy and I'm sure it will make your gift giving a little sweeter. Looking for another quick & affordable gift idea? Check out my etsy printables shop where you can print out my own original art prints on your home printer for only five bucks. Instant happiness.

When sending your gifts, package things into re-usable glass jars (I love old mason jars and even glass peanut butter or jam jars), vintage cookie tins or baker's boxes lined with wax paper and pretty tissue.

Candy
Fleur de sel caramels
Really easy chocolate fudge with toasted walnuts
Candy cane chocolate bark
Rum balls
Salted honey caramels
Chocolate covered caramel crunch
Peanut butter buckeyes & chocolate snowballs (vegan)
Sponge toffee (vegan)
Merengue mint melties

I've also really had much success with Heidi's espresso caramel. It's delicious and perfect for gift giving.


Bars + Squares
Chocolate chip walnut squares
Date & raisin squares (vegan)
Peanut butter raisin bars
Butter tart squares
Cherry oat bars
Coffee Crunch bars (vegan)
Oatmeal coconut pecan squares with chocolate chips

I've lusted after these Dutch almond bars from Whipped. Buttery goodness!

Cookies
Buttery raisin biscuit
Chocolate chip maple walnut cookies
Chocolate mint cookies
Chocolate shortbread cookies
Chocolate thumbprint jam cookies (vegan)
Crispy salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies
Double chocolate oatmeal cookies (vegan)
Flourless peanut butter cookies
Ginger gems (vegan)
Lemon cookies
Lemon cornmeal shortbread cookies
Pfeffernusse cookies

I've been looking for the perfect gingerbread cookie. I think these from David Lebovitz might be the one.

Loaf Cakes
Willie Nelson's famous banana bread (aka UBC cake)
Chocolate chip banana bread with ginger
Cranberry & blood orange loaf
Jacked up banana bread
Bill's coconut bread

While this Almond butter cake with cherries from Seven Spoons isn't a loaf cake per say, it looks beautiful and festive.

Unique Gifts
Ginger syrup for homemade gingerale (vegan)
World's best peanut butter fudge sauce
Spicy sweet glazed pretzels & nuts (vegan)
Better than bakery granola

I haven't made Joe's Gingerbread popcorn yet, but I plan on making it this year. Seriously, who wouldn't want a giant tub of this?

Cookbooks & other food books
These are just a few of my most favorite cookbooks (& food related books) and I'm sure they'd be a welcome addition to anyone who loves food and cooking.

Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook
I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence
The Gourmet Cookbook: More than 1000 recipes
Vegan with a Vengeance : Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock
A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table
Vegetarian Comfort Food: Meals Like Mom Makes, Without the Meat
Comfort Me with Apples: A True Story of Love, Adventure and a Passion for Cooking

Looking for something other than books? I love Tea & Cookie's cheap & useful kitchen gift guide.

hot chocolate toddy

Hot drinks always help to keep the cold at bay. Throw in a bit of Tennessee whiskey and woo-ha, it'll warm your bones in an instant. You can get the recipe for this hot chocolate toddy over on Poppytalk.

And stay tuned, later today I'll be posting some great holiday baking & gift ideas along with a special treat!

better than from a bakery granola

I love granola for breakfast. Not only do I make it quite frequently, but I do often order it when going out for breakfast. I'm a bit of a granola snob and I definitely know what I like. This granola found in Baked: New Frontiers in Baking cookbook is great. Like really, really great.

Look at it, this granola has clusters! Every granola I have made, while delicious & wholesome, doesn't have the goodness that makes them clump up like the granola found at a great bakery. Look no further. This granola clumps, it's crunchy and it's easy to make. Sure, there's a bit more sugar than I'm used to putting in my granola, but it's worth the extra calories. Do it for the clumps!

Want to make your friends, co-workers and family really happy this holiday? Just bake up a batch, throw it in a large glass jar, top it with a bow, and call it a homemade gift made with love. Better yet, bake up a double batch (I've done it and it works beautifully) so you have some for yourself and a friend. Guaranteed happiness.

better than from a bakery granola
(adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking)
2 c organic large-flake rolled oats
1 t cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 t salt
3 T plus 1 t canola oil
1/4 c honey
1/4 c firmly packed light brown sugar
1 t pure vanilla extract
2/3 c whole almonds
2/3 c raisins

Preheat oven to 325 F. In a large bowl, toss oats with cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, honey, brown sugar and vanilla until blended. Pour the wet mixture in with the dry and use your hands to combine the two until everything is well coated and your hands are gooey. Lick them if you must, but wash your hands right after.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and pour the mixture over top. Spread it out evenly, but also keep in mind clumping is a good, good thing. Bake for 10 minutes and then use a spatula to gently flip the granola over. Sprinkle with almonds and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Add raisins and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely in the pan. Use your hands to break up the granola...but again, don't go overboard (remember the clumps!). Place in a tightly lidded container.

napa mustard slaw with apple & walnuts

Winter is a busy time when you've got a craft business. There's craft fairs, holiday orders and a lot of extra work. Double it when you add in your own web business. Add in a blog or two, and things start to slide. But I'm not going to beat myself up. Instead, I'm going to celebrate because I've created a very tasty little salad in between coding, designing, folding, packaging and selling. In fact, I've made for than a few meals out of it and within the past 2 weeks, have probably made it more times than I'd care to admit. It's delicious and great and it's a perfect reminder to why salads are to be eaten year round.

And this slaw is perfectly seasonal. Cabbage? Totally available. Apples? Oh boy! And the vinaigrette? It's a delicate, powerful and sophisticated mouthful. I think it helps that the magic ingredient is a homemade vanilla meyer lemon marmalade gifted to me by a wonderful food blogger, but I'm sure any other marmalade will provide just the perfect touch. So hunker down this winter with a slaw and forgo the soup once in awhile.

Please take a peek over at Poppytalk where I've also gone slaw crazy! Over there I've posted a delicious Asian-inspired and super colourful vegetable slaw with pineapple, diakon and a ginger dressing. So let's just take some time in the coming month to remember vegetables alongside candy canes, chocolate and the like.

napa mustard slaw with apple & walnuts
1/2 head of napa cabbage, shredded
1 tart apple, julienned
1/2 c walnuts, toasted & roughly chopped

vinaigrette
1/4 c olive oil
1-2 T grainy mustard
1 T marmalade
2 T cider vinegar
1 t honey
salt & pepper

In a large bowl, add in the cabbage and apples and toss well. Whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients, taste & adjust, if necessary and pour over salad. Scatter walnuts over top and serve.

thanksgiving basics: onion, celery & sage bread stuffing

This is always a strange time of year for Canadians. We've already had our Thanksgiving weeks ago, so all of this American hoopla over the holiday seems like it's a "been there, done that" kind of deal. But this year it's a little different in our household and we kinda let Thanksgiving pass us by. I was busy and we ate soup. No big deal or so I thought.

But this Saturday, we took a run for the border into Bellingham WA and picked up a pre-brined Trader Joe's turkey (HELP! Quick question: Do I wash/rinse/soak the pre-brined turkey or just rub it with butter and bake it? Answered on Twitter = rinse.) Once I was caught up in the Trader Joe's frenzy, it was like I was on auto-pilot or something. I just wanted turkey and all the things that come with Thanksgiving. And one of the big things I missed this year was stuffing. And this old fashioned and kinda basic stuffing is something you can make without a turkey or even a chicken. It's my mom's age-old recipe and I love it. But this time I added in walnuts and apples just to put my own stamp on it. Don't even want to think about turkey? No worries, just make the stuffing a part of your vegan meal. It's easy. Head over to Poppytalk for the recipe and the story and get stuffed.

magic spicy peanut sauce

Aww yeah, this is where the magic happens. 4 burners on a tiny electric stove in dark and tiny galley kitchen. I definitely dream of the time when I'll have a truly beautiful kitchen with a window, a dishwasher and a gas-powered stove. But this is what I've got. It ain't fancy and it certainly isn't a hindrance when it comes to cooking creatively.

Now what you are looking at may not look pretty, but boy oh boy, eating this made me feel like I unlocked some ancient life-changing secret. This is a peanut sauce and while I've made quite a few delicious peanut sauces, this one knocked my socks off. When I set out to make this sauce, I was just thinking of adding something simple to the tofu and veggie stirfry that I was making for dinner. An almost empty jar of peanut butter in the fridge held my attention. And while I didn't set out to re-create something magical, it just happened that way.

You see, there's a local unassuming Chinese restaurant in Vancouver called Szechuan Chongqing and they have a wonton dish in spicy peanut sauce that is my absolute most favorite thing to order. The sauce is spicy and peanutty and oh-so-perfect and never in my right mind did I think that I could create that kind of magic at home in my dingy little kitchen. But somehow this sauce was revelatory. It was just like the version I know and love. Better even, because my peanut sauce wasn't greasy like Chongquing's version. So toss this up a sauce to mix in with your stir fry or use as a dipping sauce with chicken or tofu. Or go all out and use as a sauce for some pork-filled wontons and let the magic happen to you.

magic spicy peanut sauce
3 T chunky natural peanut butter
1 T sriracha
juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 c water + more
2 T chili garlic sauce
2 T honey
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T fresh ginger, minced
1 T soy sauce

In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients over med-high, adding extra water by the tablespoon when or if it gets to thick. Don't use sparingly.

light & fluffy pancakes with maple apples

This past weekend, Cornelius wanted to go out for pancakes. I wavered. There's a diner in our neighbourhood that used to have the very best pancakes and good service, but the last couple times the service really was terrible and the pancakes weren't up to their usual par. So I put my foot down and make pancakes at home. It turned out to be a great option. The pancakes were light and fluffy and the apples simmered in maple syrup that topped the pancakes was liquid gold. They were perfect and they beat out the pancakes from the local diner hands down.

light & fluffy pancakes with maple apples
(recipe adapted from Bon Appetit)

maple syrup apples
2 T unsalted butter
2 large tart apples, like Bramley Seedings, cored and sliced
1 t ground cinnamon
1 T plus 1/3 c pure maple syrup

pancakes
1 c all purpose flour
2 T yellow cornmeal
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c buttermilk
1 c plain yogurt
1 t vanilla
1 large egg
1 1/2 T unsalted butter, melted

For maple syrup apples:
Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples, cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup and saute for a few minutes until soft. Add remaining syrup and stir until warm. Set aside.

For pancakes:
Combine first 5 ingredients in large bowl and whisk until blended. In another bowl, blend together buttermilk, yogurt, vanilla, and egg. Add wet to dry ingredients and stir until just blended but still lumpy. Gently mix in the melted butter.

In a large pan, melt a bit of butter or oil over med-high heat and drop in a large spoonful of batter. When bubbles appear on the surface, flip. When the underside is golden, remove and repeat process. Spoon maple apples over pancakes and serve.

chard with fettucini, lemon and cheese & a carrot call-out

It's winter and the CSA I belong to loves giving me chard and kale. My favorite way to prepare it is to saute it with garlic and shallots and then toss it up with lemon and Parmesan cheese. It's easy, quick and super tasty. Get the recipe over at Poppytalk.

Another thing that my csa loves to give me is carrots. I'm practically swimming in them. I've recently made soup, slaw and a spiced carrot quick bread, but I'd love to hear what some of your favorite ways of preparing them are. Help a girl out!