pretzels...

now that we're kind of housebound with dylan's ankle (it's been 5 weeks! yay to him feeling much better), i find myself cooking and baking a lot more. i've been making so many pinterest recipes and i just wanted to share one in particular that was a huge success.

pretzels! i had never really thought about making my own, but dylan wanted to try them out and i figured what the heck. it honestly could not have been any easier and they came out so well. as soon as they come out of the oven, you slather them in melted butter and i tell you, there's nothing better. maybe add a little honey mustard dipping sauce (as we did) and you're good to go.

 do they look good or what?

we used this recipe and i highly recommend you give it a shot. while still good the second day, they really are the best the day you make them.


ok, ok. one more recipe to quickly share! i also made sour cream, cheddar, chive biscuits and they were divine. again, so easy (prep time is probably only about 10 minutes) and what's more comforting on a cold day than a warm biscuit out of the oven with some butter? nothing,

recipe here.

there you have it, two pinterest success recipes that you should probably make the next time you have some free time.

chicken potpie...

for the longest time now, i've wanted to make a pie crust from scratch. that said, i had always heard that it was kind of difficult to master so i just never did it. that changed once i got my kitchenaid for christmas. we really had no plans saturday so i figured i would make myself a slave to the kitchen and make a chicken potpie from scratch.

i used this recipe for the crust and it came together so easily and quickly that i was impressed with myself right off the bat. ha! next i cooked up my chicken, shredded it, and left it for later. i used martha stewart's potpie recipe, but she doesn't put the crust on the bottom of the pie. that was kind of a must for me, so i cut the dough in half, rolled the first half (or rather, dylan did), put it in the bottom of my pie pan and cooked it about 10 minutes. after that, i put the filling in and covered it with the rest of the crust. once the entire pie was all said and done, i realized that the bottom could have been cooked slightly longer on its own to make it even better, but it was fine.

the filling came together very easily and before i knew it, i had a pie in the oven and we were just waiting for the minutes to pass.

here we go!

let there be dough.

looking good.

a little egg wash is a must.

there she is in all her glory.

i made that!

nom nom nom.

we let the pie sit for 15 minutes once out of the oven as instructed in the recipe, however, it was still runny when we cut in. i was pretty disappointed, but the taste was certainly delicious. once we went back for seconds, it was much more firm, so i guess we just didn't let it sit long enough. some of the comments on the recipe said that the filling was blande and tasteless, but i completely disagree. i thought this pie was pretty amazing. it was flavorful, easy (though a little time consuming), and the crust was flaky. for my first shot, i give myself an 'A'.

the ultimate pie-off...

place your bets because we have a PIE-OFF happening. it started last week after getting doughnuts and dylan told me i should try my hand at making a pie. i said that making the crust is often the hardest part (so i hear) and while i'm a pretty good cook and baker, i wasn't sure i could tackle a proper crust. somewhere along the way, dylan suggested having a pie competition, and thus, the PIE-OFF was born.

 d vs. b - it's on.

as soon as we got home, we took a few pictures and dylan got to work on the above poster. when i posted it on facebook, the likes and comments started piling in and people are loving it. the rules? well, not many, really. it has to be all from scratch - no canned fillings and no frozen pie crust. duh, this is a competition! i'm leaning towards making a blueberry pie and dylan is thinking about a cherry pie. who will be the judge? that's to be decided; we've had quite a few offers on facebook haha. not only that, everyone wants to see this go down, so hopefully dylan will be able to make a small video out of it.

we have a few supplies to get first, like rolling pins and pie dishes. this won't go down for a few more weeks since i have exams coming up. once those are done, i have 3 weeks off and will have all the time in the world to devote to this challenge.

now, should we each go on a different day, or give each other say, 3 hours in the kitchen to bake the pie start to finish and then switch? we'll have to decide that in the coming weeks. you know, tiny condo kitchen problems.

you're goin' down dyl.

we just wanted doughnuts...

after a late night with friends over at our place on saturday night, i woke up craving doughnuts. after a little homework and a coffee, i told dyl to grab his coat and let's hit the road!

hold up, not so fast. 

we were waiting for the elevator and it was starting to take a little longer than usual. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, then 15 minutes go by. 2 of our neighbours come out and we're ready to pop some bubbly to pass the time. 20, 30 minutes.. 2 more neighbours join the hallway party. we debated taking the stairs, but we live quite high and decided not to. hey, we were a little lazy on sunday morning. what we did decide to do was go down 1 floor and try there. another girl was waiting quite some time too, and finally a few minutes later, the elevator came. after 41 minutes total. 

of course it couldn't be smooth sailing from there, traffic was absolutely insane for some reason, more than usual. after a while, we made it to the doughnut place and i was stoked to see they had the one i had been dying to try the last while, but has always been sold out; the pumpkin cheesecake filled doughnut.

fluffer nutter & pumpkin 

filled with so much pumpkin cream cheese, like whoa. 

it was fully worth the crazy wait and a great way to end the weekend if you ask me.

tid + bits...

well, it's august and another long weekend is here. we've got no plans as we're in super saving mode right now. anywho, a few snippets of what's going on recently...

summer flowers.

toronto's take on the cronut; the crookie from clafouti. let me just say that i don't even really like croissants normally, but this was just insane! there was so much filling, and every bite was just filled with flaky pastry, oreo, and that sweet white centre.

a beach day and a very sleepy pup on her dad.

free birthday frozen yogurt; plenty of corn at a festival.

loving my free gold polish and new runners.

rainy day baking.

i got my new licence in the mail and yeah, i haven't changed much in 5 years (top: older one); we took a walk around the humane society yesterday and fell in love with plenty of cats and dogs. we left empty handed, of course.

sweet tooth...

crack pie. compost cookies. corn cookies. have you heard of any of those things before? i've heard "crack pie" thrown around over the years and it's so good and sweet that you get addicted to it like, well, like crack! thus far, the only place to get these treats has been nyc, but a few days ago, the very first international location of momofuku milk bar was opened here in toronto, within walking distance! cookies are $2 each or 6 for $11 and a piece of crack pie is $6 (a whole pie is $48). there's a few other edible things in the 'store' (the size of a closet) including shirts and pins. everything is shipped in from nyc daily, keeping it fresh. we picked up a piece of the crack pie, 2 compost cookies (coffee, pretzels, chips, chocolate and more), and one corn cookie.

we were barely out of the store and dylan was already tearing into his corn cookie, which he was dying over. it was like a sweet cornbread with a little chew; good stuff. he told me i could pick him up a few more of those anytime ;) the compost cookie was quite good too, soft and chewy, sweet and salty. but that crack pie? man oh man is it sweet. i mean, just look at the first few ingredients. whoever said it was like a pecan pie sans the pecans was right. dyl and i split the piece and i ate it over about an hour because each bite is just so decadent and soft and melt in your mouth crazy delicious. i don't see anyone finishing a slice on their own in one sitting.

milk bar, i'll be seeing you again...

my magnum...

i recently saw on instagram that magnum ice cream bars were having a pop-up shop here in toronto and when i saw the pictures of how they looked, i knew we had to check it out. basically, you get to choose whether you want a vanilla or chocolate ice cream bar and then they dip it in your choice of milk, dark or white chocolate. and then you have your choice of unlimited toppings; anything from bacon, nerds, nuts, sprinkles, sea salt, dried berries and more. i'm going to guess there's at least 20 topping options. after your toppings are shaken up in what looks like a mini martini shaker, it's put on both sides of your freshly dipped ice cream bar. after that, it's drizzled with your choice of chocolate again. the price is a flat $6. let me tell you, it was absolutely amazing and we both died and went to heaven. i did not think that an ice cream bar could be that good.

 hers and his.

i chose vanilla ice cream, milk chocolate coating, topped with macadamia nuts, shredded coconut, goji berries, and toffee pieces, then drizzled in white chocolate. 

on one hand, i wish it was here longer than just until the end of the month, because it's so good, but on the other hand, thank god it's not, because it's so good! not sure i could restrain myself all summer.

PSA: make these...

yesterday was a ridiculously dreary, dark, rainy, foggy day. what else better to do than make chocolate chip cookies. plus, dylan wasn't feeling well and had asked for them a few days ago. a quick google search (didn't have mom's recipe on hand) led me to this martha stewart recipe. honestly, they were amazing. they stayed chewy and a little crunchy around the edges. the recipe says it makes about 3 dozen. along the way, i figured i ate the batter of about 3 cookies, and when i was done and counted the finished cookies, i had 33. so, talk about bang on.

warm cookies. nothing better.

if you're looking for a classic chocolate chip recipe, give that one a try. A+ martha stewart, A+.

sunday treats...

just add pastry chef to my resume. just kidding. though the desserts below look really good, i can only take credit for putting them together. of course, we had these delicious creations for dessert when we had our usual sunday dinner at my parents. all the filling is, is mascarpone cheese mixed with lemon pie filling. oh so yummy.

 i popped 3 in 5 minutes while there. and another while writing this post later in the night.

pre-grilled artichokes. 

did i mention that the weather on sunday was incredible? because it was. it reached 18 degrees and we had our first bbq. dad cooked up the artichoke you see, asparagus, feta/green onion/red pepper stuffed chicken breats, basmati rice and salad. hopefully we can still make it for dinners most sundays once we move. i mean, how can we pass up dinners like this, and all the leftovers we take home?

sweet tooth...

in honor of valentine's day tomorrow, i thought i would get a little sweet on here and share some valentines treats i've made. our first valentine's day in 2007, we had been dating a mere 2.5 months and i was still living at my parents. there was a massive snow storm out there and dylan made his way to me with a 2hr car ride, which should have taken 15 minutes. he had made me a heart shaped cake with pink icing (with the help of his grandma) and it was the first time that 'i love you' was exchanged. i know i have pictures, but i can't find them anywhere on my computer. *sad* anyways, that's a quick little story of our first valentine's day!

vday 2009 was the first time i ever made red velvet cake (and the firs time i ever tasted it) and what started my love affair.

i use paula deen's recipe.

young'ins

last year, i made conversation heart cookies, which were a hit. i could go for 1 (or 6) today.

perhaps i'll have to see what we have in our cupboards that i can whip up today or tomorrow...hmm...

just call me chef bree...

it was only about 4 short months ago that i tried crème brûlée for the first time (while in myrtle beach) and i completely fell in love. i got ramekins and a blow torch for christmas and i've been itching to use them ever since. saturday was the perfect opportunity. i was a little nervous (i always am when trying something new) with the 'tempering the eggs' step; i didn't want vanilla scrambled eggs, ya know? luckily, the recipe was very easy, and i was left with a lot of extra 'mix', which i put in a container and put in the fridge. google told me i could keep it up to 2 days. if i had more ramekins, i would have used it all at once obviously, but now that we've eaten a few, i put the rest in the oven last night.

 4 ingredients. simple as that.

 vanilla.

 6 egg yolks and sugar.

 realizing that there was so much liquid, i had to pull out 2 other ramekins, and there was still plenty left!

 testing the first 2 out.

 exciting!

voila! 

the recipe said to put them in the fridge for at least 2 hours before putting the sugar on (torture), and right at that 2 hour mark, we tried them. they were good, but when you broke the shell, it wasn't runny, per se, but it wasn't quite the consistency i was hoping for. later on in the day, i took 2 to my parents and we had them (so now they were refrigerated for about 9 hours), and they were so much better! like, really good. i'm quite proud of myself; another dish i can check off as something i'm good at ;)  

*note: overall, it made 7 oval ramekins, and 2 round ones. recipe here.