double gingersnap cookies

we made several different types of christmas cookies this year.  one of the batches that we made was double gingersnap cookies.  we absolutely love ginger and we are huge gingersnap fans.  the more ginger the better!

these cookies have ground ginger in them along with chunks of crystallized candied ginger throughout them for double the ginger punch!

the ginger gives them a great zing and the molasses gives them a deep rich flavor.  they are just so good!  they certainly live up to their name of ginger "snaps" because they are nice a hard, just like a gingersnap should be.

double gingersnap cookies
prep time: 5-10 minutes
baking time: 8-10 minutes
yields: approximately 24 cookies
adapted from very merry cookie party

ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 cup crystallized candied ginger, finely chopped

directions:
preheat your oven to 375 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  cream the butter in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  add the sugar and beat well until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).  mix in the molasses.  in a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and spices.  add the dry ingredients all at once to the wet ingredients.  mix until combined.  fold in the crystallized ginger.  scoop 1 teaspoon sized balls of dough and roll them between your hands to make balls.  place the balls of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet.  flatten each ball gently with the bottom of a drinking glass.  bake for 8-10 minutes, until they are golden.  once baked, allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

enjoy!

love, laurie

gingerbread waffles

gingerbread is synonymous with the holiday season.  as soon as i saw this recipe for gingerbread waffles, i just knew we had to make them this christmas.  we made these waffles for breakfast recently, and they certainly hit the spot.

these waffles are not like other gingerbread waffles.  they are deep and dark, and they have a wonderfully intense spice flavor from the ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in them.  the molasses makes them extra special.  they have crispy edges and soft centers.  they are gingerbread perfection!

gingerbread waffles

prep time: 5-10 minutes

cooking time: 3-4 minutes per waffle (depending on your waffle iron)

adapted from smitten kitchen

yields: 2 large servings

ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/8 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 tablespoons salted butter, melted

directions:

preheat your waffle iron according to the manufacturer's instructions.  in a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, sugars, milk, molasses, and egg.  whisk together until combined.  stir in the melted butter.  pour enough batter into the waffle iron to just barely cover the waffle grid (usually about 1/2 cup of batter per waffle).  cook 3-4 minutes, or until the waffles are a deep brown color.  once cooked, transfer the waffles to a cooling rack while you prepare the remaining waffles.  (note: the waffles will be soft when they first come out of the waffle iron, but they will crisp up in just a few moments.)  serve warm dusted with powdered sugar, and with warm maple syrup.

enjoy!

love, laurie

christmas 2014

we had such a great time celebrating christmas with our families over the past two days!  on wednesday, we went down to my parents' house for christmas eve.  we helped my mom make homemade fettuccine for a delicious shrimp scampi dinner.  after dinner, we ate christmas cookies and we exchanged presents with my parents.

on christmas morning, ryan made a special breakfast and we exchanged christmas presents with each other at our house.  leko sure enjoyed helping us open our presents.  when we gave him his present, he even unwrapped it himself by tearing the wrapping paper off the present with his teeth!  he really enjoyed christmas morning!

in the afternoon, we went to my parents' house to celebrate christmas day with my parents, ryan's parents, and a few family friends.  we had a huge italian feast for dinner, including lasagna with homemade noodles that my mom, ryan, and i made.  of course, we had our traditional tiramisu for dessert, along with a ton of christmas cookies too.  after dinner, we exchanged gifts with ryan's parents.

it was so nice to celebrate christmas with our families!  

hope everyone had a wonderful christmas too!

have a great weekend!

love, laurie

merry christmas!

wishing everyone a very merry christmas!

love, laurie and ryan

xoxo

christmas lights

one of our favorite things to do during the holidays is to look at christmas lights.  a few nights ago, we got in the car after dinner and drove around looking at christmas lights while listening to christmas music on the radio.  we covered a lot of ground, looking at houses in several different neighborhoods.

our favorite light display was this one.  two neighbors combined forces to decorate their houses and their yards.  both of their houses are covered in lights, and almost every square inch of their yards are covered in all different types of decorations.  it's absolutely incredible.  it took the families 8 weeks to set up the display!  we got to see the display from the front and the back, since there is an alley which runs behind the houses.  needless to say, the families are collecting donations to help pay for their electricity bills!  here is a really neat aerial video of the light display that a local company filmed with their drone.

merry christmas eve!

love, laurie

chocolate peppermint m&m's cookies

although we love desserts, we rarely eat candy.  we're just not that into it, and most candies tend to be sickeningly sweet.  however, we were intrigued when we came across holiday mint m&m's in the grocery store this season.  we bought a bag thinking that it might be fun to mix them into a batch of christmas cookie dough.

over the weekend we made several different types of christmas cookies.  one of the types that we made was chocolate peppermint cookies with the holiday mint m&m's.

the combination of cocoa powder and peppermint extract gives the base of these cookies a great flavor, and the m&m's give them an extra burst of mint.

the red, white, and green m&m's are so festive and the colors really pop against the dark chocolate cookie.  they are perfect for christmas time!

chocolate peppermint m&m's cookies
prep time: 5-10 minutes
baking time: 10-12 minutes
yields: 24 small cookies

ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
3/4 cup holiday mint m&m's

directions:
preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  cream the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  add the granulated sugar and beat well until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).  beat in the egg.  scrape down the bowl and mix in the cocoa powder until completely combined.  add the flour and baking powder and mix until incorporated.  fold in the m&m's.  scoop 1 teaspoon-sized balls of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet.  gently press the cookie dough balls down into discs.  top with additional m&m's.  bake for 10-12 minutes.  once baked, allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooking completely.

enjoy!

love, laurie

tiramisu smoothie for williams-sonoma's smoothie week

i was thrilled when williams-sonoma invited me to create a smoothie recipe for their smoothie week.  i was excited to take the theme of "not your typical smoothie" and give it a holiday twist since christmas is just a few days away.

christmas time is so special for us because we got engaged on christmas day in 2007.  after ryan proposed, we had tiramisu for dessert.  my mom made the tiramisu for dessert the year we got engaged, and keeping with tradition she has made it for dessert each year on christmas day since then.  my mom's tiramisu is so delicious.  (i shared her recipe here a few years ago.)  it is a classic, and it has always been one of our favorite desserts.  we especially love the special memories that it brings back for us each time we eat it.

as soon as december rolls around, i start craving tiramisu.  i was excited to put a twist on this classic dessert by taking the flavors from my mom's tiramisu recipe and translating them into a smoothie.  the result was a delicious smoothie that is super indulgent.  the combination of the espresso, cocoa, mascarpone cheese, and soft italian lady fingers give this smoothie an unmistakably distinct tiramisu flavor.  it's dangerous how easy this smoothie is to make!

ps: if you are in need of a blender, williams-sonoma has a ton of great options including traditional blenders and immersion blenders too which are great for pureeing soup.  by the way, a blender would make a great christmas gift!

tiramisu smoothie
total time: 5 minutes
yields: 2 servings

ingredients:
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 1/2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
1 tablespoon mascarpone cheese
3 soft italian lady fingers
1 cup ice

directions:
dissolve the espresso powder in the milk.  pour the milk into a blender, along with the cocoa powder, powdered sugar, mascarpone cheese, and three soft lady fingers.  add the ice and blend until smooth.  garnish with additional lady fingers dusted with cocoa powder, or whipped cream if desired.

recipe notes:
> mascarpone cheese gives this smoothie the classic tiramisu flavor.  however, if you do not have mascarpone cheese on hand, you could substitute cream cheese in the smoothie.
> be sure to use soft italian lady fingers instead of hard italian lady fingers.  soft italian lady fingers can typically be found the in bakery section of most grocery stores.

enjoy!

love, laurie

happy friday!

i snapped this picture when leko was helping me make my pine cone owl ornament the other day.  he just loves to be right in the middle of whatever we are doing.  what a cutie!

i'm thrilled that it's friday!  it's hard to believe that christmas is just a few days away.  luckily, we are done with our christmas shopping and almost done wrapping gifts!

have a wonderful weekend!

love, laurie

d.i.y. pine cone owl ornament

a few days ago, ryan found a great looking pine cone in our yard.  he brought it inside thinking that we could decorate with it for the holidays.  as soon as i saw it, i knew exactly what i wanted to do with it.

i got to work making a cute little pine cone owl ornament for our christmas tree, inspired by an ornament that i had seen online a few weeks ago.  i was thrilled that i didn't have to buy a single supply for this craft.  it cost me absolutely nothing to make because i just used supplies that we already had around our house.  we had leftover felt from a previous project, and we have a huge collection of miscellaneous extra buttons that have come on different pieces of clothing that we have bought over the years.  i used hot glue to hold everything together because it is so easy to work with and it dries so quickly too.

leko was a huge "help" when i was doing this craft.  he was intrigued by the pine cone, but he especially loved the string.  what is it about kitties and string?!  needless, to say, if you have kitties in your house, they will probably find this project to be fun!

step one: gather your supplies.  for this project, i used supplies that i had around the house: a pine cone from our yard, a hot glue gun, string, a pencil, scissors, buttons, and felt

step two: cut a piece of string to hold the ornament onto the tree.  tie a knot at the end to make a loop.  glue the knot to the top of the pine cone.

step three: cut two wings out of the felt and glue them to the sides of the pine cone.

step four: cut two feet out of the felt and glue them to the bottom of the pine cone.

step five: cut one piece of felt in the shape of the number 8 for the background of the eyes and cut another piece of felt in the shape of a triangle for the beak.  glue the background of the eyes onto the pine cone, and glue the beak on top of that.  glue buttons onto the felt for the eyes.  (i used 2 white buttons and 2 colored buttons for the eyes.)

there you have it!
a cute homemade ornament for the holidays!

love, laurie

black bean chia seed brownies

we were walking through the health food section at wegman's recently, and ryan found a stand offering free health food newsletters.  inside there were a ton of great recipes, including a recipe for brownies made with black beans and chia seeds.  we are huge black bean fans, and we love chia seeds too, so we were intrigued to give them a try.

brownies are an all time favorite dessert, but they are usually loaded with butter.  we were surprised to see that this recipe doesn't have any butter in it.  these brownies have a wonderful chocolate flavor and they were not very sweet at all.  the chia seeds and raw cacao nibs give them a great crunch too.  you would absolutely never guess that there are black beans hidden inside these brownies.  go ahead and make these brownies for someone, they'll never guess they have black beans in them!

instead of baking the brownie batter in a regular baking pan, we baked individual brownies in our brownie pan.  (we love that pan, and we bake all types of things in there, like these individual cornbread squares.)  we were really pleasantly surprised by how great these brownies turned out, and we will definitely make them again!  a somewhat healthy brownie . . . now who can say no to that?!

black bean chia seed brownies
prep time: 10 minutes
baking time 25 minutes
yields: 12 large brownies
adapted from wegman's nature's marketplace publication (october 2014 issue)

ingredients:
1 (15 oz.) can low-sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
3 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons chia seeds
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup raw cacao nibs

directions:
preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  in a food processor, combine the black beans, sugar, oil, cocoa powder, chia seeds, and vanilla.  puree until completely smooth.  stir in the chocolate chips.  evenly divide the batter among the 12 cups of a greased brownie pan.  (alternatively, pour the batter into a greased 8-inch square baking pan.)  level with a spatula, and sprinkle with cacao nibs.  bake for 25 minutes (30 minutes in a 8-inch square pan) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  allow the brownies to cool in the pan before serving.

enjoy!

love, laurie