Oh Comely Perfect Strangers Swap

On a whim, I decided to sign up for Oh Comely's Perfect Strangers Project. You just sign up and then send a little parcel with whatever you want inside to someone somewhere in the world! Totally up my alley. Pen pally things are my faaaavorite. Who doesn't love a snail mail suprise?

My partner, Niamh, is from Ontario (I requested to have a swap partner within Canada, but you can leave it open to be paired with someone from anywhere in the world!), and she sent me a package full of things I love; cute little woodland creature magnets, a super cool fox & bear mug, three different teas (which made the whole box smell amazing). She also added one of her favorite books, a tiny foxtail keychain, a handmade kaleidoscope, super cool unicorn party picks and a little journal for us to write in and send back and forth.

I don't think Niamh has received my package for her yet, but it was so much fun finding things to go in it and baking some treats for. I think the next Perfect Strangers swap isn't until May, but it was so much fun I'll definitely sign up for it again!

12 Days of Baking: Day Six

I don't know if I've mentioned this on the blog already, but since moving home I've started working at little cafe. It's pretty much the only place in my town that doesn't quite feel like you're in central Newfoundland, except for the fact that every single person who comes in generally knows at least one, if not every other person drinking coffee in there.

Anyways, obviously we have treats there as well as coffees & teas, and there's often homemade biscotti in jars. For some reason the people of Gander just don't seem overly keen on biscotti and tend to go for the partridgeberry scones or the giant muffins. Both of which are insanely delicious, I might add, so I really can't blame them.

But it's rare that someone comes in for a piece of biscotti with their coffee. Why! Biscotti is the perfect coffee drinking companion. I don't even drink coffee and I know that! I'd happily dunk a piece in my coffee (and then not drink the coffee and order a green tea instead). It gets all coffee-y on the outside but is still nice and crisp! What more do you want from a biscuit?

I'm rambling. What I'm trying to say is while the biscotti may not fly off the shelves at work, there are only about 3 pieces of this batch I baked left from about two days ago. So you should make it to go with your morning drink of choice. And the people of Gander should really jump on the biscotti train too.

(Recipe originally from The Globe and Mail, I nixed a few things and use this version)

12 Days of Baking: Day Five

  

My mom gave me the idea for these cookies as she was browsing through pinterest one day. She's super obsessed with it (and has finally stopped calling it "Pinecrest"), but often forgets to actually pin the things she wants to keep! So after a quick and easy reindeer cookie search we found them once again.

Instead of the recipe on the site we found, I used a recipe from the good ol' Joy of Cooking cookbook, which we thought was the gingerbread recipe we always use, but for some reason these turned out nothing like the gingerbread I usually make. My parents took our ancient copy of Joy of Cooking to the cabin and this was a newer edition, so I'm wondering if the recipe had changed or something?

They still look super cute, and while they don't taste like the classic gingerbread men I'm used to devouring I really wouldn't turn my nose up at them. 

Those tiny little m&m noses! The wee antlers! Once again I'm fawning over cute cookies. I must go and find myself a life.

12 Days of Baking: Day Four

Yet another Minimalist Baker recipe!

This was kind of everywhere the other day, so I jumped on the bandwagon (sleigh? too much?) and made it straight away. Gingerbread granola! Does that not sound like something you also need to go bake straight away?

It's pretty much almost gone now, and while I did give some of it away I'm not going to lie.. the guilty culprit is me. It's just so eaaasy to walk by and grab a handful from the little Christmassy jar my mom popped it in for me. Or take it as a snack to work. Or have for breakfast. Or lunch.

Anyways. There's all kinds of good things in it, so at least I'm not shoveling hedgehog shortbread in at the same rate, eh?

12 Days of Baking: Day Three

Guys, it's really really hard to open a candy cane without smashing it to pieces.

Just thought I'd start this post off with that. And end it. 

(Recipe from Minimalist Baker)

12 Days of Baking: Day Two

  

Seeing as I'm not in England for Christmas, I figured I'd bring a bit of British tradition to Newfoundland by baking tiny little mince pies.

Now, I've only had a mince pie once before, and that was two years ago, so I wasn't quite sure where to start. Luckily, the lovely Alice steered me in the right direction and pointed me towards Nigella's Cranberry Mincemeat and Paul Hollywood's Shortcrust Pastry. Both recipes were easy peasy and came together in no time. After a little debate about what size I should make them, I decided on teeny tiny bite size pies. Cute seems to be the theme so far on this baking series, doesn't it?

 Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?), they're way too easy to just walk by the plate and pop one into your mouth. But, tis the season, right? Plus there's like, cranberries and raisins in there so that means it's good for you. We'll stick with that, anyways.

12 Days of Baking: Day One

Guys, it's DECEMBER.

Instead of waffling on about where did this year go (seriously though.. where did it go?? Didn't I just move to England or something..) I'm just going to start sharing the cookies I baked today! I figured since I do an embarrassingly excessive amount of Christmas baking, I'd post it all on the blog this year. Also maybe it will get my butt in gear to get back to blogging, I've been pretty slack lately, haven't I?

Today I baked these little hedgehog guys. The recipe is from Bake at 350 because for some strange reason the recipe I've been using since I was little for cookie cut outs failed yesterday. Three batches. But we won't talk about those.

Instead can we just focus on how cute these tiny hedgehogs are? I saw on this instagram a little while ago and decided I HAD to make them as soon as I could. So simple and so cuuuuute. Look at them. I just want to eat them up ;) 

Fourth Pond

So I've been home for a few weeks now. I start work at a little cafe in town tomorrow, so on Thursday I figured I'd take a trip down to my cabin before I got back into living by someone else's schedule.

A few nights of reading, throwing wood on the fire, making s'mores and doing nothing in general (with wine) is basically how I spend every trip to the cabin. There were critters everywhere: bluebirds and squirrels and grey jays and chickadees. The sunsets were lovely and drinking hot chocolate in the mornings while the fog settled and then lifted over the pond was a nice change from my usual laptop-breakfast combination.

Today I drove up in miserable, rainy weather and spent the remainder of my Saturday re-reading Harry Potter starting with the Philosopher's Stone.

Hope your weeknds are going well! xx

Homeward bound (and brownies)

Sort of disappeared there for a little bit, didn't I?

So, I've got a tiny bit of news: I'm moving back home. I know! It's been almost a year over here in England, an incredible year at that, but I've been thinking long and hard (hence the lack of updates), and have decided to head home for a bit.

I'm looking forward to quiet familiarity again, but I'm also slightly terrified that I'll get home and miss this place with my whole heart like last year.

But.

Right now I'm missing home with my whole heart, and so that's where I'm going.

(Also, this morning I made brownies. At least when my brain and heart are all mixed up about where they want to be I know that eggs and flour and chocolate will come together to be something good, so there's a little comfort in that.)

I'm not sure when I'll post again, whether it will be from this continent or another, but I'm sure I'll be back soon.

xx