Oreo cookie crumbs and all things Easter

I'm sure you have all been waiting to hear how last week and the weekend went......it was great! Everything got done (one playdate was cancelled due to illness - not on my end), and there were some good stories to boot!

I made the Snickers cheesecake for Friday, as planned. I had checked to make sure I had Oreo cookie crumbs for the crust, and proceeded to use them. When I opened the Ziploc container they were in, the crumbs kind of had an odour, but I thought that's what cookie crumbs smelt like after being stored for a while. Wrong!!!! When I got the cheesecake out of the fridge on Friday to serve it, Ben made a comment about our cheese fondue still stinking (Ben likes mild cheddar, parmesan, and mozzarella. Period). I recognized that stench. It was the cookie crumbs - and they were rancid! Who knew cookie crumbs went rancid? Not I! Now I do. How long had I had them for you ask? I have no idea - probably the source of the problem. The rest of the unused crumbs went in the compost, the container in the recycling. We scraped the cheesecake off the crust as it was still fine. It seems the Snickers layer took it for the team. Thanks Snickers. I didn't know I could love you even more.

While conducting the photo shoot of the hardboiled eggs Ro and I decorated for our annual hit off (last year's victor was Ben), Ro dropped my egg. I exclaimed my disappointment which resulted in tears which I proceeded to photograph. We hugged and made up. Ro then proceeded to win. I submitted a written reqest for the judges to investigate the circumstances leading to Ro's victory. I'm still waiting to hear back. :) Don't worry folks. I'll be back in it next year (barring a photo shoot accident).

I find myself currently trying to purge my house of leftovers: 3 hot cross buns on my counter, 1 piece of carrot cake in the fridge (now gone by the time this was posted), decorated sugar cookies in the freezer, more than half a cheesecake in the freezer, Mini Eggs and Lindt bunnies in my cupboard.....I might be one of the few of the breastfeeding moms who has gained weight since giving birth. I think I might need to stop baking.......

Looking to purge my body of the excess sugar (still),
Tam

i.love.to.bake

I haven't always loved to bake. In fact, I used to think baking was for women who were a little too domestic. I never wanted to be that domestic. Those of you who have known me for any length of time can attest to this. Then we decided to have kidlets (best decision ever) and I found myself wanting to be more domestic since this is the life I have chosen to lead.

Thought I would share some baking experiences I have had recently:

I love to bake apple pies. Here is one we nicknamed "Mont Pomme" because it was so tall. You just can't beat apple pie in apple season. You can't. Really. Imagine the vanilla ice cream beside a nice warm piece of pie......

Here are some cookies I baked last week - yummy oatmeal chocolate chip. I don't know what it is about oats and chocolate chips together, but I can never eat enough of them. Homemade cookies are almost my favourite thing. This recipe is from a friend's mom (Pat Honchar). You have got to give credit where credit is due people. These were for friends. 

 Here are the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I baked tonight after my darling daughters were in bed. I can't wait to try them. Who am I kidding? I already had one (plus some batter - yes, I'm a batter gal). This was a new recipe (I have tried many peanut butter cookie recipes, and this is definitely a keeper) and turned out delish.

 For your enjoyment, I also decided to include my daughter's disaster birthday cake. Ro really wanted a butterfly cake for her third birthday. I needed to bake 2 cakes (yes, while 9 months pregnant) and the first was a beautiful flower cake which turned out quite well. Here is the second cake. Disaster. It stuck in the pan. Boo! However, my daughter was delighted with her purple (favourite colour), candied (she loves Smarties) butterfly. I heart Ro.

On a daily basis, I am either serving up homemade granola or oat/spelt pancakes. I'm going to be baking some sugar cookies for Easter to decorate with Ro (she'll love that), and I'll be baking a Mars bar cheesecake for my fam (I'm pretty sure). I'm salivating just thinking about these things.....

Would love to hear what you love to bake!

Heading to the kitchen to "check" on the cookies,
Tam