Lydia Renee's First Birthday Party!

Just a small collection of photos from Lydia's first birthday party. While I didn't quite capture every detail on my camera (I somehow forgot to photograph lunch and another banner, whoops!), I am glad I have these pictures to look back on! I'm super grateful for all the help my family handed to bring this party to life and also keeping me sane. Michael helped with the decorations, the cake bunting banner, and made that beautiful flower garland! I made slow roasted pulled pork. I had it cooking throughout the night and before we went to bed, I made Michael pray that it would cook thoroughly before the guests arrived! Thankfully it was perfect, and there was more than enough food to go around.

Mom made chicken empanadas, bacalao salad, a big pot of yellow rice, and salad. She also made those darling brown paper goody bags filled with double chocolate macadamia cookies, sesame cookies and my chocolate dipped coco's. Mom W. made adorable bunny deviled eggs that were also incredibly delicious! I put out some homemade chex mix, a cheeseboard with crackers, some of mom W's jalapeno jelly (so good!) and my brother-in-law's girlfriend made a tasty enchilada dip. For dessert, I had baked yellow layered cake with  chocolate sour cream frosting and vegan dirt cake served with dye-free gummy worms, and of course cafe con leche. Leftovers for days!

The birthday girl slept a little during her party and was initially confused/cranky from the large crowd of people but she eventually adapted, and was enjoying herself! I can't believe she is already one years old. The first 12 months have been such a fun ride and we look forward to new adventures with our daughter, and many more birthdays!

Pumpkin Chai Snickerdoodles

This recipe adapted from a year of cozy's chewy chai snickerdoodles (which I think you all should check it out if you haven't already!)

ingredients:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon cardamom

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 ½ cup sugar

2/3 cup coconut oil, slightly melted

¾ cup pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of cardamom

directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, allspice and pepper.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, add the sugar, pumpkin puree, vanilla extract and coconut oil. Beat until

In the bowl of your electric mixer, add the sugar, pumpkin puree and coconut oil. Beat until combined and smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add the flour in two additions, scraping down the sides with spatula if needed and beating until just combined.

Mix together the topping ingredients in a bowl. Using a cookie scoop, divide the dough into 36 equal pieces, rolling each into a smooth bowl. Roll each cookie ball into topping and place it on a baking sheet, keeping the cookies about 2 inches apart. Use the bottom of a drinking glass to gently press the cookie balls into flattened pieces of dough.

Bake the cookies for 11 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to completely cool before serving.

...stay tuned for my dairy-free pumpkin chai snickerdoodle ice cream recipe that uses these cookies! 

Recipe Redo: Cranberry Orange Muffins with Streusel Topping

Around this time last year I posted a recipe for Cranberry Orange Bread and just the other day I had two of the essential ingredients leftover from Thanksgiving: cranberries and oranges! I remember the bread being truly moist and the marriage between cranberries and orange produced a muffin with a nice balance of sweetness and tartness. I was excited to revert back to that recipe and make some scrumptious muffins! But to my dismay that old recipe which may or may not still be on this blog (it is *blushes*) wasn't written properly. There seemed to be ingredients missing and misguided steps; for example there wasn't flour or sugar listed in the ingredients for the streusel topping! I felt pretty darn silly about that recipe and prayed that no one baked that bread and kind of overlooked the whole post. But I still really wanted to bake those muffins! So I began rewriting the recipe in hopes of fixing all it's boo-boos. 

Upon rewriting the new recipe I made a couple of modifications and used an egg and goat milk; but if I can remember correctly both of those ingredients can be successfully swapped with applesauce and non-dairy milk. Even though I was embarrassed by that past recipe, I don't regret posting it because it shows me that I'm still learning and that indeed is humbling! Having a blog has taught me that this is my own journey, and that it's okay to make mistakes and fix 'em. My mantra out of this experience is simply: I am a human being and it's okay to make mistakes; even in the things I'm passionate about. For the longest time I've been especially hard on myself with my cooking and wanting to everything to be perfect before I shared it with anyone else; but quite honestly perfect is boring and 9 out of 10 times my screw ups have left me with burning determination to whip up something better. As simple as this recipe may be I think it's better than the first bread I made. Maybe yesterday I'll want to improve it? Only time will tell my dears... In the meantime do me a favor and bake these muffins for yourself and let me know what you think! :)

Cranberry Orange Muffins with Streusel Topping

makes 16 medium sized muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup natural cane sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon sea salt

2 medium oranges, zested and juiced (reserve half of zest for the streusel topping)

½ cup milk*

½ cup canola oil

1 large egg, room temperature*

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 ½ cup fresh cranberries, roughly chopped

Streusel topping:

2 tablespoons butter or vegan shortening

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

Pinch of salt

Optional: ½ cup raw pecans, chopped                                                              

Notes: I used goat milk for this recipe but like I mentioned above any milk will do, and about ¼ cup applesauce will replace one large egg. Also if you prefer a sweeter more dessert like muffin add 1/4 cup more sugar to the batter.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tin with parchment liners. 

Streusel: In a small bowl mix with hands or a fork the shortening, flour, brown sugar, spices and salt until thoroughly combined. Add in the pecans, mix and set aside.

In a large bowl mix together flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl beat together orange zest and juice, milk and eggs then mix in the canola oil and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients mixing until just moistened. Fold in the cranberries. Fill each muffin tin with 3 tablespoons of batter and sprinkle batter with about a tablespoon of streusel. Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned on top or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

xo Jessica

Chocolate Chip Marble Cookies {dairy-free and egg-free!}

Hey guys,

I have a sensational chocolate chip marble cookie recipe for all to indulge in today. From my understanding everyone has a favorite style of chocolate chip cookies and mine happens to be more crispy on the outside, but still tender in the inside and perfectly balanced between sweet and salty. How do you take your chocolate chip cookies?

In my humble opinion marrying double chocolate chip cookies with classic chocolate chip cookies is decadent without being too rich. Don't get me wrong, I do love my chocolate on chocolate but baking these cookies gives me the option of eating both flavors in one shot! ;) They also look pretty radical, am I right?

Chocolate Chip Marble Cookies {egg-free and can be made dairy-free}

makes 2 dozen or 30 for bite size cookies

inspired by Top with Cinnamon and recipe adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking

4 ½ teaspoons Ener-g Egg Replacer

6 tablespoons water

1 cup solidified coconut oil or softened butter

¾ cup natural cane sugar

¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

½ teaspoon blackstrap molasses

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 cups dairy-free chocolate chips

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a food processor or blender, whip the egg replacer and water together, until it's thick and creamy. Blending it in a food processor or blender results in a better consistency than what you could get if you did it by hand.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. (I always use my stand mixer on medium-high speed because I'm lazy and it comes out much fluffier.) Add the egg replacer mixture, and thoroughly combine. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually beat the flour mixture into the wet mixture until it begins to form a dough. When it is almost thoroughly combined, separate half of the batter into a medium sized bowl. Add unsweetened cocoa powder to the separate half of batter and mix until combined. Fold in 1 cup of chocolate chip to each batter.

On a clean surface scoop up a spoonful of each dough and roll into balls. Sandwich the classic chocolate chip cookie ball with the double chocolate chip cookie ball, and roll together slightly to combine flavors. Drop marble cookie balls onto cookie sheets and press down slightly. Bake 8-12 minutes. After a couple minutes transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 

Go ahead and enjoy these cookies with a loved one, 

Jessica