Today is a special day. It marks my 15-year union with Chris. And I say union because we were together for 11 years before we got married. He’s the most loving, understanding, caring and giving man I know. And I feel so lucky to have him as my partner.
I love baking this time of the year. There are a lot of seasonal items during the Christmas holidays that you don’t see year-round. Gingerbread Twix is one of them. So if I’m bombarding you with all these sweets, my apologies!
Can you tell I’m a huge fan of crumbs? I can’t help it. I just want to add crumbs to all my muffins, bread and cakes! I’m finally starting my holiday baking. So for my first baking recipe, I thought I’d kick it off with something eggnog and something Kahlua! Yes, it’s a FANTASTIC combination if you haven’t tried it already. This is definitely a muffin you’ll want to have coffee with. It’s like peas and carrots, they go hand-in-hand. And a little dark chocolate can never hurt in a combination like this.
Around the Thanksgiving holiday time, it’s always the most chaotic time of the year. I have Chris’ birthday around that time, as well as my nephew and niece all a day or two apart from each other. This year for Chris’ birthday, we took a trip to Napa to celebrate. Then after the trip I had to prep for Thanksgiving. Last year we were in Mexico. We also moved into our new house so we didn’t really have our Thanksgiving dinner in our new home until this year. Having said all that, my blog took a backseat. Anyway, I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. I know we did. Our bellies were full!
I can’t remember the last time I baked with apples. It must have been about a year ago. So today’s recipe is an apple recipe (duh!) with Biscoff. Who doesn’t love Biscoff? If you haven’t tried Biscoff, I urge you to hurry up and get yourself a jar. You can get it on Amazon, Target or Cost Plus World Market, to name a few. It’s fantastic in baking, on toast, or you can just eat it straight from the jar. I currently have 5 jars in my pantry, that’s how much I love it.
I came across Laurie’s recipe for a Banana Snack Cake over at A Taste of Morning. I knew I wanted to make this cake the second I had overly brown bananas. I’m always looking for new ways to bake with bananas and I have to say, I think this maybe a new favorite!
I hope everyone is having a lovely long weekend! We spent it barbecuing with family, some cooking/baking and fighting off the ants and spiders! Ugh… one of the things I hate about home ownership is battling pests! Flies, spiders, ants, racoons, skunks —you name it! I’m relieved that I’m having my home fumigated on Tuesday. Hopefully most of them will be gone by then. Chris and I used to live in a condo so we didn’t encounter pest problems but we did have some noisy neighbors. Either way, they’re both pests. At least with these pest, they’re not loud and obnoxious, just creepy.
I got a bag full of cuties (oranges) from Kimi the other day. There were so many of them that I didn’t know if we were going to consume them in a timely manner. We’re not fruit people. Plus, they weren’t all that sweet (more of a reason why we’re not fruit people) so I decided to bake with them. Luckily they’re small so I used four of them in this recipe. That’s half the bag, whew! I hate waste. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the other half of the cuties. If you like orange and pecans, this will be a new favorite.
I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend. Yes I know the week is half way over and I’m behind on my blog. I didn’t get a chance to cook or bake over the weekend, hence the tardiness on my post this week.
Let’s see… Chris and I bought a new dining room set over the weekend —yay! It’s a beautiful distressed piece, which I love and it will be delivered this Friday. Kimi came home from her trip so we spent the afternoon with her. Chatted up with our neighbor regarding the fence we share. Was thinking about redoing it next month. So yes, it was a busy weekend.
I finally finished up the last couple of black bananas —yay! They were really ripe but that’s OK. The recipe calls for ripe bananas! This cake has all my favorite ingredients —bananas, cinnamon, ricotta, and chocolate chips. I added the pecans in here to give it texture but you can totally leave it out if you are not a nut person.
Had it for dessert after dinner and it was the perfect ending to the meal. Of course, you can have it before dinner or for dinner if you choose to. I won’t judge. 🙂
uni homemaker 