The Only Special Thing About Valentine's Day: The Food

Valentine's Day isn't a really thing in our house. I think conventional festivities died the year Josh and I celebrated by going out, eating too much Indian food, and spending the rest of the night marooned on the sofa with indigestion. Nothing says ~love~ like trying to muffle a turbulent, aggressively gurgling stomach. Romantic!

The thing is, as the 14th approaches, almost every eatery in town is promoting a special dish, meal, drink, etc. We may not go all-out for Valentine's Day anymore, but I will ALWAYS seize an opportunity to indulge in something (or lots of things) food-related.

Here's what I, personally, most look forward to scarfing down...

Guillaume, my treasured bakery, is bringing back their amaretti cookies this weekend. I placed an order earlier in the week (because I want twenty of them and I DON'T MESS AROUND with baked goods), but I'm sure walk-ins will be fine.

Stella is offering an insane meal-for-two deal. It even includes a bottle of wine! There's only one thing left to decide: Are we having pizza Saturday night, Sunday night, or both?

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While writing this post, I was sidelined by nostalgia and felt compelled to search through my phone for artifacts from Valentine's Days past. If you'd like to join me down Memory Lane, here's what I found. (Predictably, it's all very on-brand.)

 

2020: Imagine working with a half-dozen women for whom two pickles and half-cup of soup constitutes lunch. (Welcome to the fASHioN industry?) Then, picture being surprised at the office with a personal heart-shaped za from Double Pizza. Hilarious perfection. I wouldn't have had it any other way :)

2018: Josh thinks black and white cookies are gross, but buys them anyway because he knows I love them.

2019: The time I shrieked with delight at the sight of gâteau chimique from Provigo. (IYKYK.)

 



2017: Couldn't find any evidence of food from February 2017, but I did receive a gift that year! Some people get a bouquet of flowers. I got a whole plant lol.

2016: We splurged on brunch at Rhubarbe. At the time, they offered a set men where you chose your drink and main. Very cute and casual, but also somehow felt very fancy. Highly, highly recommend!   

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Whatever you're up to this weekend, I hope you have a good one :)

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Recipe Test Drive: Ricardo's Oatmeal Cookies

Look, there's no other way to say it. These are the BEST oatmeal cookies I've ever baked.

My latest baking project started the way most do: There weren't any cookies in the house and I was jonesing for one. (Actually, more like five.) After a quick google and an ingredient-based process of elimination, a winner emerged from the interminable list of options. Ricardo Larrivée is obviously a huge name in Quebec, but this was my first time making one of his recipes.

Some tweaks:

-- Used whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose.

-- Added a generous amount of mini chocolate chips to the batter.

The recipe was easy to follow, everything came together quickly, and the end result was smooshy, not-too-sweet, and doughy like a regular non-oatmeal cookie. I was BLOWN AWAY. Two days later, every crumb was gone. 

These oatmeal cookies have since been added to my stash of trusted recipes. Let me know if you give them a shot :)

What are your favorite things to bake?

Image credit: Beaming Baker
Recipe credit: Ricardo Cuisine (also linked in the body of this post)

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Recipe Test Drive: Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Cookies

I was recently frozen at the pantry door, searching for snack inspiration, when peanut butter thumbprint cookies came to mind. Sweet and simple. If you've read other Recipe Test Drive posts, then you know my M.O. for baking is 100% lazy convenience. This recipe from Kraft seemed easy and almost all the ingredients were already in my kitchen.

Tweaks:

- Halved the recipe.

- Used applesauce instead of an egg.

- There's something the recipe should highlight in ginormous red letters: The batter requires AN HOUR of chill time in the refrigerator. That's a long wait -- especially when you are a naturally impatient person who should have read the recipe more carefully from the get-go. ANYWAY. By that point, I was already wrist-deep in sticky cookie batter and getting very, very hungry. So, I just put the bowl of dough in the freezer for five minutes and hoped for the best.

End result:

I was craving puffy pillow-like cookies with a well in the middle for holding jam...

But inadvertently made thin squishy discs...

Oops.

Clearly, my cookies totally flattened out as they baked. Probably because the dough was too mushy and warm going into the oven -- it couldn't hold it's shape.

Silver lining: They tasted great! The PB flavor was pretty mellow, the texture was super soft and chewy.

Turns out, my disfigured desserts were actually perfect for making sandwich cookies. I took two, put a small glob of cherry jelly on the flat side of each, then gently sandwiched them together until the filling made its way to the edge. They might still benefit from being chilled (to firm up the jam), but I couldn't tell you for sure because I'm a monster and ate mine immediately. They were GOOD.

Bonus: The batter was amazing. When you replace the egg with applesauce, you can eat it risk-free. I think?

Next time, I might smear a little peanut butter (or almond butter!) in the middle of the sandwich, alongside the jelly. Another tasty touch could be to sprinkle crushed peanuts on the cookies before they start to bake.

What are some of your cooking-related happy accidents? :)

Image credit (top): Food & Wine

Image credit (thumbprint cookies): Little Bitty Bakes

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