mint brownies

I think we can all agree that brownies are the bomb.  Especially when they are served warm with ice cream.  Am I right?  Why mess with perfection, one might ask.  To that I would say...why not?  Especially if it leads to something this delicious.  

Now, these brownies will always remind me of one of my university roommates, Rochelle!  She was often a taste-tester of mine while we lived together, and we spent many nights bonding as I baked and she cleaned up behind me (hahaha...it was the perfect relationship :P).  I'm pretty sure this was her brainchild, adding mint chocolate chips instead of regular ones....and it is pretty amazing.  I love that it gives an old classic a new spin!  It's nice to mix it up now and again.

These are incredibly rich, chewy, and just overall decadent morsels of goodness!

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mint brownies

recipe: slightly adapted from Brooke - allrecipes
yields: ~24 servings

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2)  In a large bowl, beat together the melted butter, sugar and vanilla.

3)  Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after each one.

4)  In a separate medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt.

5)  Gradually mix in the flour mixture to the egg mixture until completely blended.

6)  Use a spatula to stir in mint chocolate chips.

7)  Spread the batter into a greased 9x13 pan.  The batter is thick, so use a spatula to ensure it is spread out evenly.

8)  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 35 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. **Be careful that your toothpick isn't just hitting a mint chocolate chip when inserted, as that can be misleading and lead to overbaking.

9)  Remove from the oven once it's done, and allow to cool slightly before cutting.  Top with powdered sugar (or frosting if desired), and serve (preferably with ice cream!)

Ingredients: 

1 cup butter, melted

3 cups white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup mint chocolate chips

[optional: powdered sugar for topping]

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Happy baking everyone!  And brace yourselves for some Christmas baking coming at ya soon!

-Kelsey

mint chip ice cream

Ever since I was a little girl, mint chip ice cream has always been my favorite.  Call me boring....but it's still the flavour I will get 99% of the time.  My logic is that I know that I love mint chip, so why bother trying other flavours?  Right?

Now this logic only holds true unless there's salted caramel that is!  Then it's anybody's game.

Not only is today special because it involves ice cream, but we also were able to collaborate with the lovely Rosaura from Pigment and Parchment!  I discovered her gorgeous work on instagram, she then followed me back and suggested a food post collab!  I said "heck yes!", and the rest is history.  She painted us the most darling ingredient list, which you can see below.  Love!

artwork by:

pigment and parchment

Mint Chip Ice Cream

by: Kelsey & Jordyn

Ingredients:

2 cups whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon spearmint extract

3-4 drops green food colouring (optional)

1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1) In a large bowl, mix together milk, cream, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and spearmint extract, making sure sugar is dissolved.

2) Add food colouring if you wish, until it is as green as you want!

3) Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and follow the directions of your ice cream maker.

4) Once the mixture has started to thicken (about 10 minutes), add the chocolate chips in gradually.

5) When the ice cream has thickened sufficiently (ours took 20 minutes), scoop into a container (we used a loaf pan and it fit perfectly), and freeze until it's ready to serve (around 2 hours).

6) Enjoy!

*If you find mini chocolate chips freeze too hard to eat, you can always substitute chocolate shavings instead!

Ever since Jordyn bought her new fancy schmancy "I can make ice cream in 15 minutes" ice cream maker....it sure is tempting to make a new flavour each week.  I suppose it'll be a good lesson in practicing our self control!

Who are we kidding?  Good-bye bikini body!  Hello delicious ice cream!  

-kelsey & jordyn

outfit post: mint and cherry

So, what happens when you're having a good hair day, you're wearing your Easter dress (with purple tights), and there's nobody around to take photos?

Well, you dig out the tripod and just do it yourself!

It was quite the adventure figuring out how to position myself in the frame, how the heck I was supposed to get the focus right, and pretend like the neighbours weren't silently judging me.  I mostly figured it out (although there were 

a lot of 

hilarious outtakes), and these are the results! 

dress: uo // tights: h&m // shoes: charlotte russe

p.s. 

♥

 kelsey

outfit post: cat tights

An important step you must complete on your way to becoming a crazy cat lady is purchasing a pair of cat tights.  I can now check that off my to-do list!

I have absolutely no shame, and am so so in love with these.  I first wore them in Edmonton when I was out visiting Clara, and to say she was a bit horrified would be an understatement. Ha!  She's not really a cat person, and I got quite a bit of enjoyment over her revulsion.

(She does like kittens though....so all hope is not lost yet).

Anyway, moving on....This dress is the newest in my quite large collection of lace dresses.  It's mint lace, has a sweetheart neckline, short sleeves, and the length actually hits my knees instead of mid-thigh like every other dress out there.  I can't wait for the weather to warm up so that I can wear it without tights!

I got it on a wicked sale at urban outfitters, so it was dirt cheap.  Man, do I love sales!

dress: urban outfitters // cardigan: front and co (consignment) // tights: ebay // shoes: charlotte russe

These photos were taken in Edmonton by Clara (thank you again!), as you maybe guessed by all the snow!  Did I mention that it was a balmy 12 degrees and beautifully sunny in Abbotsford today?  (For those of you who live in California/southern U.S.,/southern hemisphere this

is

 something to brag about!)

I hope you all are having a lovely weekend!

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

mint nanaimo bars

It's your lucky day!  We decided we should make something festive for St. Patrick's Day...so here we present you with: mint nanaimo bars!  We thought adding a minty green twist to one of our favorite recipes would be the perfect St. Patty's Day treat.  And boy is it good!  Mint + chocolate is the bomb.

Now I've included the modified recipe for these minty bars, but check out the original post

here

for more basic tips and photos!

Nanaimo Bars

Bottom Layer:

1/2 cup butter [very soft]

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

5 tablespoons white sugar

1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with

3 tablespoon of water

2 cups graham wafer crumbs

Middle Layer:

4 tablespoons softened butter

3 tablespoons milk (or cream)

2 tablespoons vanilla custard powder

2 cups icing sugar

1/4 tsp mint extract (add more to taste if you really like your mint!)

green food colouring (I used gel, and it worked like a charm!)

Top Layer:

1 cup chocolate chips [or 6 baking squares]

1 tablespoon shortening

Instructions:

Step 1

1.  Place melted butter, cocoa, vanilla, sugar, and flax seed mixture in a bowl.  Stir mixture until creamy.

2.  Mix wafer crumbs and coconut into the cocoa mixture.  

3. Pack into an 8x8 pan.  I usually line the pan with parchment paper, and when I am ready to cut the bars, I just lift it out, and place it on a cutting board.

4.  Refrigerate until the bottom is solid (about 30 mins).

Step 2

5.  In a seperate bowl, mix butter, milk, custard powder, icing sugar, and mint extract together.  Add a bit of green food colouring until desired colour is achieved.  

6.  Spread over bottom layer.

Step 3

7.  Melt chocolate chips and shortening together either in a saucepan or in the microwave; be careful not to burn! The shortening will ensure that the chocolate layer isn't too solid, so it wont crack when cutting.

8.  Spread chocolate evenly over middle layer.

9.  Refrigerate for approximately 5 mins.  

Step 4

10.  Once the chocolate has begun to harden, I like to score it with my knife.  This makes it easier to cut after it has totally hardened. 

11.  Place nanaimo bars back in the fridge for at least 30 mins.

12.  Once they have completely hardened, lift the parchment out of the pan onto a cutting board, and using a large knife, cut the nanaimo bars all the way.

13.  Enjoy!

I love the pop of colour on these babies...and they're sure to be a hit at any party!

These would make a wonderful dessert no matter the occasion, and are a nice change from our original version!

Enjoy!  And Happy St. Patrick's Day!

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

chocolate mint patty cookies

These cookies come from the very creative mind of Miss Jordyn!  She is a pro at melding recipes, and coming up with new ideas in the kitchen.  This time, she took her famous

triple chocolate cookie

 recipe and wrapped it around mint patties.

Rich and chocolatey, these decadent cookies are best saved for special occasions....like Christmas!  They are also quite finicky, and we don't recommend them for beginner bakers!

We love drizzling these cookies in white chocolate, and then sprinkling with red and green sprinkles for Christmas.  It'd be fun to mix up the colours of the sprinkles for different occasions, and we've also used crushed up candy canes!

Chocolate Mint Patty Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 cup Sugar

3/4 cup Brown Sugar (packed)

2 Eggs

1 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder

1 3/4 cup Flour

2 tsp Baking Soda

Mint Patties (we used pearsons)

Directions:

1) Place mint patties in the freezer.

2) In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and eggs.

3) Mix in cocoa powder, flour and baking soda.

4) Take a few mint patties out of the freezer, and start molding cookie dough around each one.  You want as little cookie dough as possible around the mint patties....otherwise your cookies will be too wide and flat and have a bulge in the middle.

5) Continue taking out a few mint patties at a time, and forming cookies until you have a complete pan.

6) Stick your pan of cookies back into the freezer, and repeat the process.

7) Once you have another pan of cookies complete, place your first pan into your oven and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

8) Repeat until cookie dough is used up.

9) If you want, you can drizzle with white chocolate and decorate with sprinkles!

*The key of these cookies is to keep the mint patties as frozen as possible before baking, as well as placing the cookies in the freezer for a bit before going into the oven.  Otherwise all your minty-goodness will leak out.*

These cookies are truly not for the faint of heart.  I'm going to give it to you straight....These bad boys are tricky.  They take a VERY long time.  And they might even kick you in the shins.  Sometimes they WILL (not might....they will) turn out like this:

But that's okay, because you'll get the hang of it.  And these cookies are definitely worth the effort!

For the white chocolate drizzle, I melted a few white chocolate wafers, and used a small ziplock bag with a small cut in one corner to drizzle it on.

And sprinkles if you want, and you're done!

One of my favorite things about Christmas baking is that your house smells amazing all the time!  These cookies don't disappoint, and will fill your house with delightful minty chocolate goodness.

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey