Our Kitchen

Ahh, the first day of Spring. At least for some of us. The forecast, per the usual, isn’t looking too bright for us Minnesota peeps. But at the very least we can start thinking or rather, dreaming of Spring and things such as flowers, grass and warmer weather. I really need all that I can get to remind me that it will eventually get nicer. To say it’s been a rough winter would be an understatement. I don’t want to complain or anything, but seriously…anyone with me? Midwesterners, East coast friends?! I know we’re not alone here. I was inspired to make these from a cupcake I saw on Pinterest about a year ago. These were very simple to make and look how cute they turned out! You could easily serve these on their own or also use them as a cupcake/cake topper. I had some leftover Valentine M&M’s and they worked perfectly for Spring colors – I just left out the red colored ones! Or you could always buy Spring colored ones – haha. Make sure you buy the dipping sticks because normal pretz

This is the one! My coffee crew devoured this in less than 30 minutes! Extremely quick to make. It was the best. I choose to use an Oreo crust as I'm a chocoholic. I doubled the amount of peanut butter. It was plenty rich without using extra sugar. Everything else was the same amounts. I did add 1/3 of a 12 ounce jar of Smuckers HOT FUDGE sauce to the bottom of the crust. Do not use chocolate syrup. It is too thin! I also drizzle some on top. You have to melt it to drizzle as it is very thick. This is the 2nd recipe I tried in the last 3 days. Everyone asked for the recipe - even the guys! Kudos for recipe! Get the recipe >> Peanut Butter Pie with Pretzel Crust @ sugarapron.com

Sinchy cake. Very easy to make. Check cake before the 50-60 minutes are up. My cake came out in 45 minutes. I used two 7 oz bags of Werther's Original Chewy Caramels. Took about three minutes to melt in the microwave. This is a VERY rich cake. I recommend Dryers Vanilla Bean Ice Cream to go with it. Yum! A little slice of this stuff goes a long way! Definitely better when warm. Recipe >> Chocolate Turtle Poke Cake @ momlovesbaking.com

I made this recipe without any variations. It is promising enough that I will try variations in the future but I will not be making it exactly the way the recipe reads again. The flavor was only just okay. Though of course this is highly dependent on the quality of fruit you use so maybe I'll try again later in the summer when I can get better peaches.  Also, I think that orange juice may not be the optimal choice of liquid for this recipe... I found that it really overwhelmed the peach flavor. Also, plan to eat this straight from churning because if you try to "harden" it first (as most ice cream maker instructions will advise you to do) it develops a really icy texture. Right after churning it has the beautifully silky, smooth consistancy that I want from sorbet. My guess would be that there may be a little too much water (from the juice) in the recipe so the freezing temperature of the sorbet is too high. Less juice might result in a smoother consistancy after hardenin

I did a ton of reading around Vegan desserts and most of them revolve around the humble banana. Its surprising what you can make out of one fruit and how diverse it is. Kids love these frosty treats. Bananas on sticks are coated with peanut butter, rolled in chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs and sprinkles, then frozen. I got the inspiration for this recipe from boysahoy.com and buzzfeed where I stumbled upon a recipe of someone rolling bananas in granola and chocolate for a tasty breakfast treat. So I thought to myself, why not combine my favourite vegan ingredients? Recipe >> Peanut Butter Chocolate & Oreo Banana Pops @ boysahoy.com