Hello all you people!

   I was going to wait until July 1st to roll this new site out, but I couldn't wait! 
   
   After waiting for a year I finally got the domain bushel-and-a-peck.com! Hazaa! I'm still working through Weebly because I'm used to the editor here, but my name no longer has ".weebly.com" at the end-it just has ".com"! 

   I'm hoping that this new look and having my own name will help me to really get this blog going! I've been at it since October 2013 (which, I realize in blog-land isn't that long), but I want this blog to really grow and change as I have! I plan in the next few weeks to add a new section to the site too-a health & fitness page! Although I have some crazy treat days, I am also really interested in health, and love fitness, and I want to share this part of me! So, look out for that!

   I hope you enjoy the new look; it feels fresh and happy to me, and I hope it helps you feel that way! 


    As for the recipe today (...speaking of health & fitness.....fail!), it's a classic peanut butter cookie, but way better. :)   I've made peanut butter cookies before, but these are a whole new breed of "yum"!  There is no flour to dull the fantastic peanut butter flavour, and the chocolate chip add-in is an obvious match made in heaven. I have also omitted the chocolate chips for a friend who doesn't like chocolate (I know what you're thinking, how can I even be friends with someone who doesn't like chocolate!!!) and the cookies spread more and were obviously flatter, but they were still soon tasty. 
   So, enjoy this super simple recipe! 

Flour-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups creamy or crunchy peanut butter (I used crunchy this time)
• 2 Eggs
• ½ Cup dark brown sugar, loosely packed
• ½ Cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tsp baking soda 
• 2 Cups Chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper if your pans are not so non-stick
2. Mix with your muscles or a hand or stand mixer the peanut butter and the eggs. Add the sugars and baking soda, and keep mixing until it's well incorporated and fluffy-ish 
3.  Stir in the chocolate chips
4. Using a I tbsp scoop, or just a regular spoon, make dough balls and place onto parchment lined baking sheet. Flatten them slightly with a fork (classic pb cookie). Keep these darlings about 2 inches apart from each other
5. Bake 6-8 minutes. You're looking for a barely set cookie with a touch of golden on the bottoms. They will set up a bit more as they cool, fear not
6. Let cool a few minutes on the cookie sheet, then carefully transfer to wire rack, and let cool completely

   Simple. Tasty. The End.  :)  

   It's the first official week of summer holiday for us here, and Wednesday is Canada Day which we're looking forward to! Tweed does a big how-do with a parade and celebrations in the park. It's always fun, and we're having some friends come to be involved then come back to our place after to hang out and have dinner and a campfire (hopefully, if it's not raining!).

   Well, I'm excited about all of this! Let me know what you think of the new look!

   I hope everyone has a great day!

   So, I'm baaaack! 
   After the musical was finished on June 13th (sigh....a happy and a sad one), we packed the family up and headed to a cottage for a week. That was a fantastic time of hanging out with my beautiful sister and her fam, relaxing, and eating my weight in s'mores......mmmmm..... 

   Last year I posted a recipe from Martha Stewart for Early Grey Tea Cookies. I love those cookies, I make them often, but what I love more than a regular shortbread style cookie is a whipped shortbread cookie. Whipped shortbread is so soft, buttery, and melt in your mouth tasty. 
   So, I decided to try my whipped shortbread recipe with the addition of earl grey tea, and the results were (not surprisingly) fantastic! 

Whipped Shortbread Earl Grey Cookies


Ingredients:

• 2 Cups butter (must be butter, no margarine allowed!), room temperature
  
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves (from about 4 bags). I use my coffee grinder to do this job

• 1 Cup icing sugar

• 1/2 Cup cornstarch
  
• 3 Cups flour
  

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep a cookie sheet with parchment if needed (if you don't trust your pans)
   
2. Cream the butter really, really, really well on high speed!
   
3. Add the ground earl grey and vanilla and continue beating
   
4. Turn the mixer down, and add in small increments the icing sugar, cornstarch and flour. Trust me, use your lowest speed or else the icing sugar/cornstarch/flour poofs and chokes you in a cloud of white dust! 
   
5. Once all ingredients are added, continue beating the mixture. You are working towards a light and fluffy cookie dough, so give these cookies some good whippin' to live up to their name  :)
   
6. Scoop or roll out teaspoon sized balls, and place onto a cookie sheet once inch apart. 
7. Bake  for 7-9 minutes until the bottoms are just barely browned. Let cool 5 minutes, then take off of the cookie sheet, and move to wire rack to cool completely. 
   

   These cookies are a true cookie delight! They are light, but buttery, aromatic and delicious! For realz. For some other ideas for these whipped shortbread, look here at my whipped shortbread: three ways! 
    My blogging has been waining lately...whomp whomp. I'm hoping now that the show is finished I can try to put a little more time in here. We'll see though because this is the last week of school, then I'll be in summer-mode (read: lazy) and may be too busy with summer stuff! We shall see though, we shall see. Let's say it again: we shall see.

   

   Did you know there was such a thing as National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day?!?! Well, there is, and it's today! Who knew?!
   Well, truth be told, I don't really like pie that much. I also don't liked baked fruit....but, did you know rhubarb is a veggie? Whacko. Also, did you know rhubarb has laxative properties? So, basically I'm going to talk to you about a pie that is made with vegetables and can make you poop. I know, you can hardly wait! :)  Hahaha...oh my goodness, what's up with me today?

   Seriously though...ok, not too seriously because it is still me after all, we have a jumbo patch of rhubarb that grows in one of our fields, and I've never, in the 4+ years I've lived in this house, used it for anything! I have occasionally pulled a stalk out to eat raw (it's crazy sour, but if you peel the 'skin' back, it's only moderately sour, and somehow refreshing!), but that was all it ever did.
   Until I heard there was a National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day! 
   If there was ever a time to decide to walk the 40 ft out my back door and pick some fresh rhubarb for something, it was for today! 
   This paleo, bare bottom pie is really very simple to make, and it's 'bare bottom' because I didn't think a paleo crust could stand up to the juiciness of the fruit (...um, and veg), so I just made it a top! I could have also just crumbled it on top, but it isn't national Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Day now is it?

Paleo Strawberry Rhubarb Bare Bottom Pie

Ingredients

For the filling

• 2 cups Rhubarb, diced
• 2 cups Strawberries, diced
• 1 Tsp lemon juice
  
• 2 Tbsp maple sugar (or coconut sugar)
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 Tbsp arrowroot (or tapioca) flour

For the crust

• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 3/4 cups almond flour
• 2 Tbsp coconut flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (or honey)
  
• 1/4 Cup coconut oil

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees
2. Put the strawberries and rhubarb in a  bowl with the  lemon juice, maple sugar (or coconut sugar), salt, and arrowroot (or tapioca) flour and mix well. Dump this mixture into a pie pan
3. Mix the shredded coconut, almond and coconut flour, cinnamon, salt and maple syrup (or honey) together in a medium mixing bowl
4. Roll out a piece of parchment or wax paper onto the counter (you'll need this for the crust). Mix the coconut oil into this dry mixture with your hands or a spoon until the mixture is all stuck together and well combined, then pick the dough up out of the bowl and plop onto the paper you prepared
5. Flatten the 'dough' into a circle, the size of your pie pan. Now lift the paper up, and gently fold it so that the dough is on the outside. Place the dough onto the pie, then lay the other side down, so that you now have the top on your pie, and the paper facing up. Carefully peel the paper off your pie
6. Cut a few slits into the pie, and open a little hole in the centre. This will help the steam get out of your pie
7. Bake for 25 minutes, checking occasionally. When the topping is browned and the fruit and vegetables :) are bubbling, remove from oven and allow to cool before serving.It doesn't have to completely cool or anything, you just don't want to burn your mouth!

   I've actually never seen rhubarb at the grocery store or even a farmers market...I suppose it must be somewhere though! If anyone lives close to me, feel free to come and collect some of mine for free! 

   So, on this National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day, I bid you farewell!  :)  
   Do you have any rhubarb stories to tell? Any yummy or different ways to prepare it? Do share! 

   I've already made cake mix cookies. Last April I posted the recipe, and that was that!
   I like to make cookies to bring to Friday night rehearsals when I'm in/helping with a show at the theatre, but one week my time got away from me, and I was seriously short on ambition!
   When I posted that cake mix cookie recipe last year, I confessed that the idea of making cookies out of a cake mix seemed dumb; why wouldn't one just buy a cookie mix if they wanted easy cookies? The answer is two fold, really. One: cookies made using cake mix are a cookie breed all their own! Part cake, part cookie? What the heck?!? It's crazy delicious! Two: Um....cake mix is always waaaaay cheaper than a cookie mix. It's true. Also, I guess this would be a third point, but I never buy cookie mix because I like making cookies and buying a mix seems silly. However, buying a cake mix when they are on sale is something I do because cake mixes make some lovely cakes. It's true. 
   So, it happened this particular day that I wanted to make cookies, didn't want to put in much effort, and decided to try the cake mix cookies again....only make them crazy simple!
   My recipe from last year was basically a cookie recipe with flour, sugars, butter, etc., but some of the regular flour was swapped out for cake mix. 
   This recipe today? All cake mix. Seriously....just cake mix, eggs and oil are all you'll need for these! Super lazy? Yup! Super tasty? Yup!    

Cake Mix Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 box of cake mix
• 2 Eggs
• 1/3 cup Oil (I've used vegetable, olive {the light tasting kind|, coconut oil and melted butter-all worked great)
• 1/4-1/2 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (basically depends on how chocolate crazy you are! You can also leave them out and just make vanilla cookies-which I've done too, and they are so tasty!)

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 Degrees, and have some cookie sheets ready. Use parchment paper if your pans are not so great
2. Mix first 3 ingredients in a bowl, then stir in the chocolate chips
3. Using a small Pampered Chef (or P.C. style) scoop, or just using 1 tablespoon, scoop the dough onto the cookie sheets, giving at least 2 inches between each cookie
4. Bake for 7-9 minutes, until lightly golden but not fully cooked. They will finish cooking a little as they cool and set
5. Let the tasty morsels cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack

   Let's just talk about variety here for a moment....how about strawberry cake mix with white chocolate chips, or chocolate cake mix with score bits, or peanut butter chips? How about chocolate cake mix with nuts added in? Seriously, you can make these what you want them to be! And amazing will always be the result! 
   So, although I believe in baking from scratch (I find it therapeutic!), sometimes baking like this can also be therapeutic too! I mean, getting such a fantastic bunch of cookies from some crazy simple ingredients is amazing! Maybe I'm overly excited about these, but I think it's legit.  :) 
   
   Anywho, tonight marks the start of week 2 for The Drowsy Chaperone, and I'm feeling excited! Last week with the preview, opening night and running for the weekend went well. My Mom and Dad came up to see the show, and help me out by watching the kids while I was away, and it was a pleasure to have them! 
   Below are a few photos from one of our last rehearsals from 2 weeks ago. These beautiful photos are from Sean Scally, a talented photographer who is involved with the Theatre Guild.

   So, that's it! Have a great Wednesday!