mmmMonday: Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

...or as I've been calling them around here, pumpy cincin bons. Don't judge, intensive baking takes a toll on my brain box. 

The holidays were made for recipes like these. My main criteria for holiday baking are: 1. Is there cinnamon? 2. If no to one, is there peppermint? Yes to either one of these meant it was baked. I found this recipe through pinterest, originally posted on one of the most delicious blogs I know, smitten kitchen. Deb had adapted this recipe from Baked Elements. I haven't tried the original but I can vouch for this one; it's scrumptious.

THE DOUGH

INGREDIENTS

6 T unsalted butter	2 1/4 t dry active yeast	1/2 cup milk, warmed
1/4 cup brown sugar	1/4 cup brown sugar	3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 large egg	2/3 cup pumpkin puree	1 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon	1/4 t nutmeg	1/8 t ground cardamon
1/4 t ground ginger	oil to coat the rising bowl

As I am not familiar with yeast, and the unknown scares me, I dealt with it first. Combine your warm milk and yeast in a bowl and set aside. After five to seven minutes it should be a bit foamy. Mine wasn't. Mine was a horrible, taunting clump. I'm still unsure why since as I mentioned, I have no experience with yeast. In any case, I googled and then just started whisking. Whisked like it was the only thing in the world. And guess what, it got foamy. 

Now that your yeast is under control you can move on with your life. Begin by melting your butter in a saucepan. If you're feeling extra adventurous [after killing it with the yeast] try browning it. As you may remember, I did not kill it with the yeast. I skipped browning the butter so unfortunately there are no first hand details - check them here. 

Combine flour, sugars, salt and spices in the bowl of a mixer. Add two-thirds of your butter and stir to combine. Add that pesky yeast-milk mixture, pumpkin and egg, mix again. Switch to a dough hook and let it run on low for five minutes.

Collect your awkward dough ball from the mixer and place it in a large, oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap ...or if you've neglected to replenish your plastic wrap, a clean dish cloth. Set aside for one hour; the dough should about about double.

finished product 

Dough rolled to approximately 16x11inches, waiting on the filling

THE FILLING

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 t ground cinnamon

The tough part's over and the fun begins! Mix the sugars and cinnamon together. I made the two teaspoons an even Tablespoon because I'm a BIG fan of cinnamon so feel free to use your discretion. 

Generously brush the remaining melted butter over your dough. Sprinkle the filling mixture evenly over the buttered dough. Taking the longer side, begin rolling the dough into a tight spiral. The first roll will be the hardest, making you wish you had six while still refusing any help offered to you. Once you get that first roll off the counter though, the rest will be cake.

Once rolled, gently saw the roll into approximately one inch pieces. I found using a bread knife very helpful. The sawing helps to ensure the dough isn't stretched and pulled every which way. You should have around 16 - 18 pieces. Next, place your rolls in a pan [two pans if you have small ones] side by side. We didn't have a lovely round dish so I used my haggard square one.

Cover the pan[s] with plastic wrap and let them rise for another 45 minutes. If you are completely exhausted by this point, and I don't blame you if you are - I was, feel free to leave them in the fridge over night. If you do this, remove them from the fridge first thing in the morning and leave them to rise for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350, bake for 25 minutes. 

THE GLAZE

There are two ways to make the glaze. The first way: beat the cream cheese until super light and fluffy. Add icing sugar and vanilla, beating as you go along, and drizzle in milk until you reach your desired consistency. Neat, clean and no fail. 

The second way, my way - the-no-nonsense-I've-been-making-cinnamon-buns-for-four-hours-way: Add all glaze ingredients to the bowl. Mix. Pass out. Wake up when the oven timer goes off signally you can finally eat those delicious buns!

Since only two of us were eating these luscious buns, we drizzled our glaze on a bun by bun basis. If you have more friends, or like to share, go ahead and add all the glaze and dig in.

Definitely check out the original post for the full story as I may glaze over some of the details, 

forgive me, I am stuffing one of these beauties into my mouth as I type. 

mmmMonday: Bacon Egg Cups

Jack and I are BIG fans of breakfast. You may have noticed this since my last couple What I Ate posts are all about the breakfast love. SO when I pinned this little nugget we were both pretty excited to try it out.  

This meal is essentially just bacon and eggs in a more fun form; muffin-form! Anybody who's on pinterest by now knows that muffin-form solves all boring food problems, and this morning it rescued my bacon & eggs. Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.

INGREDIENTS:   bacon.   
                               eggs.   
                               cheese [if you got it, we didn't].   
                               basil [if you fancy, we are]. 

We had five eggs left in our fridge so we used them all. The pin I was following said to beat the eggs with a fork. However everyone knows the more air you can beat into an egg the fluffier it will be, so I said RULES BE DAMNED and we used a hand held mixer. It was beautiful. You should too.

Next we lined the muffin tin with bacon. We did one piece per spot. We also didn't butter the sides of the pan because you know, bacon; it's greasy. So we let it work its magic, and it did. 

This is the point where you would mix in your grated cheese to the egg. We didn't have any cheese though so we opted for basil to add the extra je ne sais quoi. Pour equal amounts of egg into each of the spots and then place a piece of basil on each. Place in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes.

and voila! a very novel bacon and eggs to brighten your morning! I've realized that this would be an absolutely AWESOME item for a brunch. Personal bacon and eggs that look super nice and will make you seem extra impressive. So get ready world, Sorren is going to take brunch by storm!

mmmMonday: The perfect breakfast smoothie

Smoothies and I got super close over the summer, and let me tell you - I enjoyed myself. Smoothies are easy, they require minimal clean up [especially with the magic bullet] and there is really just nothing better than having a filling, delicious smoothie for breakfast every. day. of. the. week. After having made them all summer long, my process is down to a Sorren-friendly science.

3/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup greek yogurt
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 - 1 banana [always depended on how many I had left]
1/2 teaspoon agave or honey
1 teaspoon matcha [for your caffeine-kick]
1/2 scoop whey protein [if you have any]

My ingredients tended to vary slightly depending on what I had on hand / was able to steal from my parents house. I know, I know - I am definitely too old to be stealing food from my parents house but I'm a big weirdo and don't like to spend money on things like whey protein - however, I WILL spend endless amounts of cheese. 

If you have whey and/or matcha, what you want to do first is pour in the almond milk and then add the whey and/or matcha and blend. Not only does this make the smoothie deliciously frothy, but it mixes up the powders so they aren't gross, ruining your smoothie one clump at a time later. 

Once blended add blueberries, banana, agave and yogurt. I like to keep the blueberries by the top so they don't stunt the movement and yogurt closest to the blades to help with blending. I also like to hide the agave inbetween the fruit and yogurt so it doesn't get stuck to the sides. Like I said, down to a science.

With the bullet I blend it for about 2 minutes, 3 tops and then that's it. You are good to go! If it's too thick, add extra almond milk until you have it to your liking. If you're full time fancy, feel free to put it in a glass... but be warned, that will take longer and create extra dishes.

mmmMonday: Yogurt with Toasted Quinoa, Nuts and Dates

This summer, before our wedding, Jack and I focused on eating a little healthier. The first wave of this came at the beginning of June when we cut out all chips, french fries [SO hard considering my excessive love of poutine], ice cream [unless, of course, we were at the beach], pop, juice and all unnecessary bread. We also stopped having cereal and toast for breakfast. Instead we switched to omelets when we had lots of time, smoothies when there was none and this delicious yogurt dish when we fell in the middle. 

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon red quinoa

¾ cup Greek yogurt - we've used plain, vanilla and lemon - all were perfection. 

2 Dates

5 Almonds, chopped

5 shelled Pistachios, chopped

Pinch of lemon rind

1 to 2 teaspoons Olive Oil

Begin by laying out your ingredients. Chop the pistachios, almonds and dates. Grate the lemon rind and grab your salt. If you have everything ready and laid out [and don't take photos while preparing the dish] the entire process should take just under ten minutes - a respectable amount of time to make a very impressive and 

Add the quinoa to a pan on medium heat for five minutes to toast. We used blond since we had so much on hand, although I have had this with red quinoa and I would definitely recommend it - if only because it  looks so. damn. good. While waiting on the quinoa to pop, toss the nuts in a pan and put them in the oven to roast - 350 degrees for five minutes should work.

Sprinkle the quinoa, nuts and dates on the yogurt once they are finished, and then drizzle olive oil. If the olive oil weirds you out - don't worry, I made a face when I first saw this part but believe it, it's amazing. Seriously. It makes the whole dish velvety and rounds out the taste. Top it off with your lemon rind and a dash of salt and enjoy!

Bridal Brunch Wear

Pink Martini dress | Matt&Nat clutch | le Chateau wedges

When . Sunday, August 12
What . My bridal shower! A lovely Sunday brunch-esq afternoon complete with games, finger foods [my favourite] and cake pops. Oh, and wonderful women who made me feel insanely loved.
Weather . Sunny, hot and sticky - perfect for curls... well, perfect for the beach but curls are a close second.

Hello all!!
Boy does it feel good to be back! I have missed everyone so much over these last few months of planning, and especially over the last couple weeks. I hope you all enjoyed the wonderful gals who guest posted for me and maybe even found a new daily read. Although I wasn't blogging during my wedding planning, post clean-up and pre-move packing - I did slip in a couple OOTD shots. Honestly though, how could I let the opportunity slip away with event after event giving me reason to dress up [something I've struggled with working from home these last couple months]. 

I got this dress back at the beginning of spring and it has been literally sitting in my closet waiting for my bridal shower! I know, right!? I don't know how I did it either. It did feel awesome to dress up in something I've never worn before that was perfect for the day so I suppose I'm not too sad about days missed.

Food Friday: Vegan Marble Banana Bread

I am very excited to announce my second-ever pinterest recipe adventure was a delicious success! If you follow my pinterest, you'll know that the majority of my pins are of food and so I can't help but celebrate each time I manage to make one a reality [I want to eat. it. ALL.].

I love banana bread, always have always will. It's deliciousness is the only reason I can even stand saying the worst moist [ugh. that was hard and gross -that's what she said... I digress]. The point is, when I saw this pin and knew that I could up my game to include a chocolate - but not too chocolatey - banana bread, I nearly passed out from excitement. 

INGREDIENTS:  1 cup mashed banana 3/4 cups sugar 1 teaspoon canola oil 1/3 cup almond milk 1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 6 tablespoons boiling water, divided

Begin by boiling the water and preheating the oven to 350 F. Next, start mashing your naners in a large bowl, beating in the sugar, oil, milk and vanilla. Set aside.

Sift your flour, baking soda and salt - not because it's fun, but because you know it's worth it. Gently mix the flour into the wet ingredients.

Now, here's where things get crazy. Separate half of the batter into another bowl. In a small bowl mix the cocoa powder with 3T of the boiling water. Once this has dissolved into delicious hot cocoa water mix it into one half of the batter, creating that chocolatey goodness. Once this is mixed, add the remaining 3T of boiling water to the boring ol' plain batter and mix.

At this point, you should have two bowls of batter. Begin added them to your nicely buttered, lightly flour-dusted pan, one half cup at a time layering the chocolate with the plain. Once all your batter is in there take a knife and swirl it around the length of the pan -don't let it drag on the bottom though.

Put it in your preheated oven and voila! 55 minutes later [more if your oven is sneaky] you've got a delicious marble banana bread! ...and since it's all vegan and healthy you can pretty much devour that thing start to finish right from the oven. Enjoy!

Notes:

Just because it's vegan doesn't mean it needs to have a weird rubbery texture!

Hurray for finding healthy recipes that also taste good!!

Since it's vegan you'll need almond, soy or rice milk instead of regular. Ooo! Also, you could try coconut milk. Any would do and they're all pretty fantastic to bake with.

Sift the flour twice. This always helps with cakes and muffins and since eggs aren't included in vegan recipes, the sifted flour will definitely help lighten the batter.

What I ate: Simple Summer Pear Cake

This recipe could also be called "Simple Brunch Pear Cake" 

or "Simple High-tea Pear Cake" or "Simple Midnight Snack Pear Cake" 

because seriously, this cake is a social butterfly 

that can be taken anywhere and eaten at any time.

...although maybe don't show up at your friends' house for a midnight snack. 

You might scare them, especially if they  watched  just watched Paranormal Activity 

3 years ago  and are still a little jumpy. 

Best to stay at home with your cake and avoid any unpleasant taser-ings.

The original recipe, found on ol' trusty - food52 - called for peaches rather than pears.

However, when a gal buys a basket of pears because they look oh-so-pretty, 

she's got to get creative with how she uses them after a while.

So, pears it was. And it worked great.

Chop pears and then toss in sugar and nutmeg.

Only 2 tablespoons of sugar though - Jack got excited and mixed it with the full cup.

It was no fun rectifying that mistake.

Next, combine your wet ingredients.
Luckily today, I was NOT baking while tired (my version of My Drunk Kitchen), 
so this went relatively smoothly - no mishaps, no nonsense.

Mix the dry ingredients. 
Note: Almond flour does not sift well... don't waste your time.
It's annoying, should've known.
After, combine the wet and dry ingredients.

There's not much batter and it will usually just plop in the centre; 
be prepared to spread with a spatula. 

You've caught me. I use my hands while cooking and baking. 
Why not? It's easier. Also, it's more precise, and when you've got a slight case 
of the OCD like me, preciseness beats hygiene.
Although, I totally wash my hands first... but not in an OCD way.
My OCD focuses more on order and organization than germs and the like.

Back to the cake.

I like a lot of pears. I cut up wayyyy too many pears.
That being said, I definitely could have fit a few more pieces into this cake.

I started rambling, full recipe: here.

Notes
You can fit more pears in than you think you can.

Using only 3/4 cup sugar rather than the full cup would help brunch-i-fy this cake.

I find it usually needs an extra 5 - 10 minutes baking time in my oven.

It doesn't call for almond slivers, but they sure make it look fancy
...and taste good, obviously.