50 pounds of mini chocolate chips

You might think, who in their right mind would buy 50 pounds of mini chocolate chips. You're looking at her. With a child with nut allergies, you spend time finding things that will be safe. Guittard chocolate is one of those things. Luckily our local grocery carries Guittard chocolate chips. But alas, they do not carry mini-chips, and there are just some days you want a to use mini-chocolate chips. After a couple months deliberating such a purchase, I decided, oh what the heck, just do it. I did let those around me know I was doing such a purchase in case anyone else wanted some chips. The price is actually comparable to grocery store chips, and well, it's a much nicer chocolate. Yes, I do have 3 large (10 lb) Guittard blocks in my kitchen as well. I'm a fan of their chocolate.

I ended up with 30 pounds of mini-chips and decided I needed to try out some new things. I admit, I never had chocolate chip pancakes before. Wow are they good! And I plan some chocolate chip bagels, in my copious free time. But my new favorite thing is Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. As I mentioned in a previous post, I love banana nut bread. But our home now being nut free, I don't get to indulge unless I buy a slice at work or some other event. And honestly, my homemade version is much better. (modest, huh?) I have found that the chocolate chips make up for losing my beloved banana nut bread.

Luck O' the Irish, Eh?

I set myself a task about a month ago to come up with a cookie tray. I wanted a mix of cookies, not just simple chocolate chip cookies. Why did I decide to do this? Because I'm insane? Probably. For my childrens' school auction I signed up to bring 2 desserts for the dessert dash. Don't know what a dessert dash is? Well, each person at a table says they will put in X amount of money towards a dessert. The money is pooled. Then you are competing against the other tables to select a dessert. Fun, right? Anyone who knows me will tell you, there is nothing fun sounding in this to me but creating desserts.

I decided I wanted to come up with something different for my desserts. First I came up with a tray of mousse shots. I found little cups and spoons and everything. I'm sure I'll blog about that later as I tried out a few different recipes for that as well. Then I decided the cookie tray. That's how I came up with my task to select a unique mix of cookies. My co-workers were great. I took in a set of cookies one day and made them rate them most to least favorite. I also bribed them with cinnamon rolls that day. It helped me pick 3 great recipes for my tray. I decided to look for a few more. I then stumbled on Maple Sugar Cookies in the All American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett. The picture was of these beautiful maple leaf cookies with little bits of sugar. I saw them and thought, oh those look so pretty, I must make them. Of course, I have no maple leaf cookie cutter, but that was quickly remedied by a shamrock in honor of the season.

That's where the fun really began. Yes, I really do know the meaning of the word fun, honest. I set out to find maple sugar that was nut safe. Online they all seemed to be packaged in a facility that packaged other products with nuts, so that was out. I called my MIL who lives in NH near a maple sugar house and she talked to the owners. They didn't actually make maple sugar, but knew somewhere that did. In the mean time I found a sugar house in VT and emailed the owners. They were great. They took the time to answer my questions and address my concerns. I can't say enough good things about Mount Mansfield Maple Products. If you need maple goods, I say, check them out. They are awesome. 

Happy St. Patty's Day!

For the past few years, I've had a tradition of trying to kill my husband for St. Patrick's Day. You may think that sounds a bit harsh and well, rather stupid to admit publicly, but I think saying it is murder would be tough to prove. Technically, he pulls the trigger, I just hand him the gun.

I don't remember when I actually stumbled upon the recipe for Steak and Guinness pie. It's been enough years ago to have actually blurred. I don't know what I was looking for that would have made me find this. I'm not really a big beef eater. I assume I was trying to find some good recipes for a St. Patrick's Day dinner. I found this. And it has been a yearly staple ever since. And when you see the terrible (yes, terrible!) ingredients, you'll see why I only make this once a year. For you see, I do truly love my husband, and I don't want him dead, but he does so love this little slice of meat heaven.