Childhood Traditions

There weren't a lot of traditions in my house as I grew up. We always hung our stockings up and left out cookies and milk for Santa. Don't worry, we didn't forget out the carrot for Rudolph. I remember my mother working on Christmas a fair bit. In the mornings, we were allowed to open our stockings, but had to leave the other gifts for when my mom got home.

One of my most favourite parts of the holiday season was driving around with my parents looking at the houses that were decorated to the nines. They used to print the best houses in the paper for the Christmas light tour. A couple of the houses were interactive where you could get out and go in the backyard, have a cup of apple cider, and there was even one with a Santa.

Also, later in life, I liked wrapping presents with my mother and sister. Patricia would sit on one side of the bed, me on the other and my mom across from me. Each of us would have a different person's gifts to wrap. There was something hectic and awesome about that evening. Something I really enjoyed.

On Christmas Eve we'd have macaroni and cheese, my mom used Cheese Whiz and would cut up canned meat in it. That might be weird to hear coming from my vegan fingertips, but I loved it. And there was always a big dinner on Christmas. I suppose my mom's stuffing is a great way to end this blog. It's the same stuffing I still make. Of course, I don't stuff it in a turkey's butt. Neither does my mom! Still one of the things I look forward to about the holiday.

Divine Mookies

Last night the Sidekick was feeling peckish, so I adapted a recipe to make him something divine. Peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal mookies. We are calling them mookies because I don't actually have a baking sheet and I baked the cookies in a muffin tin. Turned out perfect.

Here is the recipe!

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Mookies

Makes 18

Preheat oven 425
Ingredients

1/3 Cup - Smooth Peanut Butter
1 Cup - Sugar (white)

1/3 Cup - Coconut Milk (Or other non milky milk, like almond)
2 Tbsp - Canola Oil

1 Tsp - Vanilla Extract

1/8 Tsp - Almond Extract  

1 1/4 Cup - Flour 

3 Tbsp - Golden Flax (ground up)
1 Tsp - Baking Soda
1 Tsp - Salt
1/4 Cup - Chocolate chips 

1 Cup - Oats

1. Mix peanut butter, sugar, coconut milk, oil and extracts together until well combined.

2. Add baking soda, flax, salt, and flour and mix well. 

3. Fold in oats and chocolate chips. If there is too much liquid add a bit more flax.  

4. Lightly grease muffin tins and put a tablespoon of batter in each one, press down a bit. Do not fill past a 1/4 of the tin. 

5. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the tops have a itsy bitsy bit of browning. 

Take out and transfer to a cooling rack. 

Simply delicious. 

Healthy Cookies - Cuffin or Mookie?

Sounds like an oxymoron, right?

I thought so too. The other day my mom posted a recipe for so-called healthy cookies. No sugar. No flour. No butter. Surely these so called cookies would be disgusting, right?

Well, no. At least the recipe I made up tonight wasn't. In fact, it turned out pretty good. First, I will give you the recipe, then I will tell you a bit about the cookie itself.

Recipe:

3 Ripe Bananas
1 Cup of unsweetened Applesauce
2 Cups Quick Rolled Oats
1/2 Cup lightly packed raisins
2 Tsps Vanilla
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350.

Soak raisins to make them soft and not hard. Mash bananas and combine with applesauce. Add vanilla and spices. Mix in rolled oats and raisins. Let sit for five minutes. Spoon onto cookie sheets with parchment or cooking spray. Bake until golden brown. Mine took about 22 minutes. Lift onto cooling rack and let cool for 5-10 minutes.

Okay, now for the break down. This recipe made fifteen cookies and work out to be 86 calories per cookie. Not too shabby, huh? For a no sugar, no flour cookie, they are pretty amazing. I mean, I was expecting them to be really bland, but they are quite flavourful. They look like cookies. They smell like cookies when baking. But do they taste like cookies?

Not exactly, but it's so close I can't really put it in any other category. They aren't as sweet as other cookies, you see, and the texture is a bit different. In fact, it's almost a bit pudding-ish in the middle. Not in a gross way, though, in a delightful pankcakey way. I would recommend upping the amount of oats by half a cup increments until you reach the consistency you like best for cookies.

Honestly, this is almost a cross being a cookie and a muffin. A cuffin, perchance? Or a mookie?

Which do you prefer? Cuffin or Mookie?

Ginger Slaps - Day 3

Last night, day three, was wolf night. I watched Ginger Snaps, which I hadn't seen, and Wolfman (2010) which I have. The reason I am only writing about the first is because I was actually pretty impressed with it.

You know the drill:  

Title: Ginger Snaps
Year: 2000
Synopsis: Two death-obsessed sisters, outcasts in their suburban neighborhood, must deal with the tragic consequences when one of them is bitten by a deadly werewolf.

Tagline: They don't call it the curse for nothing.

For a horror movie buff like me, one might think I would have already watched Ginger Snaps. After all, it came out thirteen years ago. The reason I didn't was because the movie's marketing team complete screwed the pooch. I actually thought this was going to be just another low-budget, tacky, Canadian horror film where the big breasted blonde manages to dupe everyone and save the day. I mean, Ginger Snaps. Is this about cookies?

Not-So-Spoiler-Alert: That isn't the case at all.

With the obvious play on word title and boring synopsis on the back of the box to the side, I actually genuinely liked the Fitzgerald sisters, Ginger and Bridgette. Not only did their obsession with the death intrigue me, it set them apart from the plethora of teen movies with lead characters who had hobbies such as volleyball, writing poetry, shopping and, in general, being generic.

The unique characters weren't the only reason I was enthralled. Right from the first couple minutes, I was curious over the beast that seemed to be terrorizing this town. Though it did spring to mind one question, why was this thing only feasting on the townspeople's dogs. That was solved when Ginger got her period, or curse, or Aunt Flow, and, in doing so, made herself into a target. Stupid girl. Doesn't she know not to get her period while wandering the streets at night. Tsk.

Somehow she lives through the rather brutal attack. Hey, I don't ask questions. I just watch the movie. And, lo and behold, she starts changing. Trust me, I am not spoiling anything telling you this. It is the way Ginger changes and the desperation of Bridgette trying to cure her that is incredibly touching. All this time we though puberty was hard. Little did we know. It's way harder to be a teenage werewolf.

Another big box ticked was the lack of a simpering love story. YAY. Though there may have been a bit of a crush hinted at between Bridgette and Sam, it didn't develop past a subtle possibility the two might have some sort of feelings for one another. Thank God! I am so tired of movies that should be horror turn into teen romances. Oh, the ending didn't cop out and have the young possible lovers fleeing town and the fully transformed Ginger. For that, I add another gold star to the top of their paper.

The only annoyance I suffered was trying to place where I'd seen the actress who played Ginger before. Don't worry. I figured it out. Another little Canadian horror flick called American Mary - go ahead and press play, it's actually fairly fun as well.

Needless to say, Ginger Snaps slapped me across the face and said, 'why didn't you pay attention to me sooner?' For that, I will be forever regretful. But there is nothing like a good Lyken movie to get you howling.

See what I did there?