Gift to Myself

My favorite holiday aside from my birthday (though my birthday is not really a holiday but I like to think it is ☺) is Christmas. People are much nicer, much generous and the weather is great hardly ever rains and the sun isn't scorching hot, what's not to like? ☺  I specially love shopping gifts for my love ones and of course for myself, months before I try to save up my money so that when Christmas season shopping spree!

Muddy Mississippi Cake

Thank God for the invention of Internet! I was streaming Martha Stewart's previous show and was fortunate enough to stumble upon the episode where Matt Lewis was doing a demo for a Mississippi Mud Pie from his and Renato Poliafito new book entitled Baked Explorations. I'm on pins and needles waiting for this to be available here. I had their Baked book before the tragic flood, I still haven't got the change to replace that copy. I've been meaning to do that just waiting for the right timing meaning, the four letter word that makes my retail heart pitter patter, "SALE" of course! Why pay for something in full price when I can get it during sale? Though I have to be very patient with all the waiting. Sometimes I cannot help myself I buy at full price when I really really want the book.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chunk Cookies

During one of my visit to one of my favorite cookery store, I found pounds of sugar free chocolates! I couldn't wait to use it, but you know life gets in the way and it took me weeks before finally getting a chance to enjoy it. With time on my hands and lots of nuts and chocolates that needed to be consumed before it gets bad. I made my favorite comfort food which is a Chocolate Chunk Cookies, what's good about this version is aside from the use of whole wheat flour, I also used Splenda instead of regular granulated and brown sugar. The recipe is from this awesome looking cookbook by Kim Boyce called Good to the Grain. Kim's recipe uses regular sugars, feel free to do so as well. Its just that from time to time, I like experimenting with Splenda, they don't often turn out the way I like it, however I learned from past experiences so I didn't encounter any problems making these.