quinn's place

a few weeks ago, my friend sara and i had a lovely afternoon moseying about the west seattle farmers market gathering all sorts of goods for us to get some holiday baking in! sara is an awesomely inspired gal with a great website that showcases all sorts of useful tips for local shopping, traveling, and dining around the seattle area (and beyond!).

check out live more local to read her post about our fun outing and baking day!

sara is a hilarious gem (who helped me immensely in figuring out how to build this here blog...thank you forever and ever, sara!!!) and she is always discovering new local businesses to support in the seattle area, and sharing all sorts of fun accessible adventures and travel tips. she's awesome!!

we had grand plans for a fragrant homemade food potpourri. we picked up a some pretty little apples and pears from the west seattle farmers market.

the west seattle junction is looking so festive this month! i love it! every lamppost is dressed in a wreath and ribbon (just like whoville). i just have to walk up the street to get my fix of holiday cheer (an extra fix, i should say. my house is a christmas explosion).

so many awesome vendors with beautiful produce, homemade goods and treats.

fleurt is probably the cutest shop in all the land. i could spend a very long time in there sniffing every candle and admiring every trinket. they do an amazing job merchandising all the shelves and styling all the displays. i brought sara in there so she could see its splendor :)

we popped into the husky deli and bought some chocolate for our baking and spices for our potpourri.

the simmering potpourri was awesome! i had satsumas from the west seattle produce company that we used as well. it was simple to put together in about five minutes. we used apples, satsumas, cinnamon sticks, fresh ginger, cardamom, and star anise with water. it smelled amazing. and looked really pretty, too!

it could be pretty customizable too! we could have put cider in the pot instead of water, for extra fragrance. i could see myself trying a citrusy grapefruit and lemon with fresh-cut herb version in the spring time. we just left it on simmer while we baked, and it added a lovely little extra somethin' somethin' to our kitchen holiday vibes.

inspiration for the recipe we followed came from here. my favorite chick.

here's cutie patootie sara in my teeny kitchen wearing my old starbucks apron, which used to be my standard everyday outfit for about four years of my life.

she's whipping up the chocolate cookies that we used to make these thin mints. SOO YUMMY*! we were proud.

*i just now noticed that we made the thin mints differently than the recipe said. we were wondering why they called for 1/2 inch thick cookies. we were like, "oh we are so smart, good thing we noticed this obvious error!!!" haha, turns out we were not paying close attention to what their final product looked like. oh well, either method would work just great!

we ended up cutting the cookies into 1/4 inch rounds and making a sandwich with the mint frosting in between before dipping in the melted chocolate. the recipe calls for a thicker cookie spread with a layer of the mint frosting, then dipped in chocolate. ohhhhhh.

while the cookies for the thin mints baked, we made peanut butter balls*. a classic holiday treat in my mind! didn't plan on both wearing black and white stripes that day. we topped our matchy-ness off with red & green aprons for each of us (my old manager from starbucks will probably shake his fist at the screen if he sees this. tsk tsk, quinn!). ho ho ho, charles!

*we used a recipe from joy the baker. looks like her site is getting a make-over at the moment. will link the recipe we used later!

like i said, making cookie sandwiches for the thin mints was not necessary, but i think the finished product was really good! we added some extra water and also some butter to our mint frosting because the recipe we followed was too hard to spread. butter for sure! i tried some crushed candy cane and sprinkles on a handful. need to work on my sprinkling skills before committing to the whole batch.

pb ballz are just freaking delicious if you didn't know already.

i stored both treats in the refrigerator in parchment lined tins. the thin mints stayed chewy and delicious for over a week (i gave them to my bff katie after a week-- she loved. no sign of throwing them out on her watch! i was worried they'd be stale. they weren't). i think the pb balls would have stayed edible for a really long time (didn't get a chance to fully test the shelf life as they got devoured by someone or another).

sara and i had such fun shopping and baking and listening to music and chatting! i forget how much fun it is to bake with other people. i used to bake with my best friends all the time and pretend we were on a cooking show---haven't done that in a hot minute. usually its just pete wandering in and taking bites or licks of this or that off whatever i'm making and me saying hey get outta heeeeeere, busterrrrr. so thanks for the fun day, sara!

hope everyone has had a happy, safe and fun holiday season with people that make you laugh! :)

recipe inspiration from these sources:

food 52, thin mints

joy the baker, peanut butter balls

how sweet eats, simmering spices

i cannot take credit for this recipe. and i hope i'm not outing a secret recipe from the owen family vault. this is one of my very favorite things to make around the holidays, and i'd like to shout about it from the rooftops!

these rocky road bars are sOoOoO easy to make, and ridiculously delicious. and SIMPLE.

my friend's mama (same mama who made the awesome birthday pancakes) always made these for her christmas cookie trays every year growing up. all of her cookies are equally delicious and delightful in unique ways, but i'd always find myself gobbling these down as soon as i could get my little paws on them.

it wasn't until around high school when i asked how to make them. i thought it had to be the most complex and time consuming thing everrr with respect to how freaking delicious they taste!!! turns out, there are only 2 key ingredients and they take 10 minutes to make..... say what?!?!

hershey's chocolate bars with almonds get melted over a double boiler. i've been adding a tablespoon of coconut oil the last several times i've made these because it keeps the chocolate extra moist and adds the ever-so slightest twinge of coconut flavor to the bars. if you don't like coconut, use a little pat of butter. another friend's mama (also obsessed with these bars) discovered that doing a combo of dark chocolate and milk chocolate is the way to go. so the combo has become an essential part of this rocky road regimen. yaasss. so fab.

once the chocolate is all melted, you're pretty much done! yep! this is SOOO EASY, PEOPLE!!!! just let the chocolate cool for a few minutes so it doesn't melt the mallows. if you want the mallow to be extra swirly like a marshmallow creme, then add them while the chocolate is still hot. i prefer that the mallows are solid in the finished bars, personally.

add one whole bag of mini marshmallows to the slightly cooled bowl of melted chocolate. gently mix until the marshmallows are all coated with chocolate.

pour the mixture into a parchment lined baking dish. pop it in the freezer for about 30 minutes to harden. this photo below is what my dreams are made of. i'd like a bed made of this, please.

once the chocolate has solidified, flip over the entire baking sheet onto a cutting board. peel off the parchment paper. spray a large knife with cooking spray or rub with butter or coconut oil. cut the marshmallowy, chocolatey goodness into 1 inch strips, and then cut again crosswise to make little squares.

YUM! they're done! store them in a parchment lined container in the fridge. they get kind of melty when left out on the counter.

these are a serious hit. thanks to mama michele, i've been making these every christmas for my friends and everyone is like, "HOLY LORDYYYY WHAAAAAT IS THIS?!" i brought this particular batch to a holiday lunch at work yesterday, and they all got eaten up in a flash.

some informal reviews whilst eavesdropping on coworkers:

"i like the varying textures between the marshmallow, almonds, and chocolate when you bite into it!"

"not too sweet! that's a good thing!"

"those are bomb."

"i spied the last one on his plate...i asked him if he was going to eat it."

"any more rocky road?!!?"

please oh please make these. if you fancy chocolate and marshmallow, your life will forever be changed.

Rocky Road Bars

Prep Time: 10 minutes, Freeze Time: 30-45 minutes

Total Time: About 1 hour

Ingredients:

about 20 ounces* of Hershey's chocolate with almonds (if you can find "Giant" bars, that's the easiest. I used a hodge podge mixture of bars that I had around, some with almonds, some dark chocolate some milk chocolate.)
10 ounces (1 bag) mini marshmallows
1 TB coconut oil or butter (optional)

*i think mama michele's recipe for this calls for 4 "giant" hershey bars with almonds; i'm an extra mallow-y fan, so i found that about 20 ounces total was a good amount of chocolate to just coat the marshmallows.

Instructions-

Boil a few inches of water in a pot. Place a heat-proof (I use glass) bowl that just rests inside the pan, but doesn't touch the hot water. Break apart the Hershey's chocolate bars and place into the heat-proof bowl. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and stir the chocolate frequently until it is melted. Remove bowl from heat and turn off the burner. Let the chocolate cool about 3 minutes.

Add one whole bag of mini marshmallows into the bowl of melted chocolate. Gently mix until the chocolate coats the marshmallows.

Pour the mixture into a parchment lined baking pan and gently spread into the corners or shake until evenly dispersed. Place the pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes, or until the chocolate has hardened a bit.

Turn the baking pan upside-down onto a cutting board and remove the parchment paper. Grease a large knife with cooking spray or butter. Carefully cut strips, and then crosswise to make squares.

Store in parchment lined tins, a sealed freezer bag, or an airtight container. The chocolate will stay moist for up to 2 weeks this way.

YUM YUM YUM! enjoy and spread the mallow love to your friends & family!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!