3 bananas mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter melted
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly grease 10 muffin cups or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter.  Stir the banana mixture into the flour mix just until moistened.  Mix in chocolate chips.
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon.  Cut in 1 tbsp butter until mixture resembles coarse corn meal.  Sprinkle topping over muffins.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

*Recipe taken from allrecipes.com

Tips/Tricks/Notes

I love banana muffin recipes!  They are always great to have handy for when you have a few extra bananas lying around that are nice and ripe!  This recipe, even though it has lots of ingredients, was SUPER easy and quick to do!  It also tastes yummy!  My only recommendation is on the oven temp.  This recipe calls for 375 and I didn't even need my oven on 350, so something to watch for. 

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies
3 cups miniature marshmallows

1. In a large microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter at medium power for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes.  Stir until smooth. Add remaining ingredients.  Stir until well coated.
2. Using buttered spatula or waxed paper, press mixture evenly into 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Chill in refrigerator about 45 minutes.  Cut into bars.

Tips/Tricks/Notes

I'm so glad I came apon this recipe online, it is so quick and easy to do and the best part?  It was a BIG hit with the family and co-workers!!  I was able to throw this recipe together in about 10 minutes and with it only taking about 45 minutes in the fridge it's a good recipe if you need something sweet last minute!  My only recommendation is to keep the bars stored in the fridge.  Once they warm up a bit they crumble a lot when you are trying to eat them!

1 can (300 mL) sweetened condensed milk, divided
8 squares (1 oz each) semi-sweet or dark chocolate, chopped
6 squares (1 oz each) white chocolate, chopped
1/2 tsp baking soda, divided
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup peanut butter

1. In one small sauce pan, heat half a can of sweetened condensed milk with semi-sweet or dark chocolate and 1/4 tsp baking soda.  Stir frequently until chocolate is melted.  Stir in vanilla extract.
2. In another small sauce pan, heat remaining sweetened condensed milk with white chocolate, 1/4 tsp baking soda and peanut butter, stirring until melted.
3. Pour chocolate mixture into parchment lined 8" square pan.  Pour peanut butter mixture on top and swirl with spoon or knife.  Cool for 4 hours or until firm.

Tips/Tricks/Notes

This is another quick, easy and tasty fudge recipe!  The only thing I would do the next time is add a little bit more peanut butter.  I found the chocolate to over power the peanut butter!

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed fudge, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

Chocolate and Butterscotch Fudge
The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed fudge, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

Cookies & Cream Fudge

Cathedral Cookies

This is another very simple recipe.  When I made these I did not add the pecans or walnuts as all my other treats were either peanut butter or had nuts so I needed something nut free.  I also rolled only half in the coconut for the people who do not like coconut.  I will also note, because I was baking many things on the same day, the dough got left in the fridge for about 45 minutes instead of the 30 minutes and it was very hard to work with, so I recommend that you make sure you get to it in the 30 minutes.

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed cookies, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

Cherry Polka Dot Fudge













3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can (300 mL) sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped glace cherries
1/2 cup mini marshmallows

1. Melt chocolate chips with condensed milk.  Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla, cherries and marshmallows.
2. Spread evenly in parchment paper lined 8" square pan.  Chill 4 hours or until firm.
3. Remove from pan and peel off paper.  Cut into squares.

Tips/Trick/Notes

Out of all the fudges I tried this season, this one has to have been the sweetest and also the heaviest.   At the time that I did this recipe I could not find "glace cherries" anywhere, so I was recommended to use maraschino cherries.  I had no idea what a glace cherry or an maraschino cherry were, so I looked it up online.  For anyone else who would like to know, the answer is below!

Another note for this recipe, I recommend allowing the chocolate/milk mixture to cool slightly before adding the marshmallows.  When added right away as the recipe calls for; a lot of the marshmallows melted and then were just mixed into the fudge.

Glace and Maraschino Cherries:
A maraschino cherry is a preserved, sweetened cherry, typically made from light-colored sweet cherries such as the Royal Ann, Rainier, or Gold varieties. The cherries are first preserved in a brine solution (usually sulfur dioxide) or alcohol, then soaked in a suspension of food coloring, sugar syrup, artificial and natural flavors, and other components.

Further steps along this process make GLACE and crystallized cherries; after soaking, the cherries are drained and then soaked in glucose and air-dried, producing glace cherries; a further stage involves another soaking in glucose which coats them with sugar, creating crystallized cherries.

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed fudge, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

Chocolate Covered Banana Pops


This recipe was a big hit at my parents house on Christmas Eve!  The only note I have for this recipe is, at the time I did this recipe I did not have any popsicle sticks in the house so I ended up using plastic forks as you will see if you look closely at the picture above.

Small warning when eating these; Chocolate will be hard on the outside, but the banana on the inside will be fairly soft as bananas do not freeze completely.

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed pops, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cattails












1 cup Milk Chocolate Chips, divided (1/2 cup + 1/2 cup)
1 cup Peanut Butter Chips, divided (1/2 cup + 1/2 cup)
2 tsp shortening (DO NOT use butter or margarine)
12 to 14 pretzel rods

1. Stir together milk chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.  Place sheet of wax paper on tray or counter top.  Finely chop 1 cup chip mixture in food processor or by hand; place on wax paper.  Line tray or cookie sheet with wax paper.
2. Place remaining 1 cup chip mixture and shortening in narrow deep microwave safe bowl.  Microwave at medium 1 minute; stir.  If necessary, microwave additional 15 seconds at a time, stirring after each heating, until chips are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred.
3. Spoon chocolate-peanut butter mixture over about 3/4 of the pretzel rod; gently shake off excess.  Holding pretzel by un-coated end roll in chopped chips, pressing chips into chocolate.  Place on prepared tray.  Refrigerate 30 minutes or until set.  Store coated pretzels in cool, dry place.

Tips/Tricks/Notes

This is a very quick, very easy recipe to do!  I don't have too much to add to this recipe, it's fairly straight forward.  My only recommendation well preparing this recipe is to let the mixture cool slightly after removing from the microwave and before spooning it onto the pretzels.  I found the hotter the mixture the harder is was to get the chopped chips to stick to the mixture on the rods.  Also, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips in place of the milk chocolate chips as that was what I had on hand.

Pretzel Rods - the only store I was able to find these was the Bulk Barn.  Below is a variation if you can't find the pretzel rods or would like to use regular pretzels.

Variation: Melt entire package of chips with 4 tsps of shortening and dip small pretzels into mixture.

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed cattails, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

Nanaimo Bars











Bottom Layer

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (european style cultured)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 5 tbsp cocoa
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 1/4 cups graham wafer crumbs
• 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
• 1 cup coconut

1. Melt the unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of double boiler.
2. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken.  Remove from heat.
3. Stir in graham wafer crumbs, coconut and nuts.
4. Press firmly into an ungreased 8" x 8" pan.

Middle Layer

• 1/2 + 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp and 3 tsp cream
• 3 tbsp vanilla custard powder
• 3 cups icing sugar

1. Cream butter, cream, custard powder and icing sugar together well.
2. Beat until light.  Spread over bottom layer.

Top Layer

• 8 squares semi-sweet chocolate (1 oz each)
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter

1. Melt chocolate and butter over low heat. (I actually just use the microwave - works just as well)
2. Once cool, but still liquid, pour over second layer and chill in refrigerator.  Another way to try them is frozen - it may sound strange, but they taste excellent!

Tips/Tricks/Notes

I originally found this recipe online, but have made some adjustments.  I found the original recipes middle and top layers amounts did not do enough to completely cover the layer below so I made the adjustments to solve this problem (the above recipe is the adjusted one).  Also note, with the bottom layer, stay right to the recipe with the butter amount otherwise the extra will run out of the mix.

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed bars, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.