Friday 10: Top Posts of 2014

After setting some goals for 2015 on Monday, I thought it would be fun to look back at 2014's most popular posts. Take a peek! 

Lo & Sons | The Catalina

1. Friday 10: Weekender Bags

A round-up of stylish and functional weekender bags to take for your mini adventures.

2. Daydream Destination: Florence's Boboli Gardens

At first, it surprised me to see this older post doing so well this year. Then I realized Dan Brown's book Inferno features a tense scene in the grotto of the Boboli Gardens. Visitors came to check out pictures of the intricate grotto and the funny little statue of Braccio di Bartolo atop a turtle. 

3. Sweet Treats from Kelly's Bake Shoppe

A taste and review of vegan, gluten-free, peanut-free deliciousness from Kelly's Bake Shoppe. We ended up booking our wedding cake with them! 

4. Friday 10:  A Paris getaway

A round up of 10 places to stay and things to do for a beautiful Paris getaway. 

5.  Friday 10: Long flight essentials

My recommendations for surviving long-haul flights and making it to the other side feeling and looking good. 

6.  Halfway through the Whole30

My experience with the first half of the Whole30. Toughing through 2 weeks of no grains, no dairy, no soy, no added sugar, no msg/carageenan/sulfites, no legumes, and no alcohol. Yeah, about that. . .there's a reason why their timeline includes a "kill all the things" and "I just want to nap" phase!

7.  I finished the Whole30!

A look at how the last half of my Whole30 went. It was hard, but worthwhile. I learned a lot about how what I eat affects how I look and feel. As a result, I've kicked dairy to the curb--unless it's a really delicious treat! 

8.  Nights at the Louvre

Reminiscing about our last trip to Paris and my love affair with the Louvre at night. 

Bookhou | Zip Tote in Rain

9.  Friday 10:  Carry-ons for the flight and beyond

Ten classic, stylish, useful carry-ons. 

10:  What's a sharecation, anyway? 

I consider this the wild card. It's a post I wrote a long time ago about how much I dislike the term sharecation. I thought it was a grumpy ramble, but something about it must have struck a chord with people. 

I still hate the word sharecation!

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It was interesting to see what ended up being popular. The Friday 10 posts are obviously a big hit! I'll continue to do those (although I may play with Friday 5s, too). 

Let me know if there's something you'd like to see more of in the coming year!

I hope you have a great weekend! 

Goals for the New Year

Hello, 2015! 

Whew! I can hardly remember what I last wrote about. It feels like I was making Christmas cookies ages ago. Since then, we’ve been to Niagara for a wonderful Christmas with my family. The weather was so mild that I was able to go running outside. I loved it. The Canadians? Not so much. 

A week later, we were driving up to Muskoka on New Years Eve in the worst snow storm I’ve ever experienced on the road. When we finally arrived, we all hunkered down, rang in the New Year, and spent lots of time eating and visiting with S’s family. 

Waking up to a winter wonderland in 2015

We drove back yesterday and I think we’re both still processing everything as we try to get back to a routine. I know I feel a bit of the holiday hangover. So much good food and family and visiting, but it never feels like we’ve slowed down enough to appreciate it and soak it all in. 

At the same time, I’m so excited to start a new year. I like that January feels like a clean slate. I like being able to look back, reflect, and set new goals for the year ahead. 

I already know that it’s going to a year of big life changes and adventure. S and I are getting married and going on what is shaping up to be a wonderful honeymoon. 

I’d love to make it a big year for Histoire Travel, too. So I decided to take some time today and do a little planning and goal-setting for 2015.

Intention

Last year I decided to forgo any resolutions. Instead, I took a page from my favorite yoga instructors and set an intention: Let Go. I returned to those words throughout the year whenever I got frustrated or my inner control freak wanted to throw a hissy fit. I didn’t become a zen master, but it worked so well that I decided to set another intention this year: Be Fearless. 

5 Goals

I’m keeping them simple and actionable. It’s going to be a very busy year and I wan to keep focused on moving forward slowly but surely. 

1. Finish the Versailles Vignette Guide

I’m prioritizing this for the year. I have a feeling it’s never going to feel perfect or “done” to me. I’m always going to want to make it more concise or do more research or edit one more time or find one more resource or. . .At some point, I just need to stop put it out there! 

2. Write less (but more) 

My goal last year was to be more consistent with my blogging. I worked really hard to make that happen and learned a lot in the process. I realized that I tend to be a wordy, slow writer. 

This year I’m challenging myself with a word count limit of 500 words for awhile to see if that helps tighten things up. I think it will help me write more often in the end. I want to be able to free up some time to work on the guide/other projects without letting the blog go. 

Considering my wordcount right now is 526 (before edits) and I’m only on my second goal, I think this is a worthy challenge!

3. Plan ahead

I’m going to sit down on the last week of each month and plan out my blog posts, research, and projects so I’m not left scrambling for something to write about at the last minute. Along with this, I'm going to continue keeping office hours. I started doing this about halfway through the year last year and it was excellent for keeping me on track. 

4. Have fun

Read more, research more, learn more, be curious, try new things on the site, write lots, play, get inspired. . .just have fun with all of this. If I'm having fun, you're having fun (that's my hope!).

5. Get Social

I focused so much on writing last year that I neglected my social media accounts. I’d like to spend a little more time figuring out the best platforms for Histoire Travel (like Pinterest!), focus on updating them regularly, make connections, and enjoy it. Meaningful social media is the goal!

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That’s what you can expect from me and Histoire Travel in 2015. It’s always a work in progress and I’m always trying to get better. My biggest goal is to put interesting, helpful, and fun content out there for lovers of history, travel, and food. 

Here’s to a happy, healthy, adventurous, travel-filled, wonderful 2015 to you and yours!

Friday 6: Christmas Cookies

The tree is up, (most) of the presents are wrapped, and the cookies are baked. It's finally time to slow down and enjoy the holiday season with a cup of tea and some Christmas movies. 

Today's Friday 6 is all about cookies. Believe me, I thought of making 10 types of cookies for the sake of having an even Friday 10, but common sense got the better of me. 

Going dairy-free meant that I had to overhaul my Christmas cookie lineup this year. I thought it would be hard to find recipes that were as delicious as my favorites, but I'm learning that there are a lot of wonderful vegan recipes out there. The only downside to vegan baking is that the "raw" dough is edible since they don't use eggs, either. No I have no way of shaming myself into not eating it.  Let's just say that a lot of extremely tasty cookie dough was consumed over the past week. No regrets! 

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Without further ado, my 2014 Christmas Cookies.

Click the headings for links to the recipes!

Vegan Nanaimo Bars 

These Nanaimos were the only troublemaker of the bunch--they were finicky to cut and the filling is a little goopier than I normally like it. I wasn't able to find Bird's Custard Powder, which is the gold standard here so I had to sub in a no-name version. I also can't blame the recipe since I went off track and played around with proportions and ingredients. 

They ended up being delicious anyway. Frankly, I would eat Nanaimos with a spoon if I had to. I love them that much. 

Here's what I changed:

For the base

• I used 2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs (think crushed Oreo cookies) and 1/2 cup of Earth Balance and 1/2 cup coconut oil.
• I omitted the cocoa powder and nuts.
• I used one 200 g bag of unsweetened shredded coconut. It was nowhere near the conversion of 3 1/2 cups in the recipe, which I think would be far, far too much.
• My base turned out great, so I would do this again.

For the filling

• I used 2/3 cup coconut oil and 1/3 cup Earth Balance.
• I omitted the shortening.
• I used 3 cups of icing sugar, 5 tbsp of vanilla custard powder, and 4 tips of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
• My filling is slightly softer than I usually like it to be, but it tastes great. I will be playing around it with this recipe, but a bit more icing sugar would probably help.

For the topping

• I used 1 tbsp of coconut oil and 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

I think I will try this recipe again in a few months to see if I can get it the way I like it. It's so close and I think it would be nice to have my very own recipe to pass down. 

Ovenly's Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies  

I made my cookies smaller and more bite-sized, but otherwise didn't change a thing on this recipe. As far as I'm concerned, it's a pretty perfect chocolate chip cookie. 

Molasses Ginger Cookies

These ginger cookies are not for the faint of heart. They strong and spicy and warm, which is exactly how I like them. I didn't change the recipe at all, but I did use 1/2 cup of molasses, which was the max recommended. 

Peanut Butter Mousse Cups

These peanut butter cups are a nice break from the heavier cookies since the mousse lightens things up a bit. I've become a huge fan of Minimalist Baker over the past couple of months. Their recipes are easy, don't require a lot of ingredients, and have been consistently delicious (like this no-bake pumpkin pie and these 5 ingredient no-bake granola bars). 

Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookies

A pretty little cookie made with my favourite flavour combination--cooling mint and decadent chocolate. Since no one else in my family likes mint and chocolate, so these are mine all mine! 

Walnut and Fig Biscotti

I make biscotti every year. Luckily, traditional Italian biscotti are made without dairy. I had leftover walnuts and figs in the fridge and thought that sounded like a good combination, so I did some googling, took some inspiration from a couple of recipes, and made something of my own. My version is adapted from Susan Russo's Traditional Almond Biscotti and Smitten Kitchen's Fig and Walnut Biscotti.

Ingredients 

• 1 c walnut pieces 
• 1 c chopped dried Turkish figs (softened in some hot water for a few minutes, if necessary)  
• 1 c granulated sugar
• 1 c light brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 4 large eggs (plus 1 to beat and brush on top of dough)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large orange, zested (mine yielded a little over 2 tbsp)

Instructions

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment, move your oven racks to the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
2. In a large bowl, stir together walnuts, figs, sugars, spices, baking powder, and flour until everything is well-mixed.
3. In a small bowl, beat eggs, vanilla, and orange zest together with a wisk until everything is well-blended.
4. Fold the egg mixture into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to get sticky. Switch to your hands and work the dough gently until a ball starts to form. Divide the dough into 4 pieces.
5. On a lightly floured surface, roll the balls of dough into loaves that are about 9 inches long and 1 inch high. I usually squeeze the ball of dough into a tube shape with floured hands. Then I put it on a lightly floured counter and press it down so it forms something like a flat loaf. 
6. Transfer loaves to baking sheets (2 per sheet). Beat 1 large egg with a bit of water and brush the tops of the loaves. 
7. Bake for 20 minutes. Check the pans, rotate them from upper to lower (and vice versa). Let them bake for another 10-20 minutes. The loaves should start to turn a nice golden brown color, but be sure to watch that the bottoms don't start to burn. Our oven runs hot, so mine only took about 30 minutes total. 
8. When your logs are golden brown, but still a little soft, pull them out of the oven. Let them cool for 15-20 minutes. You want to loaves to cool enough that they won't crumble when you start to cut them, but you don't want them to get too hard or cold.
9. Once the loaves have cooled enough to be cut, use a serrated knife to saw them into that famous biscotti shape. You can do this on an angle (which is how I do it) or vertically. 
10. Arrange the biscotti back on the baking sheet, cut side down, and put the sheets back into the oven. Turn the heat off, keep the door closed, and let the the biscotti "bake" for another 30 - 60 minutes. They will get crunchier the longer they stay in in there, so pull them out based on your preference. 
11. Remove pans from the oven, let the biscotti cool, and enjoy! These cookies are pretty long-lasting when stored in a good airtight container. I've seen suggestions of two weeks to a month, but they don't seem to last that long around these parts!

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The true test of these cookies has been whether or not anyone guesses they are dairy-free. So far, so great. Not only do I love them, but everyone who has tried them raves about them. Even S, who is not a sweets person, has been eating the salted chocolate chip cookies at an impressive rate. I'll probably have to make another batch for our give-away tins. They are just that good!

That's it for this week and, maybe for the end of the year. I'm going to take some time to unwind, do a bit of behind the scenes work, and spend a lot of time with family. I will see you in the new year!

I hope you have a very happy holiday season and a happy, healthy, peaceful start to 2015. 

PS: I'd love to hear about your favourite Christmas cookies and traditions!