Self-Improving Quote of the Day

  • "Love is making space in your life for someone else."--Niell F. Marriott
Showing posts with label peppermint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peppermint. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 23, 2025

A Passion for Peppermint

Nathan has a mild Chick-fil-a addiction. His desire to budget wisely generally makes his consumption of said food stuffs reasonable, but when the peppermint milkshakes return each year, his temperance is sorely tried. In fact, this year he and his friends created a sticker chart to keep track of how many shakes each one of them consumes. They didn’t decide on a prize for the winner, nor did they decide if the most shakes consumed or the most constraint shown determines the winner, but they made the chart!

When the peppermint delights returned last month, Nathan encouraged me to give them a try because he was pretty sure I would like them. However, upon closer inspection, we discovered that they contain chocolate, which is not good for me and my far too frequent headaches. And we never take Malia to Chick-fil-a because despite the fact that the peanut oil they use in their fryers is considered free of the proteins that trigger allergies, it has always seemed like an unnecessary risk to me. So, we take her to Cane’s instead. Add to that the fact that caloric delights of all kinds are notorious for being unsafe for those with nut allergies and that means the peppermint shakes from Chick-fil-a are also not the best option for her. But we try not to let the allergies and food restrictions get in our way any more than necessary, so we made our own.


Nathan says they are just as good as the authentic branded version. And I might just have a new holiday treat addiction. They were delightful! Oh, and his friends think that even the homemade copycat version counts where the sticker chart is concerned. 😂

Monday, December 15, 2025

Preoccupied with Peppermint

It’s a well-established fact that I love to bake. And it’s also a fact that I’m a big fan of cheesecake and have really enjoyed creating some amazing ones here at home so that my food allergy kiddos can enjoy the creamy, dreamy taste of a good cheesecake as well. Over the past few years, I’ve reserved cheesecake for my birthday, but I came across a white chocolate peppermint cheesecake recipe that looked absolutely divine, so I jumped the gun a bit and made cheesecake a few weeks in advance. I mean, peppermint flavored goodies at Christmas time are kind of ubiquitous and I know that I won’t be craving that particular flavor as much once January rolls around. So, I broke my one treat a week rule, which honestly, I’ve broken pretty much every week since Thanksgiving, and created a red and white swirled confection that just screams out North Pole.

I wanted to make sure there was plenty of peppermint flavor, so I used peppermint extract in addition to the Andes white chocolate peppermint baking chips the recipe called for as well as a bit of extract in the whipped cream I swirled on top. The verdict on this particular cheesecake is that it is delicious, but maybe just a bit too strongly flavored. I think that if I leave the whipped cream plain next time, the flavors will balance better. But despite that, I really enjoyed it! It is rich, creamy, and I suspect it will be making a repeat appearance in Decembers yet to come.