Mojito Marinade

Sneaking alcohol into my food is never a bad thing.  So of course this marinade is perfect.  We let some chicken sit in this happy flavor bath over night and then Dave grilled it up to juicy yummy for slicing and stuffing in fajitas with sauteed peppers and onions.  The mint and rum pairs really well with the pepper and spice, making this a perfect marinade for fajitas.  We're looking forward to trying this with some flank steaks.  Yummy.

Andes Mint Cookies

I love mint and chocolate. It's one of my favorite combinations, so I'll surely hop on a recipe that mixes the two.  And since there was such a recipe using my master cookie mix, I needed to give it a go.  The cookie is flavored with melted chocolate and topped with an Andes mint for a tasty and refreshing cookie that's just perfectly delicious.  With a big glass of milk, these cookies are good any time, especially since they come together so quickly.

Homemade Shamrock Shake

A few days early, but Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I didn't make any overtly Irish food this year because Dave and I are finally going on our honeymoon (only 3 1/2 years late) in May and we'll be headed to Ireland!  I'm looking forward to trying some different foods straight from the source, so I didn't want to ruin it by making my own, likely inaccurate, version first.  So to pay homage to the holiday, I whipped up a couple of frosty, creamy, minty dessert in just the right shade of green. This recipe is a great knock-off of the fast-food version of a shamrock shake, taking a thick and creamy vanilla milk shake and giving it a touch of mint and green for a little festive treat.

Mint Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mint and chocolate are one of my favorite combinations, and this time of year I just can't get enough.  So when I saw this recipe and its abundance of peppermint extract and loads of chocolate, I needed to make them.  Lots of chocolate flavor with a cut of mint and crunchy enough to make these the perfect mate for a glass of milk, as well as perfect for holiday sharing.  Which is exactly why I chose this recipe to share with the 2nd Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Exchange.  Like last year, I shared a dozen of these cookies with each of three different food bloggers and in return, I received three lovely packages, each containing a dozen cookies from three other food bloggers. 

Mint and Dark Chocolate Blondies

Blondies are quickly becoming my go-to treat when I need to come up with a treat that will please a lot of people on a short amount of time.  Start to finish is under an hour and they are pretty versatile in terms of flavor.  For my weekly group meeting at work, I whipped up these flavorful bars the night before as a way to share the minty and chocolate combination that I can only get away with at Christmas or St. Patrick's Day.

These are based on the basic Blondies recipe I've used before, but kicked up with a change in extract and mix ins.  I baked them in a smaller pan to make thicker bars, which meant a slightly longer bake time.  I used a leftover bag of mint and dark chocolate chips from the winter holidays, but if you can't find those, just use 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of mint chips.  I suppose you could dress these up and add a little green food coloring to the batter, but I think they are cute enough as is.