Yay for Chocolate! Chocolate Orange Bread and Chocolate Walnut Bars

We got our very first snow day of the season here in Baltimore today!  Though for "snow" it was a measly one inch of accumulation.  But the roads were rather icy so I was pretty much stuck in the house all day.  And you know what that means?  Mya Lwin goes on a baking binge!  Today I was in a very chocolately kind of mood (PMS?), and so I decided to bake not one, but TWO, chocolately treats!

The first is a yeast-raised chocolate orange bread.  Chocolate and orange is one of my favorite combinations of all time.  In fact, my favorite gelato when I spent three weeks last summer studying abroad in Venice was this chocolate-orange gelato from my favorite gelateria, Il Doge, which happened to be literally at the doorstep of my school.  There's just something about the combination of dark chocolate and orange essence that really works. 

Rum Spiced Hermit Cookies and 21st Birthdays

Guess who turned 21 this week?!

Yup, yours truly.  For my international readers, turning 21 may not seem significant, but here in the US, 21 means I am finally a full adult, and most importantly, I can finally legally buy alcohol! (Yeah, we're only about at least a couple years behind the rest of the world).  I celebrated my 21st this past Monday with some good friends at this Mediterranean tapas restaurant called Mezze in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore.  Between the nine of us, we ordered enough tapas to feed a small village.  But alas, we were nine hungry girls.  And for my first legal drink, I had a glass of house sangria, which was decidedly a bit on the light side, but still pretty good nonetheless.  Overall, the food was good and the company even better - what more could a girl ask for on her birthday?

Vegan Cowboy Cookies

I don't know about you, but I'm a huge fan of oatmeal cookies.  I love the fact that they're actually filling and have some substance to them.  But until recently, I have never heard of cowboy cookies - oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut.  How the name came about, no one really knows, although I'm pretty sure cowboys have nothing to do with these cookies.

At any rate, these little suckers were a huge hit at my house.  I love that the addition of the shredded coconut - they give a nice texture to the chewy cookies.  And anything with pecans (and of course, dark chocolate) is fine by me any time.  Unfortunately, I was fresh out of pecans when I made these, so I had to sub in walnuts.  But I'll definitely be using pecans the next time (and there certainly will be a next time).