This week was eaten up with prepping the house for the floor work which finally began Thursday and had better end tomorrow or I will go crazy. My hubby and I have been living upstairs and sleeping in the guest bedroom. Our furniture is in a pod in our driveway, but there are finally floors which means there is finally … A TREE!
It’s not decorated yet, but that can wait until tomorrow when we have furniture downstairs again. But it smells amazing, and even Zedd dog approves.
In the meanwhile, my Christmas baking extravaganza began on Saturday night. I went to bake with Tiffany and Juliet at Juliet’s house, since my kitchen has so many things in it right now you can barely walk (things we moved in there during the floor mess so they wouldn’t have to go in the pod). Her kitchen is better anyway.
In 3 or 4 hours of time, we made 3 different kinds of cookies (along with a cocktail or two).
Juliet chose cut out sugar cookies. And she had a recipe that did not involve refrigerating the dough for hours before cutting. It was awesome! And they taste good too. Here is a shot of Juliet and Tiffany before a batch goes in the oven. We made a lot of penguins and candy canes because they were simple and the penguins took up lots of space.
Proof that I was also making cookies, wet hair and all. Frightening, I know.
We decorated the cookies as well. Juliet made some homemade icing, and we went to work with a combination of many different sprinkles.
Tiffany brought ingredients to make peppermint kiss cookies. The recipe claimed to make 48 cookies, but it definitely made less. Maybe about 2 dozen? Still they are very pretty, and yummy. She substituted almond flour for standard wheat flour. We got decidedly messy rolling the dough in the green and red sprinkles, and put a few too many on one cookie sheet. Many of the cookies were snuggled up next to one another after they were done baking. Can you find the cookie(s) that look like a set of boobs?
My cookie of choice for Saturday’s bake-a-thon was a double chocolate chip recipe I made last year. They were so yummy I had to make them again. I use mini m&ms instead of chocolate chips to make them festive, and I substitute some brown sugar for some of the white, and/or some shortening for some of the butter to make the cookies a little bit chewier when they are done. This recipe DOES make 48 cookies … I doubled it last year and regretted that decision, so this year we stuck with one! Here is the yummy dough:
And finished cookies:
Weird perspective, but certainly you get the idea. I felt like we had a very fun and productive baking session! I have a bunch more baking planned, and hope to continue this week as soon as I can empty my kitchen of all the other crap that belongs elsewhere in my house. What other things are on my baking agenda?
- Candy making
- Cake pops
- Turtle cookies
- Rice krispy ornaments
- Hello Dollies
That is a lot of things. Good luck to me, huh? And I need to be done with most of that this week so I can mail care packages off.
The “breaking” part of this post title? Pretty certain that I broke a toe early this morning when wandering back to bed in the dark. I kicked a computer tower by mistake, and have been rewarded with a bruised and swollen little toe. This would have only minor significance if I hadn’t been running for the last 2 months or so, trying to finish the couch to 5k program. Here I am, on week 8 Day 2. Two days away from finishing. And I am pretty certain that running with this toe is not going to happen. Sigh.
Sew Frustrating! 