These delightful little cookies always seem to be on Christmas platters, but I’m here to tell you that they’re great all year round. They are so easy to customize – you’ll be amazed at all the delicious ways you can make them. With their buttery melty texture, they are always a hit.
Happy Christmas Eve!! If you have time to read this today, I congratulate you for being totally prepared and on top of your game. You can join with me in pondering a most important holiday question. Who named eggnog? I mean, could you come up with a more unappealing sounding drink? Apparently so – according to my sources. When the drink came to America and we started adding rum to it, we could have named it egggrog – since “grog” was the term for rum at the time. Say it with me…grrrroooogggg. Ewww. Suddenly nog doesn’t sound so bad. Also, I’m very thankful that the drink evolved past adding wine or beer to it. Wine? With a creamy egg drink? Gross. Eggnog is one of those things you either love or hate. I’m in the love category. Love it as I do, I still can’t drink that much of it because it’s just so incredibly rich. When I do pour myself a glass, I add Sprite to cut the thickness and give it a little fizzy kick. In years past I’ve thrown away most of my half-gallon because I just can’t drink it all before it’s gone bad. This year, I vowed to find some way to use it up and my search for a noggy recipe led me to this delightful pound cake. Continue reading
Just a few days before Christmas and I finally got the break in the weather I’ve been daily checking for the entire month of December. Oh joy!! It’s a Festivus miracle!!
Weather is always my biggest obstacle when trying to make almond roca (English Toffee). I remember as a kid, my mom would check outside every day to see if it was going to be cold and dry. She never made almond roca unless the sky was clear, the temperature cold and the humidity low. Which, in Seattle is sometimes just one day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. When the conditions were right, my mom would drop everything and make this recipe. I’ve learned to do the same – otherwise, it doesn’t get made. For more details on the science behind weather conditions and the effect they have on candy, see the * at the end of this post. Continue reading
Note to self. A three-year-old plus a platter of cookies = temptation beyond measure. Every single cookie — about 20 of them. Mangled. A little finger print right thru the top. Actually, it kind of looks like what my sister’s boxes of chocolates look like after they’ve tested them to see which ones are cremes/caramels and which are just yucky nut filled things. Maybe Donovan was just checking to see what was inside. Good thing they were wrapped in plastic I suppose. Otherwise, he probably would have eaten them instead of only playing with them.
Here’s another example of how Pinterest has changed my life. I never would have thought to chop up maraschino cherries to use in cookies. These decadent rose hued shortbread are so beautiful, they’re almost too pretty to eat. My daughter flipped out when she saw that I was making PINK cookies! They are sure to stand out on your platter of Christmas goodies because of their lovely color.
Beautiful and delicious
They would also be great for Valentine’s Day or at a birthday party for your little princess. Sometimes really beautiful cookies don’t taste all that amazing. Not these! They are buttery and rich with a hint of almond and the sweetness of chocolate. Absolutely delicious! Continue reading
It’s a Christmas morning tradition in our home to have a big gorgeous breakfast together. For many years I’ve made french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage etc. for my family. This year, I decided to try something that would keep me away from all that flipping bread over a hot griddle. I’ve tried overnight french toast before, but didn’t want to go that route since I had zero time before Christmas day to prepare it. So, I kind of made up this version – and included some eggnog to give it a holiday twist. For the rest of the year, I’ll just use all milk instead of part nog. The great thing is that it came together in about 10 minutes, and then baked while we were reading the Christmas story and opening gifts. Easy and delicious. Continue reading
This is an absolutely classic Christmas recipe. My mom’s giant tupperware bowls only came out once a year – to make Chex mix at Christmas time. We called it Nuts n’ Bolts – and as soon as it was placed on paper towels to cool, we were sneaking bites. I don’t care for the recipe that’s on the boxes of Chex these days. I got this from my mom forever ago – the main difference between this and the one currently gracing the back of cereal boxes is the butter – Chex ratio. Newer recipes have 6 tablespoons of butter to 9 cups of cereal. This one has the same amount of butter, but 3 cups less chex. Oh yeah. Delicious.
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I was out Christmas shopping all day today with one of my favorite people on earth. My sister Amy. Who is not a shopper. Not at all. She was such a good sport today though and we both finished our lists! Yippee.
We rewarded ourselves with a Mexican dinner at one of our favorite places – where I decided to be adventurous and try something new. The description on the menu read: Cazueta de Carne – Combination of chicken and top sirloin steak sauteed with mushrooms in our special homemade moicajete sauce topped with Monterrey jack cheese. Served with rice and beans, garnished with lettuce, avocado and pico de gallo.
Mmmmmm. It sounded absolutely amazing. Trouble is, after taking my first bite, I felt like my entire mouth was going to explode. Lucky me, Amy is very quick with the iPhone camera and caught the whole delightful experience on video. Continue reading
If you didn’t get your workout in today, try making these cookies. The dough has to be mixed by hand and one batch has 5 cups of flour in it. The first year I made these, I ignored the “with a heavy spoon” part of the directions and just put the batter into my mixer – which then broke as the motor struggled to stir the incredibly thick dough. Today I snapped a spatula in half stirring the dough because I didn’t look carefully when I picked it up off the counter, thought it was my wooden spoon and only realized it wasn’t when the handle cracked in half. Whoops. At least my arm muscles got some exercise today. Continue reading
My cousin is having an ugly sweater party tonight. I’m totally ready. The snowmen on this sweater vest are even fuzzy. I almost feel like a different person in this outfit. I feel out of place in my own skin. It’s an interesting feeling to know that were I to go out in public dressed like this, people’s opinion of me would be different than when I’m rocking my normal jeans and a top. Kind of a cool perspective on things. It’s making me evaluate how I judge others based on appearances. Hmmmm.
Ugly Sweater Party
