Cookies!

Not the horse kind, either.  Although the day is young yet...

Yesterday I made my annual batch of fruitcake.  Don't hate - my family likes it!  I have an ancient Betty Crocker cookbook I inherited from one of my grandmothers, and it has a whole page of fruitcake recipes.  I always use the base recipe, but depending on what a) sounds good at the moment, and b) what I have handy... I end up with something different every year.

This year I went dark.

In addition to the traditional
citron, candied cherries and pineapple pieces,

walnuts and golden raisins, this year's batch has:

coffee, molasses, dried cranberries,

cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and cloves, and

for "tart" jelly I used whole-berry cranberry sauce.

It bakes in a slow oven, 

so the house smelled wonderful 

all yesterday afternoon and into the evening.

While the first batch was in the oven I tackled the package of gingerbread marshmallows someone thought I would know what to do with.  I'm not sure what exactly you'd call the result, but they're tasty...

Cinnamon Cereal Ginger-People Bars

1 package gingerbread marshmallow people

2 cups mini-marshmallows

1/4 cup butter

6 cups cinnamon squares ceral

1 cup mini-chocolate chips

Make them as you would Rice Crispie treats, stirring the chocolate chips in with the cereal and pressing them into a 13x9" pan while they're still warm.  They're weirdly addictive.

This morning I managed to ignore the cats bouncing off me until 5:30 - hey, it's the weekend, I can sleep in a little, right? But once I was up and coffee was on, I figured why not get some more of the Christmas baking done.

These macaroons are C's favorites, and they'll be filling an exam care-package shortly.

Almond Joy Macaroons

 1 package shredded coconut

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

1/2 package (or so) mini-chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped almonds

350' oven for 8-10 minutes

**The secret to these is parchment paper

and letting them cool on the pan for 1-2 minutes.

DO NOT 

make them without parchment paper

unless you LIKE swearing... a lot.

Chocolate chip cookies, just because I like them... well that, and I had all the ingredients.

Milk & dark chocolate chips
with big chunks of walnut - YUM

  I use the recipe off either the Baker's 

or Ghirardelli's chocolate chips. 
This time it was Baker',

but they're both good.

I should probably title this post "Thank you, Sunbeam"

The next ones are for my sister.  I've been sending these to her for Christmas for a number of years now.  Not long after she was married I sent her her traditional tin.  Her husband, who apparently couldn't remember if he'd had them before asked her if he liked them...  

Her answer, "No, you don't." - LOL!

Cookie Jar Ginger Snaps

Pretty, aren't they?  They taste darn good, too!

Now I have to scramble if I want to get everything mailed.