Saturday, December 3, 2011

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.

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

My mailing address is ...


##

####

Texas ... :)

LOL

I Love me Christmas Cookies! yumyumyum