The new one...

Each year I try to make a new recipe - just so the boxes are not 'exactly' the same every year. I remember Mom making these bar cookies but I never had a recipe for them. I found this one online the other day and made 'em last night. Of course, I had to triple it ! ...and changed the raspberry jam to strawberry. That's what I had on hand. I ended up with about 15 dozen.

...and that's a wrap for cookie baking this year...I hope.

All cookied out !

oh boy, another round of baking this weekend. The cookies for the diabetic houses are done - ribbon, candy cane, red spritz and green spritz. The candy cane and spritz were all done today as well as a cheesecake.

Can't believe they all made it to the freezer before I realized I hadn't taken pictures. 'course, at this point, you've all seen them before :-)

I still need/want to do the almond cookies and possibly cherry loaves. Maybe I can get some done in the evenings this coming week.

The list is slowly getting checked off.

How was your weekend ?
Later.

'tis the season & I'm tired !

It was a busy, wonderful weekend ! My birthday was yesterday and it all started Thursday night - had to cook for our department breakfast on Friday morning. Completely forgot pictures but I made 2 pans of Egg Bread Pudding - This one from food52.com. So, Friday morning was the breaky, Friday afternoon, 3 girls from work and I went for lunch and to see Breaking Dawn, part 2. After we went for a coffee and a gabfest. Saturday, hubby & I went out in the morning - regular errands, the afternoon was spent with a girlfriend and hubby took me out for supper. A new Chinese buffet we've been wanting to try. Today, it was back in the kitchen for more Christmas baking. Another girlfriend came over and I put her to work chopping and sprinkling. We had a great time.

I lost a lot of Christmas baking time in Sep/Oct while I was sick so I've had to make up time !
The to-do lists are underway and I noticed there are a lot of items that get done at the last minute but could be done in advance. This year I'm going to try to get more done ahead of time. So far the ribbon (20 doz), candy cane (12 doz) and spritz (13 doz of each color) are started. Started because I've got a few boxes that need cookies using Splenda instead of sugar - I'll do those batches last to keep them separate. Ribbon and candy cane were done in the last couple weekends. Spritz today, as well as the ice cream, French Vanilla and Eggnog. I'll process the ice cream tomorrow and they'll go into the freezer all done. I may do the cheesecake early too and freeze it.

Here are the cookies so far...

The bowls in the back are the ice cream

Whew, I'm done for today !
How was YOUR weekend ?

A mish-mash of a day

We had to stay home today - our last day of vacation. Bell was sending a techie to see why one of our satellite receivers wasn't working. You know if you've ever waited for a service call, they could come at any time - so, you don't make other plans.

My in-house plan included sewing, but it hasn't happened quite yet.
It also included baking. Yesterday saw a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies done up and today I tried a loaf of multi grain bread.

Last year I switched to multi grain and have been looking to find a recipe to make it myself. This week's visit to Bulk Barn netted me some 12 grain flour and a recipe. The result is below...



DB likes it too :-)


Sometime Friday, I was having a devil of a time getting the laptop to myself. See...


...and just in case you think she's not REALLY laying right on the computer, look again...


Little dogs, it really is all about them.

My evening in pictures...

'nuff said ? :-)

Loads of Thanks !

So many thanks to give...

Thanks to everyone who asked about and expressed concern about my Mom. We're dealing with it. Your comments were all appreciated so much ! I apologize for acknowledging them so late.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Yes, I worked yesterday, but a birthday in my department is great ! My boss is a practical joker and influences all of us. You gotta be able to 'take it' in this group LOL. Somehow, and he won't tell me how, my boss got hold of a pic of me. I was about 7 or so and it was actually a Christmas picture with all my brothers and sisters. He cropped me out and sent it to everyone in both of the departments I'm working in at the moment wishing me a Happy Birthday. OMG !!! One of my colleagues, was watching when I opened the email and laughed. She said the look on my face was priceless !!!

Now, in my department, we have a birthday breakfast each month that there is/are birthday(s). The boss used to bring in bagels every time and wouldn't let any of us contribute. This year, we ganged up on him and changed the plan. Now the birthday person(s) bring something in. Lucky me, I share my birthday month with 'the boss' - he's on the 23rd. Tomorrow, we're bringing in the treats. I told him I really wanted bagels (he makes a special detour to get the 'good' ones at St. Viateur Bagels) and I decided I'd bake something to contribute. My last thanks goes to Marjie - this is her Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I haven't tasted it, of course, but the batter was just mahvellos, dahlin, mahvellos ! I'm positive they'll be well-received.

Leftovers & more leftovers

Enough for a few meals anyway.
Dessert leftovers will last awhile. This was the end of the eggnog ice cream.



Still have some cherry pie, lemon pie and lemon pudding - everything else went home with someone at the end of the evening.

Now, after the hustle & bustle of the past month, this week I'm doing nuttin' !

Work will be crazy - we've got a big deadline for Friday - but once I'm home, 'nuttin' !!!

Still in the Kitchen.....

Ann asked how many cookies I have to make for my christmas tins.

Well, I made 5 kinds. Each of the 8 tins will probably have 2 dozen ribbon, 1 dozen each of shortbread, spritz & almond balls & 1/2 dozen candy canes , I didn't make enough to put in a full dozen, oops - I'm also expected to bring a container in to work sometime before Christmas AND have a full cookie jar at home - All I can say is it's a lot & thank goodness I'm done. (I 'might' still make fudge - somebody STOP me !)

Now, I'm baking for dinner Saturday - ice cream was on sale this week - did I buy it ? NOooo, what a silly idea ! LOL ! I made the French Vanilla on Sunday (check), Eggnog in the fridge chillin' (check), Peppermint (or Candy Cane), have to buy candy canes tomorrow and get the ice cream cooked and into the fridge for chilling - hopefully to be processed and frozen on Wednesday.

Still need to make a cheesecake, lemon pudding & an apple crisp (only to be made on Saturday, DH request - he can help peel apples :-) ) I'm sure I'm forgetting something, hmmm...

Plus the sewing & knitting still has to be finished. Off to sew......................

The end of the cookies

This morning's baking...I made the dough for these yesterday and baked them this morning. Should I post the recipes ?

Candy Cane cookies & Almond balls

Cookie tins will have Ribbon cookies, Candy Cane cookies, Almond balls, Spritz, & Shortbread cookies - that oughta keep all the men happy !

The balance of the afternoon was spent on the knitting projects, finished the 2 on the needles and started 2 more, hopefully to be finished or almost finished tonight.

Tomorrow during the shopping trip I'll pick up the fabric I need to continue/complete one of the sewing projects.

More Baking

1 more batch of cookies done, that is, if you consider 16 dozen 1 batch, LOL ... Spritz won out since they are the quickest to do, especially on a weekday evening. I made these Tuesday evening.

1st tray just going into the oven:


All done and cooling.


Now this year, after making the same mistake 2 years in a row, I wrote the 'correct' baking time on my recipe. It say 10-12 minutes at 375° - well that amount of time produces the dark cookies you see at the top right corner of the 2nd picture ! Spritz cookies are NOT supposed to be dark - although they taste just fine - trust me ! LOL

In my oven, 8 minutes produces the desired result, next year I won't mess up the first tray.


Spritz Cookies

2 cups butter (MUST use butter !)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, well beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 tsp almond extract)
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Method:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Refrigerate UNGREASED cookie sheets until ready to use.
Note - pressing the dough out onto cool, ungreased sheets makes it possible for each application to stick on contact.

In a large bowl, mix butter until creamy.
Gradually add sugar; cream until light and fluffy.
Add egg and beat well.
Stir in vanilla extract.
Gradually add flour to mixture beating well after each addition.

If the dough is too soft to go thru the cookie press cleanly, chill the dough for 15 minutes or so.
If the dough is too firm, add 1 or 2 tsp of milk.

Pack the dough into up your cookie press fitted with your desired shape. Press cookies onto ungreased baking sheets about 1-inch apart.

Bake at 375° F, 10-12 minutes

Let cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes and use a very thin spatula to remove them to the cooling racks- they're quite fragile and will break easily !

Makes approximately 6 dozen.

The Coat's a Bust ...

No, not forever, I haven't given up on it !

BUT...Christmas is just around the corner and as I've mentioned, my big dinner is next weekend ... the to do list as it stands now is:

• Put up Christmas Tree
• Put up Decorations
• Finish gifts for 13 people (5 couples, 3 singles) - everything in varying stages of completion but none done.

1. 8 tins of cookies - still 3 kinds to make
2. knitting - what I decided to do last month (2/3 done)
3. sewing - what I decided to do last week (1/2 done)
4. more sewing - what I decided to do last night (hmm, just started)

WHAT was I thinking ?! (on the bright side - on Sunday I almost added PJ pants to my sewing to do list and reined myself in - all by myself LOL)

• Wrap said gifts (cannot post pics yet, I'm not 110% positive that no-one knows about this blog so I don't want to take any chances.)
• Grocery shopping for dinner - I DO have the turkey
• Baking for dinner (tentatively a couple pies, couple cheesecakes, lemon pudding w/fruit & marshmallows, ice cream (from scratch this year ?) & COOKIES)
• Cooking dinner is a 2-man deal, after 15 years, DH & I have the assembly line down to a science now.

Plus the things I still have to do and have forgotten at the moment. 8 days and counting.....

All that adds up to absolutely no coat progress any time soon. I won't get to even touch it before Dec 15th - just about the time everyone else starts to panic in preparation for Christmas !

Ribbon Cookies are done

Here they are - 21 dozen cookies destined for the freezer.
Except the ends and the ones I cut too thin (those have been eaten already !)

Quantity always depends on how big you make your bricks - I think I made 'em smaller this year LOL - this was way more cookies than usual for 3 batches.

I started with this:


Assembly line - always 2 trays waiting for the oven


First couple of trays just out of the oven:


And the grand finale !!!


Next up - Spritz, I think, hmmm, maybe Candy Cane Cookies or Almond Sticks, I'll decide once I get back upstairs :-)

My house is gonna smell soooooo good tomorrow !

This is half of the result of my afternoon today. There are 6 of these Ribbon Cookie logs in my fridge chillin'...to be sliced & baked tomorrow.

These are my absolute FAVORITE Christmas cookies ! My Mom made 'em every year and both my sister and I make them now. If I don't make any others, I always make these without fail.



And can I just say I LOVE my KitchenAids (yes 2, my DH is a great one for tools, for him and for me, he bought me an Artisan a few years ago for Christmas (yes I like appliances for gifts!) and then once he saw the Pro600, he figure I needed one and that was last year's present - more power dontcha know, LOL!

So today, I had them both going. I tripled my recipe and put 2 batches in the large mixer and 1 in the smaller mixer. Divided all of it into 3 pieces for the colors, and even let the mixers do the red coloring/cherries and the chocolate.

OMG ! up til this year 1 batch from beginning to end by hand took 1 hour to get to the fridge. Today, I did 3 batches, making 6 logs in 1hr 10min...Bonuses, my hands are not red from the food coloring and the arthritic finger joints are not bothering me from all that mixing. It's all good.

If anyone is interested in the recipe:

Christmas Ribbon Cookies

2½ cups flour
1/8 tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 cup margarine (it works with margarine but Christmas baking in my house is Butter!)
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
¼ cup chopped candied cherries, red
1 sq. unsweetened chocolate
¼ cup chopped nuts (I don't use the nuts, but they're better with them)
red food coloring

Method:
Sift flour, salt & baking powder.
Cream margarine & sugar, add egg & vanilla.
Stir in flour, mix well.

Divide into 3 parts:
1 part – mix with chocolate & nuts
1 part – mix with cherries & red food coloring
1 part – leave as is

Cut each color into 2 pieces - this will give you 2 nice sized blocks
I roll my logs the width of a piece of waxed paper

On an approximately square piece of waxed paper...
Shape each color into a log and flatten it out a bit.
Layer each color on top of each other to form a block.

Roll the waxed paper around the block and refrigerate.
Chill til firm (or overnight)
Slice into ¼ inch slices.

Bake on ungreased sheets, 10 minutes, 350° oven