Christmas Cookies

It's the week of Christmas, which means it is time to bake!
Except that in the middle of baking my last batch of cookies, I smoked out my mixer. I killed it.

Which I feel really really good about.
I mean, I put a hurting to my mixer. Who does that?
I do.
I am a baking machine is why.

But that does mean, unless I get another one in the next few days-no more cookies for Christmas.
Sad face.

So to alleviate the pain, I thought I would share my three favorite Christmas cookie recipes today.
Make these, get fat and be the most popular person amongst your friends. It's easy!

Peanut Butter Balls
2 sticks butter
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I only had 1 cup, so I used 1 cup more crunchy peanut butter to make up for it)
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup coconut
1/2 c peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
16 oz. conf. sugar

Mix all above ingredients. Roll into 1" balls-put into freezer. While making dipping chocolate.
-in a double broiler, melt 12 oz bag of choc chips (I had mix of semi-sweet and peanut butter chips) and 2 tbs. shortening or paraffin.
Dip 1" balls into chocolate. Place on wax paper and let dry.

Gooey Butter Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/4 tsp vanilla
1-8oz package of cream cheese
1-1lb box butter recipe cake mix
powdered sugar for dipping
cooking spray

Beat butter, vanilla, and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Mix in dry cake mix. Chill for 30 mins. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly coat cookie sheet with cooking spray. Drop by teaspoonfuls into a bowl of powdered sugar; roll into balls. bake for 10-12 mins. Makes 3-4 doz.

Praline Strips
1 pack Graham Crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

line 9x13 pan with foil and cover the bottom completely with crackers. Boil butter and sugar for two minutes. Add pecans and stir to cool. Then add vanilla. Pour over the crackers. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes cut while warm. Yield 4 dozen.

A Matter of Degrees

I went to Fresh Market earlier this week specifically to buy flowers. They didn't have the ones I wanted. But nonetheless I persevered.

Doesn't this picture just make it seem like Spring and Bunnies. Warm Sunshine. Dresses without Tights. Like any day now we could just up and go to the beach if we wanted?


But look just over the top of those flowers and a sense of reality sets in. Snow from a storm that is over two weeks old remains, with new layers of snow on top of it. Now as I type this, a fresh three inches of "pow pow" is falling from the sky.


The only good thing is that 1) it is a REALLY pretty snow. 2) I am starting to get pretty good at being stuck inside. I just made sourdough bread. Seriously. 3) My dog slept in until 11:30 this morning to avoid going outside. What dog does that? But I'm not complaining.

I Made That

Last night I got a little crazy and decided to try my hand at making some bagels.

I found an easy recipe on the internet and went for it!

About two hours later, I had a dozen freshly made bagels! They are DELICIOUS! Way better than store bought, they give Panera a run for their money and are super cheap to make. It was very very fun to make them and felt great to smell bread baking in my house-it has been years since I have kneaded dough, and I loved it. Of course, I missed the high school football game because I underestimated the time required to take care of this project, but no big deal. I have bagels to show for it!

This is the recipe that I used: Making Bagels
The only deviation was that I added baking soda and honey to the water while boiling.

YUMOLA!