Cookie Swap News!

Happy Wednesday!  And Happy Baking blog friends!  It's been a busy two days of baking for me so I thought I'd throw up a quick blog post.  Last night I whipped up my 3 dozen cookies for the Epic Food Blogger Cookie Swap (pictured above) and today I sent them off to some happy recipients in various parts of the country.  Stay tuned for the full detail recipe blog post on Dec. 12th.  I'm super proud of these!

Also, I received my First batch of cookies from Phyl Divine in Stow, Ohio.  "New Orleans Praline Disks".  These were quite tasty and packed with flavor.

In other cookie news, I made some White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies tonight for my husband and his merry band of Hunters as they head off to shoot even more deer. These are far and away one of my favorites, and worth mentioning everytime I make them!

Stay tuned for pics of my other two batches of incoming cookies from the blogosphere, as well as the recipe for my sweet treats!  Have a great weekend everyone!

-S

CCHS 10 year reunion cookies

Happy Sunday blog friends!  I'm happy to report another success in the cookie-favor department.  My former classmates at Concord Carlisle High School all celebrated our ten year reunion last night in Boston, and I was hired by the organizing party to make "Reunion" cookies for the occasion...

In about 5 batches and 5 hours I had 105 little decorated beauties to share with my friends:

I even bought myself an actual decorating bag for the occasion.  I usually use disposable....

My work station...

Some of my favorites:

All in all I was really happy with how these turned out.  My classmates seemed to enjoy them, another satisfied group of cookie-loving customers :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!!

Our First Thanksgiving (and mini thumbprint cookies!)

Happy Black Friday peeps!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Joe and I definitely did!  We hosted family from both sides for our first ever formal dinner party, and we got to use all kinds of fun fancy diningware that we've had stored away since our wedding.  Believe it or not, most of the baking was contributed by our guests (shout outs to Birdie and Jame!) but I did manage to whip up little shortbread thumbprint cookies, with a trio of fillings.

Using my favorite sugar cookie recipe I rolled out tiny cookie balls....

dug some little "thumbprint" holes with the end of a wooden spoon....

And filled them u p with raspberry jam, dark chocolate or orange chai marmalade. yum.

Sprinkle of powdered sugar, and we're ready for Turkey day!

Well, almost ready.  Then I had to make the stuffing....

Brine the Turkey....

Get the Venison Roast going in the crock pot (actually, this can be credited to Joe)....

Bake the Turkey and set the table....

But through all the craziness, we pulled off a pretty great dinner.  Joe and I are so very Thankful for our family, friends, and our new life together :)  What a great day.

\

Happy Thanksgiving, and good luck diving in to the holidays!  Let the madness begin!

Peanut Butter Cocoa Cookies

Happy Friday everyone!  I am working from home today while I wait for Bernie and Phyll's to deliver our new dining room set (just in time for Thanksgiving).  Joe is once again headed out for the weekend with a bunch of guys to hunt, so I thought I would whip up some cookies while I was sitting around, staring at my empty dining room.

I took stock of my cupboard supplies and came up with these.  Pretty tasty if I say so myself :)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
dash salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 cup flour

Mix together your butter and sugar, then the peanut butter until nice and creamy.

Add in your egg and vanilla, mix, and then its time for the cocoa.  At this point, it will start to smell like chocolate peanut butter fudge.  yum.

Add in your flour a little at a time, and you'll get a tasty ball of goodness.  Then its time to roll the cookies in sugar and get them on the baking sheet.

I don't know why people always do the little fork indentations in peanut butter cookies but, who am I to judge, I went along with the crowd.

Bake at 375 for 11-12 minutes.  I did 12 and I actually think I went a little long.....

Delish :)

Stay tuned for thanksgiving posts next week!  Have a great weekend everyone!

Home Alone

What do I do when I'm home alone and the Hubby is hunting?

Cook healthy dinner....

Online Christmas shop....

And bake myself cookies.  Naturally.

I had some extra dough leftover from my reunion cookie trial run, so after eating lots of veggies for dinner, I decided I'd ruin my diet and whip up some impromptu creations.  They were very yummy.  I made little sugar cookie braids and a couple of jam thumbprint cookies.  De-lish.

In other news, I signed up today to participate in a nationwide Cookie Swap going on at the beginning of December.  Basically I will be sending cookies to 3 other food-baking bloggers, and will receive cookies from 3 others.  It's a very cool way to get new ideas, appreciate other people's blogging efforts, and of course its a great excuse to bake. 

I'll definitely be sharing what I come up with!  along with what I receive from other bakers!  I can't wait!

Have a great weekend!

Sneak peak at a new project

Just a quick update today to give you all a heads up on my next for-hire cookie project!  I've been asked to make some Concord Carlisle High School cookies for my 10 year reunion party the weekend after thanksgiving.  Have I really been out of High School for 10 years?  Well Sh%@.

Last night I did a mini-trial run of 6 cookies so I could show my clients/former classmates what I was thinking.  The finished products will likely have more variety and be a little more finished looking, but it was a fun baking project so I thought I'd share :)

And when I was done experimenting I slathered extra frosting on a few of the cookies and gobbled them up.  Good stuff.

Stay tuned for that large project post and probably a few more in between.  I'm pretty sure I just volunteered to host thanksgiving at my house, so baking will abound!  I guess I have to roast a turkey too huh.... hmmmm

Pumpkin Gingerbread!

Happy November Blog friends!  Even though it has been kind of beautiful here in (sunny?) Massachusetts for the last week, I can't help but bake yummy fall-winter stuff now that it's November.  This week I whipped up a Pumpkin Gingerbread, which was actually pretty tasty, and didn't last very long in our house. (About 2 days actually, and we didn't share).

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened (half melted actually)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup water
1/2 can of pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

As per the usual process, mix together your wet ingredients first, until they are nice and smoothly blended.  Then add in your spices, baking powder, salt, and finally the flour, a little bit at a time.

Next up, pour your batter into a greased bread pan.  I actually opted for a different approach, and lined the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, while greasing the sides.  The bread slid right out after baking.  Super easy. I heart parchment paper.

Top it off with a little brown sugar if you are so inclined.  I always am.

Bake at 350 for about an hour....

Yum!  Eat it for breakfast, eat it for dessert, but believe me....you will eat it!

Coming up: a few sample cookies for some upcoming hired cookie-projects.  Sure it's mostly (erm...totally) my friends hiring me....but I'm still pretty pumped about it.

Happy baking!