Round 1 of the Christmas Season

After an afternoon of grocery shopping (yes, with a 5-month old strapped into the baby bjorn it takes a full afternoon!) and a few days of on-again off-again mixing, baking and wrapping the first round of cookie baskets were delivered this week.   I had so much fun making them!   I am curious to see what the favorites from the baskets are this year.    In our house the number one cookie is different for all three of us .... mine is the rich buttery Butter Pecan Cookie, Mark's new number one is the candy coated Dipped Cherry Cookies and Caleb's favorite remains the crispy, cholocaty, minty Chocolate Mint Cookies.  

Here are a few pictures of our favorites:

The baskets also included a few mini loaves of bread.   Today with one Cranberry-Orange loaf that was leftover I discovered that it tastes wonderful with a bit of cranberry butter spread on top.   We had the leftover maple cranberry butter from some pumpkin waffles I made a while back.  Here's the recipe for butter:

1/2 C fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 C maple syrup
1 C butter, softened

In a small saucepan combine the cranberries and syrup.   Cook over medium heat until the berries pop.   Transfer to a small mixing bowl and cool a bit.   Beat in butter until blended.

The Cookie Book

In 2005 I started baking my way through a cookie cookbook with the intention of baking all of the recipes in the book.   I'm not sure the exact number of recipes included in the book although the cover of the book says that there are over 250 of them.  I didn't set a timeline for my project, however, I've now been working on it for 5 years.   Each time I make a recipe for the first time I make a note of the month and year and the first recipes marked were in December of 2005.   Sometimes I make a note next to the recipe like "mmm..." or "icing too stiff" or even "yuck!" and sometimes I make a note about any modifications that I've made to the recipe.   Some of the recipes have been just so-so and have only been made once.  Some have become favorite recipes.    Some call for too many strange ingredients that I don't have on hand normally, thus requiring a special trip to the grocery store, so those haven't been made yet, but I'll get around to them.   Some have complicated steps so they also haven't been attempted yet.  Some are too gooey or have gooey frosting making impractical for packing, so since many of the cookies I make are for giving away these also haven't been attempted.    But all of them are on the list and will be done sometime.   And now you'll get to read about my adventures on this blog and have a chance to comment, see some pictures and if you are so inclined even order some of these cookies for yourself!

December, however, has not been a month for making new cookie recipes for many years.   Instead it is at this time of year that my cookies become part of cookie Christmas gifts and I go with favorites.   I am beginning round 1 of cookie give-aways this week.   This first round of cookie containers will have chocolate mint cookies, cranberry lemon sandwich cookies, white chocolate cherry cookies, eggnogg snickerdoodles, chocolate peanut butter marble cookies and butter pecan cookies.    Pictures will be posted soon to whet your appetites!   Stay tuned ...