Baking Divas

It's our annual tradition, Christmas cookie baking the first Saturday in December.  And these baking divas were hard at work while I was still running a 5K with Drew.  Yes I was late to the baking party, but boy did the house smell good when I arrived.

This year my sister Lisa joined in the festivities - I think this was her first time doing it.  At least in recent memory.  Also joining us for a bit - my niece Adrina seen below with GG.


She was put on task to decorate the sugar cookies!


I didn't get very many pictures, because well I was busy baking!  (And watching my Sun Devils lose to Stanford in the PAC12 Championship game). 

But we did grab one group photo before my sister took off. 

L-R: My Mom, my sister Lisa, my Sister-in-Law Rana, Niece Adrina, Grandma Geri and Me

I think all in all we made somewhere between 25-30 different kinds of cookies between the five of us.

And here's my other niece Avery - she was approving of all the cookies coming out of the oven.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cookie Monsters

The ladies in my family were at it again last weekend.... we were a couple of cookie monsters.  Well cookie baking monsters that is.

It's our annual tradition, the first Saturday in December the ladies gather to make more cookies than any one person can consume - ever.  In fact by the end of the night I was sure I was going to throw up if I saw another cookie.

Oh and that's just 1 of three tables and a refrigerator filled with cookies!  I got there around 9:30am (earlier than normal since I skipped my typical 5K) and didn't leave until after 10pm.  I think I pulled the last batch of cookies out of the oven around 9:30, so that left dividing up the mountains of cookies.

With one burned batch - we won't say which one of us did that one - I think we ended up with about 21 or 22 different varieties, some of which were double or triple batches.

This is why I bake only once a year... I don't have the patience to do this more than once.  But it's an awesome tradition that I look forward to all year.  Makes perfect sense right?

Brought to you by your bakers..
L-R: Rana, Mom, Me, GG

C is for Cookie and That's Good Enough For Me.... Nom Nom Nom

C is for Cookie and that's good enough for me.... and boy were there cookies!

As we do every year, the ladies in my family get together the first Saturday of the month to bake until we drop.  I started at noon (because of the Bah Humbug race) and got home around 10:30pm.

So after baking dozens and dozens of cookies, here we are showing off the goods and enjoying some adult beverages... wine!

L-R: Rana, Mom, Me, Grandma (not pictured - Lisa who was only there for about 2 hours)

Most of the cookies... there were still some in the oven!

Rainy Day Activities

Sunday was a dreary, rainy day and this house isn't feeling 100% yet, so we found a few things to do to pass the day - including some baking.

I've had some sugar cookie ingredients in the pantry for months, and finally I figured it was time to pull it out and let Drew help bake while Daddy was at church ushering (Mommy and Drew had a sick day).  Drew helped mix the ingredients in the bowl - although I made sure to beat the egg at the bottom before he saw it as it usually leads to gagging/puking.

Then I rolled out the dough and let him do the cutting.

We went with a winter theme - and made snowflakes and stars.  Later on Drew was a happy camper to help sample the finished product!  I have to say they do taste pretty darn good.

Baking Bombshells

The start of the holiday season means it's time for the annual baking session in my family. Dating back much longer than I was even born, the ladies in my family gather to bake cookies until the drop.

So on Saturday my Grandma, Mom, brother's girlfriend and I baked and baked and baked! They started a few hours before me (because of the race) and I arrived shortly after noon.









The last of the cookies were pulled out of the oven shortly before 8 pm.

The result?











19 different varieties of cookies and bars.

Of course whats baking without a few taste testers. My brother and Dad volunteered their services.




All this hard work was brought to you by:




L-R: Mom, Grandma, Rana & Me

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Visions of Sugar Plums Danced in their Heads

It was like a verse from "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" this past weekend... we had visions of Sugar Plums... as we baked and baked and baked! And yes for the record one of the 18 different types of cookies that were made, were sugar plums.

It's an annual tradition stretching since before I was born (yes that's a very long time...I had to say it before you even thought it) - the ladies in the family bake Christmas Cookies.

Now this isn't just your typical baking of chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin etc.. We're talking about making the kinds of cookies that:

A.) Look beautiful on a Christmas platter
B.) That you ONLY want to make once a year (or once every few years) because they're such a pain to make.

Typically we do this the first weekend of December, but this year that happens to be weekend we decided to do Christmas for my side of the family (this year Christmas is with Dave's family). Instead we pushed the bake-fest up a week, and baked on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Here's how we started:


And how we ended up!


When I arrived at about 9am (after hitting a few Joann's stores along the way for the Cricut Cartridge Sales.. and of course Starbucks..) Grammy was already getting a head start.

Yes, she's making the crowd pleaser, chocolate covered potato chips. GG introduced those about a decade ago, and they're now an annual staple - as are spritz, and fudge - both peanut butter & chocolate.

Every year we try and come up with a few new recipes - well at least I do. Normally there's just me, Grammy & GG baking, but this year we added a "family" member - Matt's girlfriend Rana. (No there is no announcement....) We had to break her in on how we do this Christmas Cookie thing.

Poor thing thought at first we were only baking one kind of cookie.... well we showed her haha!

By the end she was ready to drop just as we wanted to. Why would that be? Just take a look for yourself at the fruits of our labor:




















Yes, that's what 18 different types of cookies, bars, fudge and candies looks like! And I think we set a new record for our holiday baking - in years past this is a morning until night (like 8pm and beyond), kind of day. This year we wrapped up before dinnertime!

I guess not having Drew underfoot makes a HUGE difference - and maybe we're finally getting the hang of this baking thing.

And thank goodness I have a year to recover from this bake-fest!