Christmas Cookie Baking 2012 (Segment #2)

How are you all coming along?  Did you get some ingredients to bake along?  lol  You've no doubt  heard of sew-alongs, but who ever heard of a bake along, huh?  I might start a whole new trend here, who knows?  Incidentally, another hint that I just thought of........I use a hand mixer to mix all my cookie dough.  It saves on the hands and the cleanup since all I have to do is remove the beaters to wash between recipes.  (I have tons of bowls.)

Yesterday someone with a no-reply blogger address asked me if I color my own sugar.  I almost laughed out loud!  While it might be smart to do that financially, I suppose, I have enough trouble with this whole cookie making process at my age without stopping to color my sugar first.  Seriously, I'd probably save lots more $$ if I churned my own butter!!!  You have no idea how I hoard the sale butter in my freezer prior to this process!!!  And YES, I only use butter!

Okay, are you ready for recipe #3?  This is an all time favorite and another one that was handed down through the generations in my family.  These (I guarantee) will melt in your mouth and you will get nothing but rave reviews!  I don't think it would be Christmas here without them:

MOM'S PECAN FINGERS

2 cups butter

1/2 cup sugar

4 cups flour

4 cups finely ground pecans

2 Tablespoons vanilla (yes, tablespoons)

Mix all together and form in little rolls in crescent shape.  Bake 15 minutes on ungreased cookie sheet in 350 degree oven.  When still warm, roll in powdered sugar.  Makes 7 or 8 dozen.   

And there they are ready for the freezer.  Now, I must say that this recipe is easily cut in half so unless you plan on eating these for a long time, or have a big family, or LOVE to eat a lot of cookies, perhaps you might want to do that.  One little hint in the preparation is this..............prepare a small cookie sheet or big dinner plate with powdered sugar lining the bottom, and a strainer filled with more powdered sugar so when you remove the cookies from the cookie sheet, you don't have to roll those warm delicate little cookies, you can just transfer them to the sugar lined cookie sheet or dinner plate and sift powdered sugar over the top and put them directly into your container.  I sprinkle more powdered sugar over the top of each layer as I go along though since I want each to get adequate coverage .


Okay......now for cookie #4, which I suppose is really not a cookie, since it's not baked, but something else........don't ask me what???

TING A LINGS or HAYSTACKS

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanuts
1-2 cups chinese noodles

Melt chocolate in glass microwave safe bowl, add rest of ingredients and mix well.  Drop by teaspoons full onto waxed paper or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Allow to dry, or refrigerate until hard.  (Or if you live in a cold climate, plop outside for about an hour to harden.)  These are super easy-peasy and they will satisfy any chocolate lover!

So there you have it!  So far we're at 4 out of 10 now.......(I'm up to #10 though and hopefully I'll be able to finish those today.)  I'm also thinking about making my French silk pie and throwing that in the freezer for Thanksgiving.  I usually don't freeze that pie, but we are having unseasonably warm temps here and it's supposed to go up to 62 degrees on Thursday.........not good for keeping a butter, egg filled, chocolate pie outside in my car's trunk in my sister's driveway until dessert time.  This way, if I take it frozen, it should be perfect by the time we eat it.  Don't you agree????

Cookie Baking 2012 (Segment #1)

Well, here we go!  I've already started so hopefully you all can catch up.  I've decided that this year I am limiting my baking to 10-11 different kinds of Christmas cookies.  In years past, I have made up to 30 different kinds, blessing everyone I knew with tins of goodies, but with the recent writings of unhealthy fats within the past 5-6 years or so, even my kids won't eat my cookies now until Easter.

First, let me fill you in on a secret.  Buy yourself some of this:

It will save you a ton of work.  Using parchment paper means you don't have to wash your cookie sheets in between batches and if you are making lots of the same kinds of cookie, you can even use the same paper.  I wouldn't bake without it!!

For some reason, I always start with an old favorite.  My mother (gone for over 25 years already) passed this simple, easy and yummy recipe down to me and it's been a family delight ever since.  It's called...............(and even though you know how I love to name things.......my dear mother must have started my craziness because wait until you hear the name of these cookies):

RED AND GREEN

1 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups flour

red and green sugar

Mix the butter and sugar together, add the flour.  Form into logs and roll in red or green sugar.  Refrigerate overnight.  Cut into slices and bake in a 400 degree oven 8-9 minutes.

Those were my logs.........and this is a double recipe so don't be worried that you didn't get as many rolls.  I think mine were about 1 inch or maybe a teeny bit under one inch in diameter.

 And here they are cooling on the countertop on aluminum foil.  I always cool cookies that way.  Then, when I pack them away in bins or plastic containers to freeze, I pack from the left to right getting the coolest ones on the bottom first.  (Simple, huh??)  I'm telling you, with the parchment paper, you can probably do 5-6 different kinds of cookies in only 1 day!

Next, I made another favorite that I've been making forever, it seems, and they're pretty too.  I think the recipe has been around for years:

CHERRY NESTS

3/4 cup butter
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 egg white (beaten)
1 1/2 cups crushed nuts
candied cherries (halved)

Mix all the top ingredients together and form into balls, dip into beaten egg white and roll in crushed nuts.  Top with half a cherry.  Bake 325 degrees 15-17 minutes  Makes 42

So, here I am forming away.  Note to the far right, my parchment paper on top of my cookie sheet just waiting for those first balls to be placed.

And here they are all done, cooling on the countertop waiting to be packed up for the freezer.

So, there you have it!  The first 2 of probably 10 or so recipes.  I hope you are enjoying this sewing break because it has to be done and there's no time like the present!  Back to sewing next week!

Sewing & Baking

Well, no time like the present to start the holiday baking, I say, and thanks to all your nice comments, and interest in my cookies, I'm going to devote at least one or two posts to just those starting next week.  First, though, I want to show you the last two mug rugs I made......(and if I have time, I still have ideas for about 3 more, but who knows if the swap will be over by the time I have time to get out the machine again???  It's only been two days, and I already miss sewing.)

First, let me introduce, "Rudy":

"Rudy" ended up at 6 x 9 inches and was super simple to make.  I have come to realize that the simple mug rugs are the most admired, probably because they're the easiest to copy.  lol  (Which, incidentally,  doesn't bother me a bit, I might add!!)  I'm here for inspiration.....

Then, since I hadn't done a crayon method quilt in awhile, I thought that might be fun for one.  Who knows what will happen after it gets laundered though.

I called that one, "Let's Decorate".  It's 8 1/2 by 6 1/2" and was done with my usual crayon method which I've described many times.  Personally, I'm not crazy about that one......probably because I like brighter colors for Christmas.

THEN..............ta-da..............I made 1 of three pies I will be bringing to my sister's for Thanksgiving.  I love making this one since it can be made ahead of time and frozen.  (Just call me, Mrs. Smith!)  And tell me, who doesn't just love a good pecan pie?

There are a million recipes for pecan pie on the web, and I think mine is either from there or a combination of a few different ones, but the thing that I LOVE is my pie crust recipe.  It's super simple and has never failed me:

NO FUSS HOMEMADE PASTRY

Mix 1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt with a pastry cutter until blended

Slowly pour in 3-4 Tablespoons ice cold water, stirring until mixture comes together.

Shape dough into a ball, press into a disk shape, wrap in plastic and refrigerate 30 minutes.

On floured surface, roll chilled dough into circle to fit your pie plate.  Flute edges.

For pies needing prepared crust, bake 450 degrees 10-12 minutes.  For all other, bake as recipe suggests.

Happy baking!  And I'll be back next week with a bunch of cookie pictures and recipes (since I'm not sewing..........phooey!)

It's not as bad as I thought! Thank heaven!

If you read my posting the last time, you must have heard the panic in my words thinking that I deleted all of the comments ever made on my blog with only one small click.  NOT SO!  Apparently, I only deleted the most current 50.  So, even though I will miss them, it's not as bad as losing 5,000+ comments, wouldn't you say?  Yup, I thought so too!  Therefore, I'm not fretting about it anymore and will use it as a lesson to be more careful in the future and try to be less in a hurry when in the inner workings!  I promise!  Thank you all for your marvelous suggestions though.....I passed on all your wisdom to my computer genius friend who is just a bit more genius now because of them!

Since I'm smiling again, I thought it appropriate to make some mug rugs for the swap.  As most of you know, it's my 2nd favorite swap of all since I LOVE to make mug rugs.  Actually, I call them that, but to me, they are little mini quilts since mostly I create them with buttons or some kind of embellishment and sadly coffee cups might tip right over because buttons don't make things too stable on a table.   lol  Believe it or not, I even add little O rings on each "mug rug quiltie" now, hoping that the recipient will hang it instead.

I started off with this one that I call, "MeRry ChRistmas".  It's 6 1/2" by 7 1/2" and I got the idea from a card that I designed and sent some years ago to all our friends for the holidays.



Since that was so fun, I made this one next.  I called it (brilliantly, I might add), "Holiday 2012 Mug Rug #2".  lol  It's 6" x 8 1/2".  Super simple and really fast........(see all the buttons???)



Being that I was on a roll, until today, that is.........(cleaning house instead....ugh..), I decided to make this one yesterday that I named, "A Penguin Holiday".  (Half the fun in quilting is naming stuff, dontcha know, since I'm done having kids and who knows about more dogs??) It ended up at 6 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches.  (Did you note that they've been getting bigger as I go along?)



I do have a few more ideas, but it's getting close to Thanksgiving and I have some baking to do, so who knows how many more I'll get done.  I'm overdue to start my annual cookie baking marathon too.  I make them and then freeze them all so I need to start early.  This is a plateful of most of the varieties from 2009.



Mostly all the varieties I have made for years and some recipes even date back to my grandmother's time.  I was thinking of perhaps doing a recipe with pictures each day when I get in the swing, if you would be interested. While I don't claim to have a baking blog, I thought it might be a fun change for a week or so.   Let me know what you think........okay???  Until then............take care be well!  And again, thanks for all your help last time!!!!!!!

I think I'm going to be ill!

You're not going to believe what I did!  As most of you know, I don't claim to be a computer genius.......in fact, sometimes it's a wonder I can handle a blog at all.  AND...once you hear this, you'll really believe it!

Recently, I've been plagued more and more with an overwhelming amount of anonymous spam.  While I know that there probably is a market somewhere for "ambien" and female love on the open market, I personally could give a rip!  I mentioned this to a friend, wondering if she had the same problem and complained that just yesterday I had to delete 539 spam messages one by one and it was driving me nuts and that was only an accumulation from 4 days.  She wrote back almost immediately and asked why I didn't just use the box to the left and delete the whole mess at once.

WHAT?  There's ONE box I could click and delete them all at once?  How brilliant!!!  How come I never knew that????  Well, I couldn't wait to try it!  I rushed into the "Design" portion of my blog, went to the "comment" section and sure enough, there it was........a cute little box to the left.  I clicked and pushed delete and WHAMOO.........done!

ONLY ONE THING...........I wasn't in the spam comment section.  YES......I deleted 5,239 comments on ALL my posts from the very beginning of my blogging career!  Go check!  I thought I was going to throw up!  OMG....what did I do?  All your precious comments on my stuff and suggestions, and enlightenments........GONE!  Except, there is one bright light.  They are still in my DESIGN section..........so now, how do I reinstate them where they belong?  Anyone know?  HELP!!!!  PLEASE????  (I promise I'll never do it again, really!!!!)

In the meantime, I only have two little things to show you.  Dummy me, (as I shall now be known) was so enjoying making little mice, that I made some more.  Now I think I have enough at 20 total.  lol  I did make some Winter bitty blocks though:



And I did get an awesome FLiPS package from my partner, Cindy (yayaquilter).  In fact, the pincushion she made was my favorite in the whole swap and it landed at my doorstep this week.  Yahoo!



So, that's my "not so good" news.  If any of you have any suggestions on how to fix my problem, PLEASE let me know!  I will be eternally grateful!  In fact, I'll even send you a mouse!  How's that?