A Christmas Cookie Miracle

So, as I mentioned previously, I had gotten into the Christmas spirit in full swing. And, I harnessed that spirit in the form of baking...a LOT. I wanted to make Christmas cookies like I did when I was younger with my mom. So I looked up the recipe for the plain flour-based cookies that you can decorate, as well as the peanut butter kiss cookies that no holiday is complete without, and went to town.

I started with just a batch of the peanut butter cookies, which didn't last long in our house at all (I shudder to think back on how many cookies I actually ate, how much batter I tasted and how much butter was in all of it!) so I made another set (batch #2) to get us at least TO Christmas. :)

Then, the hubs asked if he could take cookies into the hospital with him one night - one think I've learned from him is that doctors and nurses LOVE treats, especially if they're working the overnight shift. So, rather than just packing up a few of the cookies that we had remaining, I made a whole new batch of the peanut butter cookies (batch #3.) They were a huge hit, so it was totally worth it.

Then, Christmas eve came around and I realized I had never made the flour cookies to decorate. The dough had been made for a week and was sitting in the fridge, and the doc was working all day Xmas Eve, overnight to Xmas morning. Cue genius idea - I'd make the flour cookies, and another batch of peanut butter cookies (batch #4) since they were such a hit the previous shift.

I certainly did not set out to spend my entire Christmas Eve in the kitchen, meticulously decorating cookies with a sense of creativity that I didn't know I possessed. However...the pictures below will show what happened much better than I could ever describe:

I'm a bit cookied-out after all that, but I ended up really enjoying myself, listening to Christmas music while I baked and decorated, baked and decorated, baked and decorated some more. And the docs and nurses were so appreciative of a sweet treat on a holiday that I'd do it again in a heartbeat...just not until next year.

Hope your holidays were wonderful and you all have a safe and happy New Year as well.
Cheers!
Maureen

Are you ready for some football (snacks)?

It's no secret that I'm a huge sports fan - baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf, you name it, I like it. And, I really like enjoying some good food and drinks while watching said games.

So yesterday was the perfect opportunity to do just that. Our alma matter, University of Missouri, was playing the number one team in the country, Oklahoma, at home on Homecoming day. It was going to be a huge game and the hubby, somehow, miraculously, was off the entire day to enjoy it with me.

I planned a day full of food to enjoy while the Tigers were marching to victory.

• I started off the day with blueberry muffins. I'll be perfectly honest with you, I see nothing wrong with making them from a box. You can hardly mess them up, unless you burn them, and they're always consistently good. What else can you ask for while cooking, especially at an hour of the day when you have hardly woken up and had your coffee?

• Then, once the coffee kicked in, I was feeling inspired, so I whipped up a batch of brownies to sweeten the victory at the end of the day. Again, I'm a big fan of boxed mixes for brownies. Really, actually, for anything that has to do with baking. I'm all for cooking from scratch, but there's something about baking that gets to me and I like it as easy and error-proof as possible.I took a break from the kitchen for a while to hang out and carve the massive pumpkins I'd bought earlier this week. It was a beautiful, sunny day outside and it was great to be outdoors with my two boys (I'm including the dog). I really wanted to carve the Missouri "M" logo in my pumpkin, but seeing as my artistic talents start and stop with the ability to (poorly) draw stick people, I figured it would be best to stick with traditional jack o' lantern designs. (The guy's is on the left, mine is on the right)
  

We headed back inside to start the food prep for the game, and I roasted the pumpkin seeds for a snack. I was looking forward all week to enjoying those salty, crunchy seeds and, to my utter dismay, I burned the daylights out of them. There were a few spared the fires of the oven, but overall they're pretty burned and, therefore, inedible. Oh well, I have a whole year to perfect my cooking techniques :)

• I made a quick appetizer of bacon-wrapped water chestnuts that I'm pretty sure I could live on if the need arose. If you're looking for a quick app that travels well and is a hit with anyone, I highly recommend this recipe. You take canned water chestnuts (halve them if they're too big to pop in your mouth in one bite), wrap them in a piece (or half-piece) of bacon, secure with a toothpick, line up in a baking dish, cover with your choice of BBQ sauce, and bake until the sauce is nice and thick and the bacon is cooked, usually about 30 mins or so at 400 degrees. Bacon-wrapped anything is a hit in my book, and when you add BBQ sauce to it, it just ups the delicious factor.

• The hubs chipped in too and made his famous chicken wings. Incredibly easy to make and even easier to eat because they're so good. Season flour with whatever spices you want, coat chicken wings in flour, drop in boiling oil (a dutch oven works well for this if you don't have a fryer and, really, who does in a standard apartment kitchen?!) and toss fried wings in your choice of sauce. Yum!

After all that food, we were stuffed, but got to enjoy a victory over the top-ranked team in the country to bring an end to a fabulous day. And the best part? All the leftovers for me to enjoy today :)

M-I-Z! Z-O-U! GO TIGERS!


Cheers!