One of
the reasons I try to have all my Christmas gifts and shopping completed by
Thanksgiving is because I want to be freed up to enjoy the actual month leading
up to Christmas Day. Let's face it, it
just wouldn't be Christmas without a couple of marathon baking days.
Nothing
beats holing up inside the house on a cold winter day with our favorite
Christmas CDs playing and a batch of cookies baking in the oven. The house is warm and smells absolutely
delicious inside. We all have a
wonderful time as we prepare our favorite goodies to eat and share with our
friends and neighbors.
I
usually make the same things year after year mainly because it is the only time
we get to enjoy them. I also like to do
one or two different things each year.
This
year I made out my Goodies List in my Christmas Planner:
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Macaroons
- Thumbprint Cookies
- English Butter Toffee
- My Grandmother's Sultana Cakes
The
first three I do almost every year because they are our favorites. The youngest loves the blossom cookies and
the oldest favors the macaroons. I like
the thumbprint cookies filled with raspberry jam.
The
last two items I haven't made in years.
The Sultana Cakes are a dense lemon poundcake filled with candied
cherries. They have a lot of butter in
them. Delicious! I want to make them to share with friends and
plan to bake them in those cute foil pans with the clear plastic lids.
Hopefully
I'll be able to stockpile my baking supplies ahead of time as part of my
regular grocery budget so the only things I'll need to buy will most likely be
the foil pans plus candied cherries, extra butter, and the Brach's chocolate
stars for the blossom cookies.
What
are your Christmas favorites?
My favorite Christmas cookies are the PB Blossoms! We like to make chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies too- I have recipes for these that we really enjoy. The last couple of years I have tried to make at least one cookie that we never made before. I have a cookie booklet that has some good ideas and we usually choose one from there. I also like to make breads and cakes besides the cookies, just to have more variety. Sounds like a lot of fun in your house with the "marathon baking days!" :) Can you believe that Christmas is, like, 7 months away?? To me it feels like it was just Christmas last month!
ReplyDeleteLove those blossom cookies! This year is seriously flying by. My kids are out of school in two weeks! I swear they just started. :)
DeleteMy children always enjoyed making cut-out sugar cookies and gingerbread men. The food gifts I make each year vary but one that I make often is caramel corn. I made it one year to round out a gift to a relative who loves sweets. It was such a huge hit that I've made it many times since then. People love home made caramel corn.
ReplyDeleteI love caramel corn. I've made peanut brittle before too. So many wonderful treats to be had that time of year.
DeleteMy favorites are chocolate chip, peanut butter kiss cookies (similar to the PB blossom cookies, I assume), and cream cheese cookies with jam in the center. Yum, I can just taste them now!
ReplyDeleteThinking about it gets my mouth watering!
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