christmas cookies!

today i spent the afternoon doing one of my most favorite holiday activities... baking cookies!

mom started mandy and i baking at a very young age, and for that reason it's always been very near and dear to my heart.  there are special cookies that i made every year growing up with my mom and sister, but i just can't seem to make those by myself!  it just wouldn't be the same without all three of us.  but that doesn't stop me from trying new cookie recipes every year and baking up a holiday storm!

today i made four different kinds of cookies.  three of them were new recipes, but one is tried and true.  here is the rundown of the recipes, including professional cookie taster billy murphy's tasting notes.

cookie numero uno- thumbrint cookies!

ever since billy and i have been together i have made thumbprint cookies for christmas.  they are his favorite, and his dad likes them so much that he's been known to hide them so well from everyone else that he actually forgets where he's put them himself! 

i have used a number of different recipes over the past few years for thumbrint cookies- there are a million different varieties and ways to make them.  for instance, you can use almond extract instead of vanilla extract, or drizzle them with icing instead of sifting powdered sugar over top of them... make peanut butter cookies instead of plain, seriously a million different ways.  all varieties are good!  but i think the most crucial element is using the right jam for the middle.  and bonne maman raspberry preserves is the best!

that's my advice anyhow!
here's the recipe that i used this year.  it's my favorite way to make them (traditional).  billy says he likes them better with the almond extract instead of vanilla.  shut up billy.

this brings me to cookie numero dos- polvorones, or ground walnut cookies.

these are traditional mexican wedding cookies, but we americans know them better as snowball cookies!  you can make them with pecans or walnuts.  i'm sure there are a lot of different variations of this cookie as well.

this was my first year making them, and i was frankly a little concerned halfway in.  the dough is really stiff and crumbly and i was worried they were going to fall all apart, but nope! they held up great.  this is the recipe i used for them this year, and i would definitely make them again!  they are tasty.  billy says they are "right on point".

now for cookie numero tres- chocolate gooey butter cookies!

yes, it's true.  i found a paula deen cookie recipe with the words "gooey" and "butter" in the title.  umm... OF COURSE i made them! 

so neither billy nor i are big on chocolate cookies (ick), but i had to give this a shot.  they were super easy, and they turned out really really good.  they stay chewy and gooey.  billy said it was like taking a bite of chocolate cake!  and even though he doesn't normally like chocolate cookies, he said he could totally do one of these for dessert with a glass of milk.  i highly recommend.

and lastly, cookie numero quatro, which isn't actually a cookie at all, it's- peppermint bark!

seriously, i almost didn't make this because the recipe looked too easy and the simplicity made me nervous.  i didn't think there was any way they would turn out right with so little effort.  they did.  they're pretty, and they're unfathomably easy. 

i will say, that instead of using candy canes for this recipe, i used these old fashioned peppermint sticks from cracker barrel.  don't do that.  these peppermint sticks are delicious, kind of like those after dinner mints that disintegrate in your mouth when you bite them.  but i wouldn't use them again for the peppermint bark.  they are not as crunchy and minty as you want for the bark.  even though i added the optional peppermint extract, the bark still ended up a little more sweet than minty.  they are still delicious, don't get me wrong, but billy and i have both concluded that in the future plain old candy canes are the way to go for these.

so this concludes my little christmas cookie blog.

next year hopefully i will have a waistline again and i'll be able to wear my little june cleaver aprons while baking.  this year i just wore a sweatshirt that ended up covered in dough. hot.

merry christmas ya'll! :)

the sky is falling... a series.

when we woke up this morning, the ceiling in the great room looked like this:

peely. leaky. drippy.

we knew the ceiling was bad in the great room when we moved in. 
it's been slowly getting worse.
like a ticking time bomb of melting plaster. 
over the past eight months whenever we got a really bad rain storm or lots of rain over a period of days, we'd hear the occasional "splat", find a chunk of ceiling on the ground, stare at it mournfully, and continue about our day.  because money to replace the ceiling did not, however, happen to be falling as well.

this morning it was exceptionally drippy, because it was exceptionally rainy.  but not too many splats.  although it was looking a little more questionable than usual. 
we put down a bucket and went about our day. 
at six we left for childbirth classes in bryn mawr. 
we left tucker gated in the kitchen.
when we came back, the ceiling looked like this:

i should have taken a real picture, but you'll notice my hatted little head in the bottom left corner of the frame... i was already cleaning up (i don't even think i had put my purse down) and billy just snapped a shot real quick with his iphone.  it wasn't pretty.
tucker (who must have thought the end of the world was happening) had jumped the gate in the kitchen, peed all over the ceiling mess, and was found buried under pillows in our bed (that he's not allowed in).  i think he was pretty traumatized.

luckily, wonder husband and i cleaned everything up in no time. and let me tell you, old wet plaster ceiling is heavy.  and messy.   but we worked together and 20 minutes later it was looking like this:

 

the crappy iphone shot doesn't do the shiny mopped floors justice.

i'm actually super glad that the ceiling all came down in one big chunk, and not like a serious of jagged pieces that i would have to be cleaning up for days.  we knew it was going to happen eventually, and it was nice that it was all over and done with in one shot.

 

and we are calling the huge wood beamed owwee spot on the ceiling "character" until it can afford to be otherwise.