When it came time to fill the boxes with cookies for Hubby, it became apparent that ten cookies per box, just wasn’t going to cut it. I had a new plan in place in fifteen minutes. I would feverishly bake another four hundred cookies, while Hubby went to the store to pick up chocolates and candy canes to fill the top of the box. The recipe I used is ccalled Merry Cookies. The photo above is just one way to do them. They are a basic sugar cookie that can be rolled, coloured, added to and frozen. All this is good because it means that you can whip them up pretty quick and they can look and taste very different with little effort. The garnishes used for the batches I made were food colouring (as in above photo), candied cherries (red ones and green ones chopped finely), sprinkles, drageés, and christmas sprinkles. You make the dough, split it in half and roll it between waxed or parchment paper. The cherries or food colouring you would add in before rolling the rest of it gets rolled around the outside of the cookie.
Merry Cookies (Holiday Baking 1996)
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 2/3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1. beat butter and sugar until fluffy.
2. add egg and vanilla, beat.
3. in a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt, add in two stages and beat until combined.
4. roll cookies in waxed paper, chill in refrigerator (or freezer) until firm enough to slice.
5. place slices cookies on cookie sheet.
6. bake at 350 for 8 – 12 minutes. (Watch this carefully, as ovens differ it may only take 5 or 6 minutes or it may take 12. If you use silpat on your cookie sheet it usually takes 12, non-silpat is half the time. Cookies should not be browning at all.
Enjoy the Merry Cookies. Thankfully the recipients today enjoyed the cookies or at least they appreciated them enough to not tell Hubby the truth ;).
Sorry for my absence, but Christmas and visiting is getting in the way. Littlest Sister arrived on Saturday from Charlotte so we have been playing catch up ever since. Older Sister arrives tonight with the family so the next few days will be filled with kids, kids and more kids. I can’t wait, that’s for sure. That and making a gazillion cookies for Hubby to take to work. Why oh why do I raise my hand?
Here is another easy recipe. It truly takes 15 minutes to make, then refrigerator time.
Easy Chocolate Fudge
1lb2oz Semi-sweet Chocolate (cut into pieces)
1/3 cup of butter
14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp of vanilla
In a large saucepan on medium-low heat heat chocolate, butter and milk. Stir continuously and do not let it come to a boil. When everything is mixed beat in vanilla, continue to beat until thick (mine is thick to begin with so I just beat it for a minute or two). Pour into a greased 8×8 sqare pan. Chill in refrigerator until firm. Turn out of pan, cut into cubes.
**To make this one a little more festive, replace vanilla with peppermint extract and sprinkle crushed candy canes on top.
Enjoy
I wish I had a way of putting some photos from the 8mm film I have been watching on here, but alas, there is no way.
My mother had a box of old films from her Mother. It has sat in the garage at my parents house for the last eight or nine years. And before that in storage in Montréal. This past summer, my cousin in Calgary was telling my Mom how he just watched her wedding. Her wedding! She did not even know a move existed from that fabulous day. She asked me to ask my cousin to send it out. I kept forgetting, then I remembered, I thought it would be a great Christmas present.
The movies finally arrived. My cousin, bless his heart, did not know which reel it was on so he sent me all of them. All fifteen of them. I thought last night would be a good night to go through the movies. I started with the ones my Mom had and cried when I saw my Grandma dancing on the sidewalk at Niagra Falls. Then I cried when I saw a beautiful younger version of my Mom laughing with her boyfriend, a very handsome younger version of my Dad. There was even one from 1985 with all of us. A baby sister, younger sister and older sister and of course Mom, Dad and Grandma. My StepGrandfather and the only Grandfather I ever met took the film, so I only got to see him once for just a little second.
There were movies of New York City, a skyline without the towers. But, you could see the Empire State building, the Statue of Liberty and The Upper East Side. It was amazing. There were also movies of Newbraska and Delaware and Maine. I had a wonderful night of crying, laughing and remembering. I just felt terrible that I was not sharing with my sister’s and parents at the time, their turn will come. Hopefully one of the last three reels will have the coveted wedding I am looking for. I simply cannot wait to show these movies at Christmastime. Then, straight to DVD so we can keep them for a long time to come.
