Sunday, December 13, 2009

Still At It

Made a little more progress today on the baking front. Got Sugar Cookies baked but not frosted. I like to wait until the last minute to do that.

Got these made, baked and stored away. Chocolate Snowballs . . . or as my husband likes to call them, Moose Droppings in the Snow. Not that that deters him from eating them. I have to hide these so I have some to include on the platters I give.

That's what I do with 90% of the Christmas goodies I make. I put together a nice assortment to give to special people. Our UPS man (who's also our neighbor on one side), our wonderful neighbors on the other side, our mail delivery lady who goes way beyond her duty in giving us excellent service. We have a great library in our little town that we both use a lot all through the year so I take a big box full to the staff there. A couple other people who are alone and don't do any baking for themselves. The people who have the farm where we get our milk. And so on. (And you had a picture of Roy and me sitting eating all this sugar-laden stuff ourselves!)

I have a bowl of Almond Spritz dough all ready and sitting on the kitchen counter but I don't know if I want to tackle that yet tonight. Maybe I'll put it in the refrig until sometime tomorrow.

Still have fudge, Honey Caramels and Caramel Corn on the To Do list. (I may also have to make another batch of Toffee Bars with the regular milk chocolate topping. I took another sample today of the ones I made with Roy's dark chocolate and it's so strong it 'bout curled my teeth.) The Caramel Corn doesn't have to be done to include with the goodies to distribute though. That's for Daughter and Son-in-Law's stockings (yes, they both still get a stocking from Santa) and a big tin for us to snack on.

I'm going to a quilting get together in the morning and then plan to work on laundry and ironing in the afternoon so don't know how much baking will get done tomorrow. But I'd better push along on it 'cause I'd like to deliver everything on Wednesday of this week.

Never a lack of things to do these couple of weeks before Christmas, is there?

10 comments:

Sue said...

Gee, can I be your neighbor?
:D

Erin said...

Me too! I am making sugar cookies today (not frosted), and will make my spritz dough to refrigerate and deal with tomorrow. I too, give most of it away and keep enough for a platter for the Christmas party I'm having this Saturday night. Do you know that my son's school bus driver said last year that ours was the only cookie plate he received??? Must be the rude suburbanites. On the other hand, our mailman is completely rude and angry all the time, never even says "thank you"... not quite sure what his problem is, but it's been going on for years. Must be that AWFUL government job with benefits and the frigid (not!) temps he has to drive in, lol

Jody M said...

Mama Pea, I love your new picture, btw.

I did some baking last night. I'm not doing too many cookies this year, not 6-10 varietys like I've done in past years. I'm doing Rosemary Shortbreads (really easy, recipe somewhere on my blog), and last night I did what I'm going to call Orange Creamsicle cookies. I got some Vanilla Citrus extract from King Arthur and used it. Really good, and easy.

I'm not even doing bourbon balls this year! That recipe is somewhere on my blog, too. It was my grandmother's.

Jenyfer Matthews said...

I leave the sugar cookies to my sister - I never can get the dough cut and moved to the cookie sheet before it warms up and distorts! Instead I make gingerbread so the kids can have the thrill of cutting out shapes and I'll do spritz this year - if I can figure out how to use my "new" antique crank cookie gun that is. My old one had a trigger and I'm not sure how this one will "release" the dough without mangling the shape. Will do my cookies starting next week.

Any chance of getting a recipe for the moose droppings in the snow?

Chicken Mama said...

Hey, it's not like we're the only ones to "still get stockings"! You two do, too, ya know! ;) (I can't BELIEVE Christmas is next week! Grooooooaaaaan.)

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Sue - Wanna move to Minnesota or should we move to Michigan?

Hey, Erin - My husband met the husband of our mail lady for the first time this past week and he commented on how very thoughtful he felt it was that we always gave her a plate of Christmas home baked goodies. Apparently (as you indicated also) people don't do this anymore? Too bad.

As for YOUR mailman, don't you have a dog that could bite him?

Hey, Jody - Thanks for the compliment on my new picture. It's the best one I've ever taken and looks just like me. :o)

The thought of your Orange Creamsicle cookies makes my mouth water. Creamsicles were my favorite summer time treat when I was little!

Hi, Jen - I'm still operating with the old crank Spritz gun . . . always a challenge! I'll e-mail you the recipe for Moose Droppings . . . I mean Chocolate Snowballs.

Chicken Mama - You know the only reason Dad and I get stockings from Santa is that you feel guilty still getting one at your age! (Tee-hee! Hope mine has oodles of really cool stuff in it this year. Can't wait!)

Penny said...

The treats you have baked look wonderful!
Speaking as a Library Lady, library staff always appreciate homebaked goodies. We have a few customers who bless us with homebaked goods and they are our favorite folks. =)

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Penny - Thanks so much for commenting and welcome!

You're doing good work being a Library Lady! Libraries are WONDERFUL institutions, we use ours a lot, and I can't imagine what it would be like not to have all of its services so readily available.

Hope to hear more from you. Happy Holidays!

RuthieJ said...

You're a very generous person Mama Pea. Good luck getting everything accomplished!

Mama Pea said...

Hey, Ruthie - I have everything made stacked in containers out on our unheated porch. That doesn't seem to keep hungry hands from getting into it on their way in and out . . . even though it's frozen! But that's what it's for. Nuthin' sadder than seeing homemade goodies hang around and grow stale!