Cookie day!

Hey ya'll it's a little late but here is my weekly post. Instead of writing about my dinner I will write about my marathon baking day(s).
I am one who loves to bake, loves to give out baked goods, and of course LOVES to eat baked goods. At Christmas my favorite gift to give is my homemade cookies and candies, it is so easy and can be much cheaper.
This year I decided to do all of my baking in one day, mainly because of lack of any other time to accomplish my baking, unless I tried sleep baking, but that sounds like a terribly dangerous idea.
In years past I have made dozens a d dozens of cookies in all sorts of variety. This year, however, I decided to make the 6 things I am particularly good at and know people will enjoy. I will maybe make a 7th item for Christmas day( peppermint fudge), if time permits of course.
I started my mixing my sweetheart dough( my personal favorite and a family recipe) , I put that in the fridge to chill while I moved on to my cracker candy. What a simple and delicious treat, cracker candy. I made 2 batches this year, one with semi sweet chips and the other with milk chocolate. Both batches of cracker candy are delicious( Walt will attest to that, as he will be making a new batch for tray making if he continues to eat it at the pace he is). I got both trays of cracker candy also in the fridge to chill when I decided to make my chocolate chips
next.
My chocolate chip recipe comes from a wonderful woman who knows how much I love her choco chip cookies(and bars and dough), Cindy! It is the only recipe I use and they turn out great every time, now included. They are a yummy cookie to sit down with a glass of milk and enjoy a couple or 10.
Next up were peanut butter, which is the only I messed up and by messed up I do mean forgot to put red and green sugar on 3 cookies :( but that's ok more for me, less for trays, haha.
I made spritz with a spritz my mom gave me from all the years we made spritz together. :) This year I decided to mix it up a bit though, I dyed my dough green and as I did that thought to myself mint would be awesome, and what to my wondering eyes would appear but some peppermint extract. They are so awesome, perfect green, perfect mint, FANTASTIC! The only issue I had was the the press to work properly( as per usual).
I ran out of time that day so I finished the next afternoon the sweethearts and made my fudge. The fudge I'd say is interesting, I used the no fail fudge recipe and yet, failed in some way. My fudge is almost mousse like, and may be used for something other than cutting up and putting in cookie gifts. Still trying to decide what to do with it, we shall see.

Enjoy the season and enjoy some baking!
Ask for any recipes you may want :)
Jamie

Freedom

I started this journey to reach culinary freedom in the kitchen. I do believe that after making an entire thanksgiving meal I have reached the freedom I was looking for. This, however, does not mean I will stop blogging. I have enjoyed my experience and all the input/recipes I have received too much to give that up.

Tonight's meal was very easy. I made Alfredo sauce pasta and chicken with a side of garlic bread. There is a movie I watch usually at this time of year and it always ankles me want Alfredo. I saw a commercial for the movie, The Holiday, yesterday and since then have been craving Alfredo.

I made it all by myself, doing what felt like a million things at once, consistently setting off our overly sensitive smoke detector. But I made it and enjoyed it so much, I am looking forward to my lunch tomorrow.

Now, it is time to relax and enjoy a movie with my man on the couch. See you all next week. I plan on making kielbasa for next Mondays dinner.
:) Jamie