Baking goddesses

Sorry the posts have been few and far between and a little dry. Things have been super busy , and I have lots of fun stuff to post about, but it is just a matter of making the time to write it. As I sit here and write this I am eating my 100+ cookie of the holiday season (thanks Monica! They are really good!). While my mouth enjoys the taste, my waistline is not enjoying the tight jeans. Thus, I am going to try to not be such a pig this week (I am not off to a good start). Why can't I be one of those people who does not like sweets?

So, my seasonal love affair with sugar and spice started on my annual baking day. On this day to beat all days my friend Amy and I bake cookies from sun-up til sun-down. Seriously. I think we break some sort of record. This year we made 14 different types of cookies in one day. Yes, we are baking goddesses. This resulted in almost 1000 cookies which we then give as gifts to various people. We try to make fancy cookies and like to try new things. The line-up this year was quite impressive- pinwheels, brownie biscotti, buckeyes, peanut butter kiss cookies, chocolate gingerbread drops, honey-ginger bites, peppermint sticks dipped in chocolate, nutty eggnog bars, almond tassies, spritz blossoms, cranberry blondies, cherry chocolate bark, chocolate mint bars, and lemon shortbread. Not that you all care what we made, but I do think it was pretty impressive. The process was kind of intense and involved a battle of the wills with a cookie press. Luckily I won, but it was close.

The end result of all our labor is tasty tasty cookies, sore feet and backs, and a lot of clean-up. I meant to take pics throughout the day. However, we were a little busy, and I ended up just taking some pics of the mess in my kitchen at the end of the day. Keep in mind that we cleaned up as we went as well so this was just a small part of the cleaning that we did that day! I have a new appreciation for people who do this for a living as well as for my friend Amy. This is our second year doing this, and I have much respect for anyone who can put up with me for over 8 hours in a very small workspace. Thankfully the only casualty of the day was an oven mit.