December has been in full swing and it seems to be flying by. I apologize I've been neglecting my blog lately. It is so hard this time of year just to stay afloat day to day. I am still knee deep in Christmas preparations and gifts to be made. I will give you a quick overview of what we have been up to so far....
Last Saturday I hosted my first tamale making party. My Mom and sister came over to make some. I learned last year how to make tamales at a holiday workshop at church. The tamales are yummy and we look forward to feasting on them some more this winter season.
On Monday I began the preparations of my crazy cookie baking. I made sugar cookie dough. On Wednesday, I made a double batch of peanut butter dough. On Thursday, I made gingerbread, Russian Tea Ball and Chocolate dough. I find it a bit easier to prepare all my dough a few days ahead of time. It's less overwhelming of a task.
Just this past Friday, we participated for the third year as Nomads for our churches annual event of Walk Thru Bethlehem. We have so much fun as a family participating in this. If you ever have an opportunity to attend one of these events please do. If you are curious as to what this is please allow me to explain. Picture a Renaissance Fair where the audience is asked to become involved and brought back in time for a little while. Walk Thru Bethlehem is just like that and more. Our whole church courtyard is set up as the little town of Bethlehem of that time period just as it was 2000 + years ago. Costumes, sets, props, conversation, food, animals you name it. Every sensory organ of your body is taken back in time to that important event in History. Thousands flock to our churches event every year and many have become saved as a result to this eye opening event. We have been so blessed to be apart of this and look forward to it every year.
Saturday the cookie crazy baking began. First I baked Double Mint chocolate cookies. This was my first year baking these and let me tell you they are very good and will be added to my Keeper list. I'm a sucker for chocolate and if you have ever tried the Trader Joes peppermint chocolate cookies these are a yummy match for them and are easy to make.
Next I baked was the gingerbread cookies. The kids always look forward to decorating these each year. I found a yummy recipe on the Internet this year. The one I have been using wasn't a soft enough type of cookie. Too crisp. My family enjoys the softer variety. Sorry, can't hang these on the tree. They would probably just fall off.
Next up, was the peanut butter blossom cookies. The perfect blending of peanut butter and chocolate. The quick and easy recipe for this one is on the back of the Hershey kiss bag. I have been baking these for a few years now. One of my favorite cookies are peanut butter. And to combine peanut butter and chocolate it's like eating a Reese's peanut butter cup. Yum Yum!!
This year I added another new one to my bag of cookie tricks. Over the years of baking cookies and candies I rotate and add new ones from year to year. I love to experiment and to display a large variety of different tasty sweets. This one is called Yuletide Linzer Bars. They are very rich and buttery, similar to eating shortbread but inside is a layer of raspberry. Very good. For the next batch, later this week I will add a little more raspberry. I love the tartness of raspberry and I would like to experiment with that more.
My all time Christmas favorite and most requested cookie by far is Russian Tea balls. Other recipe books have referred to them as Mexican Wedding cakes or snowballs. Very similar to a shortbread variety. Lots of butter, flour, powdered sugar and nuts. Family members love to have their own personal stash year after year. I may be making more of these later this week if time permits.
The last one is my hubby's personal favorite, lemon bars. I have been making these even before we were married or dating. People look forward to these especially my hubby.
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Well, as for the rest of the weekend. On Saturday evening our daughter, Coco was in the Nutcracker for her ballet class that she is taking. It was not the full length Nutcracker but musical excerpts.This is her first year with this particular ballet class and her first in the Nutcracker. It was very a real treat to see her perform and I just love the music from the Nutcracker especially at Christmas time. She performed in three dances, party scene, flower dance and the Chinese Tea dance. She did a great job.
Well, that's our weekend in a quick review. I am exhausted. My house looks like a bomb went off in it and there powdered sugar every where I turn. Yikes!! Tomorrow the kids and I wake up early to run over to the church and help with the long task of tearing down the set of Walk Thru Bethlehem. It should be quite a job.
I sure hope your Christmas season slows down a bit too. Enjoy some Christmas cookies, drink some hot cocoa and enjoy the fire and reflect on the miracle of the season. God 's Blessings to you all!
Please feel free to request the recipes to the yummy cookies you have read about on this blog.
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