Monday, December 14, 2009

it's looking like a bakery in here...

...the weekend tally is 705 cookies. Whew! Except for frosting the sugar cookies, I'm done with the "cookie" part of the baking. Next is the biscotti and while they are also cookies, they require double-baking, which puts them in a separate class as far as I'm concerned!

A view into Saturday morning's baking

The cookie exchange at Spin-In was fun! It's nice to be able to enjoy someone else's baking for a change. My contribution was Mexican Wedding cookies...a long time family favorite. While there, I made good progress on the Fuzzy Lamb I'm knitting for a friend. I have to finish the body, stitch it together, and embroider the face. Then I need to knit a little sweater for it.

We got our Christmas tree on Sunday morning. We went to Lowe's and Home Depot, but were not impressed with any of the trees there. Part of the problem is that they don't have them standing up...you can't easily see what the tree looks like on all sides. Plus with the rain, the trees were all wet, so moving them around was a drippy proposition.

We ended up going to the Summer Winds nursery and got our tree there. They had some really nice Noble firs and although we normally get a Douglas fir, the Nobles were too nice to pass up. It's between 7 and 8 feet tall, a little on the short side for us, but it will do!

The Husband's car has been causing him grief for quite a while and it decided to cause BIG problems on Friday, The Husband took it to the shop and we find out today what the verdict is. We've been talking about buying a new car for a while, but haven't been ready to take on the expense yet. In preparation for his car being officially IDJ (It's dead, Jim™), we took a test drive in a Honda Fit yesterday. Really nice car!! A definite possibility!

Most of my weekend, as you can imagine, was spent in the kitchen. It took me a few batches to get into the swing of my new oven. My friend Jane encouraged me to try the convection setting on my oven, which I did and I was happy with the outcome. I have now discovered the "hot spot" in the oven and how to position the sheets to get the optimal result.

Spumoni Slices

What did I make? Here's the list:
  • Spumoni Slices
  • Chocolate-Espresso Slices
  • Cherry Kisses
  • Mexican Wedding Cookies
  • Mexican Chocolate Wedding Cookies
  • Coconut-Cranberry Chews
  • Almond Spritz
  • Chocolate Crinkles
  • Nutmeg Slices
  • Sugar cookie cutouts

Chocolate-Espresso Slices

All of them turned out great, except for the nutmeg cookies. These were supposed to be mini-Yule Log cookies, but the dough was too dry to roll into logs. I probably could have tried adding more butter, but by the time I was ready to bake these, it was late afternoon and they would have to chill again after the addition. At that point, my patience was thin, so I decided to just slice them into coins and bake them. Once they were done, I tasted them and was not impressed. There wasn't enough flavor and the cookie was dry. I won't make these again! Now I have to figure out it they are worth salvaging with frosting or chocolate, or if I should just call them a loss.

I plan on making a batch or two of biscotti during the week. However, most of the biscotti baking will happen over the weekend. I can easily make the chocolate bark during the week.

I feel like I'm more in control of the baking now. However, my house is still not decorated and the Daughter comes home soon! Guess I better spend some time on that!

1 comment:

Just Jane said...

like I've said sooooooooo many times, you are incredibly awesome, I cannot begin to believe that volume of cookies....you just blow my mind....and I cannot wait until we get our "goodie boxes" .....nice "assumption" on my part, isn't it??

WIP-it Wednesday...

...a little of this, a little of that.  No photos this week. Things look pretty much the same. WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Dreaming ...