Christmas Cookies Galore

Hi everyone,

I'd like to tell you about some of my holiday baking adventures.

Every year my sister, mom, and I get together and have a "Bake Day." Long ago, I used to have Bake Day with my dear friend Robin around the holidays. She and I would make cookies and gingerbread houses. I love telling people about the difference between mine and Robin's houses. Mine would be fairly typical- 4 walls, slightly dilapidated roof, piped icing along the sides, maybe some M&M's and gum drops as a bit of a garnish. Robin had the talent and skills to create the TAJ MAHAL of gingerbread houses. I'm talking about the most beautiful chateau you can imagine from a 12 year old. She included a skating pond on the house property for God's sake. I feel pretty sure that she may have shellacked it so as to keep it for a while for the public viewings. Boy do I wish I had a photo to post. I'm exaggerating. But only slightly.

Anyway, I believe that is how the tradition began. I mean, my mom and sister and I had baked before, but never as a formal holiday event I don't think.

 In the past few years I've been trying to expand my horizons from slice and bake to more original (yet still  traditional) homemade treats. Believe you me, the standards remain- chocolate chip, oatmeal, sugar cookies. But I'm also known to throw in a jam thumbprint with a twist, or anything that will utilize Nutella. This year I attempted coconut macaroons and a dark chocolate bark, both of which were received very well.

Funny story about the macaroons, though- macaroons are a tad high maintenance, although not in the ingredients department. Egg whites, coconut, sugar, vanilla, cream of tartar and I believe that is all. You have to whip the egg whites, though, so a KitchenAid or electric beaters come in handy for that sort of thing.

Anyhoo, you have to bake the macaroons and then leave them inside of them oven for a half an hour while the oven cools down. Now this past Friday I was in baking mode but I was also in ham cooking, macaroni and cheese making, present wrapping mode, too. So I'm hanging out, mixing doughs and singing along with Johnny (Mathis, that is) when I realized that the oven wasn't on for our next batch of cookies and decided I'd better preheat it. No reason the oven should be off on Bake Day! So we're elving it up, and after a little while my sister calls to me from the kitchen (I had moved to the wrapping station in the living room) and said, "what's that smell? is there something already in the over?"

Oh, Laura.

"OH NOOOO DAMMIT! MY MACAROONS!! BAHHH!!"

Well they came out a little more al dente than I would have preferred, but I rolled with it. The tops were crunchy as can be and I decided to dip the bottoms in a little melted chocolate to restore some moisture and off-set the crunchy toasted coconut flavor.

Lo and behold they were the hit of the cookies. Very well received indeed. So moral of that story is that in the kitchen you really gotta roll with it! I was proud of myself for making it work.

Something else I'm proud of is my commitment to Bake Day. This year was different for me in that I don't have a job where there are many hungry people to bake for. I'm not tutoring for nearly as many families as I have in the past, and well, basically I just don't have as much responsibility or regular contact with that many other people. I actually didn't really even need to have a bake day at all, but I did. One reason is because I know it's important to my family. It's important to me, too. I love baking for others. It's so much fun to make nice things for someone else to enjoy but especially sweet things because they are a special treat. Also, it is a beautiful thing to have the women in my family all in the kitchen at once, talking and stirring and laughing with a warm glow from the oven and music on, when you know the cold air is whipping around outside and when there are so many people who don't have the luxury of a family that lives close by. My mother, sister, and I  remember Christmases past, and talk about our hopes for the coming year. It's a nice way to set the tone for the holiday, during what can be a very stressful time. So thanks Mom and Caroline. We had another good year! 


Recipe for Coconut Macaroons- adapted slightly from BHG.com

4 egg whites - when you break the eggs be careful not to let any yolk get into the bowl. It will make it harder to get the egg whites to whip well
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. salt
1- 1/3 c. sugar (definitely can use less here)
1 14 oz. bag of flaked coconut

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper. In
large mixing bowl beat egg whites, vanilla, cream of tartar, and salt with electric
mixer on high speed until soft peaks form (tips curl). I google image searched that one (sorry, don't want to steal a pic that's not mine. Next time I'll remember to take process pics).

Anyway, add sugar a little at a time until the tips of the peaks stand up straight (so they seem stiffer). DO NOT STRESS ABOUT THE PEAKS! I did. Wasn't worth it. Turned out fine even though my peaks didn't look as exemplary as my Google image search results. Fold in coconut.

2. Use a spoon and drop mixture onto cookie sheets. Bake 20 minutes. Turn off oven; let cookies dry in oven 30 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.  


3. After they are cooled if you want to, you can dip them in chocolate. Melt some chocolate in a glass dish- I did the lazy man's way- no double boiler for this small job, thank you! I chopped up some dark chocolate (I used a Ghirardelli dark chocolate bar- 70% cocoa but I like really love super dark chocolate. Semi-sweet would definitely work, too), then microwaved it in 20 second increments, stirring after each round. So- microwave 20 seconds, take out, stir. Another 20 seconds, take out, stir. Etc., etc. until the chocolate is melted. Dip the macaroons in the chocolate, place on a plate and into the fridge for at least 2 minutes.

4. Enjoy. Om nom nom nom nom nom. COOKIES! 

A VERY small sampling from Bake Day

Magnificent Meatloaf

Last week the hubster, Bryan, was in Cleveland for business which was kind of a bummer. We both don’t like traveling without each other, but especially not to freezing cold and lonely places (i.e. Cleveland). So I thought I would make him something he loves upon his return. I bought ingredients for a lasagna and a meatloaf. I used to think the concept of meatloaf was totally gross (and I guess it can be if you don’t like meat or loaves) but you know, it can be really delicious. As it turns out, I made the meatloaf first, then the lasagna over the weekend for Bryan and my sister, Caroline. 

I bought a little more than a lb. of great, lean organic beef (side note: I recognize that organic food really can be a lot more expensive, but I really put my foot down about buying and eating organic meat and dairy and I encourage you to, also. I only buy organic meat when it is on sale, and if it’s not then it’s a vegetarian meal for us in my house. I don’t want to take this down a dark road, but seriously I encourage everyone to make the switch to at least organic meat/dairy. Bonus- it truly does taste better). Anyway, I chopped up a half of a white onion (still a bit of a challenge for me. I ‘d love to be like Julia Child’s character in “Being Julia” and just buy pounds and pounds of onions to practice my chopping…remember when Stanley Tucci came home and was like, “WHOAAAA” because the smell hit him before he walked through the door?).

Mix the onion with an egg, about ½ cup of milk (I use skim – does not affect the taste), 1/3 c. of breadcrumbs (again, some nice whole grain seasoned breadcrumbs do not sacrifice flavor in my opinion- the breadcrumbs are there to for texture), ½ tsp. of dried oregano or basil (whichever is on hand), and 1 tsp.  of salt. After mixing that up, add the meat and then the fun begins! You’ve got to make sure it’s all evenly mixed and SOMETIMES you have to use your HANDS! Ah! Meat hands.

Put the meat into a 8X4X2 inch loaf pan (most loaf pans are this size) and bake at 350 degrees for an hour to an hour and 15 mins (a meat thermometer will definitely come in handy here because the internal temperature of the meatloaf needs to be 160 degrees). Spoon off the fat and you can spread the top of the loaf with a ketchup/brown sugar mixture (which Bryan likes and is pretty traditional) or there are many variations of spreads – some people do Worcestershire sauce, honey, and ketchup, or simply top it with a marinara. It all depends on your personal preference. After spreading the sauce out, bake for another 10 mins.

Bing! Take the meatloaf out of the oven, let it cool and might I suggest some vegetables on the side? Simple steamed broccoli is a nice side for meatloaf, and as a starch I like to do potatoes (this week I made potatoes baked “in their jackets” as Laura Ingalls Wilder used to say). Make sure you fill up half that plate with the veggies! Mmmmmm dinner is served :)