3 lbs of butter and a KitchenAid

Every year in mid-December, I bake cookies. I've been doing this for at least 7-8 years now. You'd think it would get easier, faster, streamlined... but somehow it's still a big mess. I generally make the same 5-6 varieties of cookies, sometimes throwing in a new one to test. I spent a good chunk of my Sunday, along with the occasional help of sous chef, John, making dough. Lots of dough. But thank the culinary gods for the invention of the KitchenAid mixer. This thing weighs a ton (I borrowed it from my mom) but it makes cookie dough in a jiff. It's the washing of the mixing bowl and paddle in between each type of cookie that takes up my time.

The cookie baking actually started at the grocery store on Saturday. The hunt was on for Skor bars, an ingredient in the Oatmeal Cherry Chocolate Chip Toffee cookies. John said, "How about Heath bars? They're toffee." Oh no, my dear husband... you've gotta use Skor bars! That's what Martha used. Martha of Notley, NJ. Stewart, of course. This was a recipe she showcased on her MS Living show years ago and I've been baking them ever since. They're my favorite cookie and I only make them once a year.

No Skor bars to be found on Saturday. Not at the drug store either. We had a more pressing matter on Saturday than to look for Skor bars. I had a cellophane noodle salad to make. Cellophane noodles and a small bottle of fish sauce. The tragic little Filipino market didn't have what I needed so we trekked all the way to Wheaton (after a long day of gift and grocery shopping) to buy cellophane noodles. Then back home to make salad.

Salad completed and ready for partying, we went to the first annual Weekes Family Holiday Bash. What a wonderful party it was! Although I only knew a few other people at the party, the Weekes family sure knows how to put everyone in a festive mood for the holidays with lots of beautiful decorations and plenty of food. I really enjoyed the pomegranate spritzer and it looked like my cellophane noodle salad was a big hit.

Sunday, John had an errand to run so I asked if he could stop by the 7-11 and see if they had Skor bars. If not, the Heath bars would do. Ugh! What am I gonna do when they decide to discontinue Skor bars? John scored a couple Skor bars! YEA! Ready to make dough. This one has to be refrigerated, so I did that and moved on to a new recipe... Rum Balls. After reading the recipe more carefully, I realized that needed to be refrigerated too. No baking has been done yet, keep in mind.

John made some Haystacks. Those don't require any real cooking. You just melt some peanut butter and butterscotch chips, dump in a can of chow mein noodles and a can of cocktail peanuts, stir it around and drop 'em onto some trays and let 'em harden. While John was doing this, I was making peanut butter cookie dough. Finally! Something to bake. John unwrapped a boatload of Reese's cups for me. See, the pb cookie dough goes into these mini muffin tins. When they come out of the oven, you press a Reese's into each cup. It's a Reese's wrapped with a pb cookie. I like making these but they're not a favorite of mine. Luckily, John loves pb.

Next cookie was the Mexican Wedding Cookies. Such a simple recipe. Only, this time, it was powdered sugar flying everywhere. The last cookie was GOFCC (good old fashioned chocolate chip). I just prepped the dough for that too. I was all cookied-out. I'll bake off the 3 doughs I have in the fridge tonight. I hope.

After all the cookie work, I went over to William's to have some of his famous chili and watch the Redskins-Cowboys game. I should have known better than to believe William had a chili recipe. It was actually Little Dana who cooked the chili. And it was yummy. It made up for the Cowboys getting STOMPED on by the Redskins.

Hope everyone has their shopping completed and holiday plans made. Till next time...