Christmas Cookies

Mr. J and I undertook a time-honored tradition the night before last.  We made Christmas cookies!  And behold, the beauty of our work:

Truly, I am in awe of our skills:

Here are all the goodies:

Ok, seriously, they might not be THAT beautiful (oops), but they taste PERFECTLY delicious.  It took us quite a bit of time to figure out how to actually roll out the dough, cut out the cookies, get them OFF the counter and onto the cookie sheet without the whole thing turning into a nasty mess.  I am truly proud of us!! 

The key is to keep the dough cold, cold, cold.  Flour the heck out of your work surface and the rolling pin and work quickly.  We rolled out the dough straight on our countertops--that seemed to work best.  We first tried a Silpat nonstick (HA!) mat and it was a disaster, FYI.  The other tip we learned was that you have to cut the cookie, pick it up and put it on the sheet right away.  If you cut a bunch of cookies out and try to remove the cookies when you're finished--DISASTER!  I think the dough warms up too much or something--the result is messy, sticky cookies on the countertop.  Ugh. 

Anyway, without further ado, the recipe:

Sugar Cookies

Cream together 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 2 eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.

Add 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 4 teaspoons baking powder.

Wrap and chill for AT LEAST 2 hours.

Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes

Frosting

Mix powdered sugar, milk and a small dab of butter together to desired consistency, add food coloring!

Happy Decorating!

Smells Delicious

The smell of the Christmas season is one of the most delicious. It's a combination of Christmas trees, hot chocolate, vanilla, gingerbread, cookies, frosting, candy canes, oranges, spices....yum. A quick and easy way to bring this scent into your home is to throw a few spices into a pot, add some water and simmer away on the stove.

My recipe of choice for this simmering spice blend:

A few pieces of orange rind
A few pieces of lemon rind
3-4 cinnamon sticks
2-3 bay leaves
A handful of cloves
A dash of vanilla

Add a few cups of water to the mix and you're on your way.  Remember to watch the pot--the water evaporates off very quickly. And don't worry if you don't have all of the ingredients in your cupboard--just get as close as possible, and it will smell delicious!

'Tis the season!

Happy Weekend!

It's Friday, and I could not be happier!  I’m getting closer and closer to winding down at my job, and I’m really looking forward to the big move and having more free time. So, apologies for the lack of blog posts lately, but I’ll be back on top of it soon.

Guess what I’m going to do this weekend?? I’m going to make some bread. Seriously. It’s totally Martha, right? It’s one of my goals, on my to-do before I’m thirty list, so I figure the long weekend is a great time to get ‘er done. Ew. Can’t believe I just wrote that.

Anywho, I came across this recipe for no knead bread in the NY Times, and I have been waiting and waiting to try. I’ll let you know how it works out.

Have a fabulous weekend!!!

Image via Williams Sonoma