Getting Ready to Ho Ho Ho!

I admit.  I usually put up my tree on Halloween.  Yep.  We are lucky if we get a dozen trick or treaters, and I am totally itching to move on to the festive holidays.  I don't decorate the tree for a few weeks, but I love sitting in the light of a Christmas tree.  Think of it as a fancy floor lamp if you must.  There is no getting around the Christmas cookies however.  I get orders earlier and earlier every year.  This year, I also decided to only take 2 custom orders in December, and everything else is Christmas themed.  It will totally keep my sanity in check if I'm not making baby rattles and onesies in baby blue come December 15th.  Any other month is fine.  And I have a December baby, so I know all too well that they can get the shaft on a lot of things because of the jolly fat man!

This platter was made for a friend helping out at a giant Christmas sale in Arkansas.  She is related to the man who owns the business and she goes up every year to help them.  I used the logos and sayings from the company website and made a cheery Christmas platter that she picked up on Halloween!  Which was fine, because you know, my tree was going up!

So the company is called Guess and Company in Des Arc, Arkansas.  I followed them on Facebook so I could get a feel of what she wanted to bring.  Well every day Paul Guess is posting these videos in the 60,000 sq ft warehouse talking about this enormous sale that lasts into December.  I wanted to go! My original plan was a road trip for opening day....I love an event!!!  Then I saw a video about how you can pull a ticket at midnight the night before it opens, to GET IN LINE the next day!  Holy Moly....this was serious. They only let 350 in at a time, and that happens fast on opening day! My friend suggested opening day was not the best idea.  So I regrouped and let opening weekend pass.  I rounded up a couple of girlfriends and went Friday of weekend 2.

The drive to Des Arc from Memphis is 100 miles, on the nose.  The worst part of the drive honestly, is driving through Memphis.  So we decided to leave after rush hour and maybe we'd miss the first wave of crazy shoppers,  You know who you are! We arrived in this tiny little town on the river at about 10:30.  Parking was not a problem, and we didn't need a number to get in.  The place is insane!!!  There are beautifully decorated trees everywhere, and nestled in the vicinity of said trees are the picks, garland, ornaments and whatever else was used to make that tree.  It was sensory overload in the very best way.  We started first as a simple wander around and then developed a strategy after we felt like we had a feel for where everything was.

I knew that the pastel colored area was not of interest, neither was the rustic woodland.  I focused in on the more traditional red accented area, the snowmen trees, and the gold trees and found the mother load for my house.

Super Traditional....

Whimsical....

I bought a lot of these! And the carts are so cute!

 My friend Debbie hit pay dirt in the woodland area and even paid a worker to climb a ladder and strip a tree of a particular garland she wanted.  She bought every last one.  When our baskets were full, we got another and filled that. They even have a corral where you can leave your full basket while you continue to shop! Monica filled hers with gold everything!  She was changing up her Christmas look and gold it was!  We finally made our way to the line for checkout.  WHOA!!!

The line.  It snaked to the back of the store and back around to the front.  We heard people complaining they'd been in line for an hour, we saw deserted baskets everywhere.  People!!!!  This is the caveat of a great adventure...so we got in line and honestly, time flew.  You walk the perimeter of the warehouse and the three of us would take turns wandering and adding and chatting and looking at what others had and were doing. And maybe making some last minute buying decisions!

We still had 3 bags to squeeze in....

 The checkout line was fast and efficient and I seriously had a sad little feeling when I left, like maybe I forgot something!  I did leave without a significant amount of money.  The three of us spent just over $1500. Really, it's not bad!  I won't disclose who spent what since we are all probably fibbing about exactly how much we bought!  We stopped at the Dairy Bar for a super nutritious lunch, that was delicious...and crossed over that picturesque river on our way out of town.  It was so worth the trip.  No, not cheap.  But not ridiculous retail either.  There are sooooo many things I have never seen, and I was so inspired.  You need to go with a plan, a budget (well, that's probably not the easiest part) and some friends because we had a blast. Also don't for one minute think you can do this in a car.  We filled, and I mean filled my SUV.  It was covered in glitter!!!  What a way to usher in the holidays!

Not Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Ugly? No! Tacky? Maybe!  Cute?  Yes!!

  I wish someone would invite me to an ugly Christmas sweater party.  Or tacky, as they are often called.  Back in the early 90's, there was a high end boutique that sold the most adorned Christmas sweaters ever, and I was lured in year after year.  I would cringe with embarrassment if you knew how much I paid for them!  But, as a true daughter of Pasquale, I have saved every one of them.  I need an occasion where it would be acceptable to wear them once again. But, there are plenty of these parties happening, and I am just making their cookies!

I wouldn't call these necessarily ugly or tacky, but pretty darn cute, if I may.  So, what are you waiting for?  Get those sweaters out of mothballs and party!

Up To My Elbows In Royal Icing

So a few weeks back I made Santa and Rudy cookies for my friend.  I plastered them on FB and other friends were like...whaaat?  I want some!

I try to limit my cookie baking at Christmas, because I feel like so many people make time to bake special cookies at home.  Well, apparently not this year.

 I am baking non stop for my friends, and quite happily.  90% of my cookies are Santa and Rudy, and a few snowmen, holly, and other things thrown in for good measure.  I thought I'd give you a quick peek between mixing colors!  What are you waiting for?  Get in there and bake!

The Sweetest Sugar Cookie

I love an old fashioned Christmas. Which is funny considering I work at a high end retail store where we sell to the masses...but I honestly do a lot of home made holiday gifts. More on that in a later blog. I made these fantastic cookies, and have no idea what to do with them...parting with them is way harder than I thought! They are so adorable. I used wafer paper from Fancy Flour and I was going to give them to the teachers, but life, once again got in the way. So here they are, enjoy.....and get in there and bake! Until midnight if need be, that's what I do!

Baking Day!

So when we last parted, I had a fridge full of cookie dough. Again, organization is the key to cranking out 400 cookies. I started with the sugar cookies because they are the most time consuming. I use a pastry board to roll out my dough, I keep a bin of flour close by to dust the dough and board when they get sticky, and I have some good tools. A bench scraper is a great tool to use to scrape up the stuck on bits of dough left on the board between rolling batches, it also chops hunks of chilled dough off. I also have these nifty things called dough bands which are chunky rubber bands that go on each end of the rolling pin. They are different widths so you can roll your dough perfectly even. It is a great idea for sugar cookies because you naturally roll your dough thinner at the edges and these bands virtually eliminate that problem.

I probably have 100 cookie cutters, I choose about 6 every holiday to use. It makes it easier to decorate when you narrow the selections. I start with one chunk of dough and roll and cut, re roll and cut and so on until I have done 2 sheets of a particular cookie cutter. I usually pick a small cutter to fit in the scraps and therefore have very little waste. I use cookie sheets with Silpats and start one in the oven. I set the timer for half the time and when it buzzes, I move that pan to the lower shelf and put in another, set the timer for the other half of time, and when it buzzes, remove the first, move the second and put in the third. It is a great method. You have a little time to roll out cookies, when one pan has cooled you can slide them onto the racks, and then stack them when they are completely cooled. I toss my used cookie cutter into the hot soapy water in the sink and move on through all the cutters. I follow the same method for the gingerbread men. There is more waste with this dough, it doesn't seem to re roll as well time after time. So now 2 batches, sugar and gingerbread are done, don't wash those silpats or cookie sheets, just the cutters, rolling pin, wipe down the workspace and start on the others.

The Mexican wedding cakes are pretty simple, adjust the temp, and start chopping off sections of dough,(I weigh mine to cook evenly), roll into balls and bake the same as the sugar, rotating your sheets halfway through the time. These cookies along with the pecan crescents need to cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes before you roll them in their respective sugars. I keep the leftover sugars to toss over them when I store the cookies. The Mexican wedding cakes will need to be tossed in powdered sugar before presenting, they seem to absorb it.

The pecan crescents are easiest rolled first into balls and then small cresents. Be careful to not taper the ends to a point, they look best plump.

The chocolate gingerbread cookies are another drop cookie that simply gets rolled in hand. Prior to baking they should be rolled in granulated sugar, non pareils or coarse sugar like I use. They are then baked and cooled and they are fabulous!








And the last to bake were the cardamom slices. The log is chilled firm, I use the bench scraper to slice uniform slices, about 1/4" and bake with a good 2" between them. These incredible cookies spread quite thin, but the flavor is great, and they are better dipped in chocolate. But that will happen on chocolate day! All these cookies should be stored in an airtight tin or Tupperware, alone, with crumpled wax paper and at room temp. The sugar cookies and gingerbread are OK in the fridge, but the cookies rolled in sugar with get gooey.
Whew! It is really just a cycle of sheets in and out of the oven, you have to get in a rhythm. But in one day, it's done! I came across a few new recipes I may try this week and I do see truffles in my future. I'm helping a friend with a dessert party on Friday so I have a home for all this stuff I'm baking!

Flammable Christmas Cookie

Tuesday brought rain, rain and more rain. So I pulled out the cookie recipes, laid out the butter to soften and made almost 400 Christmas cookies. All the dough needed to chill after it was made, so I made one batch after another and chilled it with the recipe so today I could begin baking. Then mid way through the day came the small meteor fire, and I knew I would have to blog the flammable Christmas cookie before I could go into full detail on all the others.
Mexican Wedding Cakes are one of my favorites. Pecans are a Southern favorite, and who doesn't like a cookie rolled in powdered sugar that looks like a Christmas snowball? So I made a huge batch of dough from my favorite recipe and I tossed it in the fridge to chill. Today I baked them, among a few hundred others.

I know evenly matched cookies bake more evenly, so I meticulously weigh every hunk of dough, and think a half ounce is the perfect size. I chop the dough off with my bench scraper, weigh it, and then form it into balls. I bake them on a Silpat lined cookie sheet and I always move the sheets from top to bottom and turn them around halfway through the cooking time.
The problem arose when I slid a sheet in the oven a little too quick. One of those balls of dough fell off the back end. About half way through baking I THOUGHT I smelled something burning, and brushed it off. After another 7 minutes, I knew I had a problem. I peeked way back in the oven, and beneath those 3 racks of cookies was a fire ball. Who knew butter and pecans were that flammable?This is the real world folks. I make mistakes too. Sometimes they are funnier than yours, and I always snap photo evidence.

So I snapped a quick picture and grabbed a wooden spoon, but I couldn't quite reach it. I had no choice but to remove all the cookies, all the racks and reach in. I found a pair of tongs that had a good reach and moved the little fireball forward for another, clearer photo. Then I tossed it in my dish washing water to a great sizzle! Of course I had to put it with the finished cookies for the final photo, I'm fairly certain you can pick it out! Safe baking to you all. Tomorrow I will blog about all the other delicacies that I made.

Mexican Wedding Cakes

1 cup pecan pieces or halves
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 sticks (2 cups) butter, unsalted, softened
1 teaspoon good vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour, sifted

Confectioners Sugar for covering finished cookies.

Grind the nuts until they are quite fine in a food processor. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract to butter mixture, and add flour and nuts on low speed until incorporated. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill.
Cut dough into equal size pieces, I like 1/2 ounce, and roll into balls. (Flatten slightly on cookie sheets so they don't roll away)
Bake on Silpat lined sheets at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Remember to move the sheets around halfway through baking time. Cool on racks until just warm and toss in confectioners sugar until covered. Re roll cookies when cool and before storing in an airtight container at room temp for up to 2 weeks.