I always enjoy changes in holiday seasons – mainly for the new selection of holiday candy.  When I saw Dove Hearts in the store, I knew I had something new to put in a thumbprint cookie.   Continue reading →

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe New Year’s Eve.  I had a few friends over to my place last night for snacks, drinks, and games.  I wanted to make something light, sweet, and easy to eat.  Well, I think mini champagne cupcakes fit that bill.  I opted to start with a box cake mix, just to make things a bit easier on myself.  Plus, there is something fun about making a super simple recipe that seems so fancy.

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I am not entirely sure how I made it through nearly 25 years on this planet without knowing about “crack balls,” i.e. oreo truffles.  My friend Danielle mentioned making them over Christmas, and a few days later, my mom asked for a truffle recipe.  Fate?  I think so. Continue reading →

I saw this pie pop maker for sale at Sur la Table for $29.95.  I thought this was just about one of the greatest ideas ever, but had two main concerns.  1) why would I spend $29.95 on a gadget that I would use maybe twice per year?  and 2) even if I were willing $29.95 on something that would be used maybe twice per year, where would I store this gizmo for the other 363 days a year?  So, I ventured forth into the world of pie-pops without a pie pop maker. Continue reading →

Well, it took me a bit longer than I expected, but I finally finished my posts for the 12 days of Christmas cookies.  Just in case you missed anything, here is a wrap-up of the goodies I made.

day 1 – hershey’s kiss thumbprint cookies

day 2 – santa’s belt chocolate covered oreos

day 3 – grandma schill’s fudge

day 4 – peppermint pinwheel sugar cookies

day 5 – kleinur

day 6 – coconut snowflake cookies

day 7 – double limoncello pistachio cookies

day 8 – cookies for the grinch

day 9 – eggnog cookies

day 10 – christmas wreath cookies

day 11 – santa hat pretzels

day 12 – spiced sugar cookies

On the 12th and final day of Christmas cookies, I decided to make cookies for the staff at the vet’s office.  I managed to find dog-shaped and dog house-shaped cookie cutters at the kitchen store in Uptown, so I knew I would be making a rolled cookie.  I contemplated making gingerbread cookies, but opted for spiced sugar cookies instead. Continue reading →

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I saw these chocolate-covered pretzels on Pinterest, and immediately knew that I would be making them this Christmas.  The actual link provides very minimal instructions, so I took plenty of pictures along the way.  I also made a few tiny tweaks in my process. Continue reading →

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Today’s Christmas cookie is an oldie but a goodie.  There is a bit of a story behind why I decided to make this cookie, but I’ll keep it short.  When I was younger, I was obsessed with collecting recipes.  I would hound my grandmother when she was cooking (without using a recipe) and write down what she was doing.  I wanted to have her recipes some day.  I would cut out interesting recipes from magazines and glue them to recipe cards.  Over the years, many of these recipe cards have been lost.  While I was snooping through a bunch of old recipe cards at my mom’s house, I stumbled across this:

I have absolutely no idea where this recipe came from.  I tweaked it just a bit, and decided to share it today. Continue reading →

I stumbled upon this recipe for eggnog-frosted nutmeg sugar cookies from Better Homes and Gardens.  I loved the cookie dough portion of the recipe, but I wasn’t too thrilled with the frosting.  So, I kept the cookies as-is and tweaked the frosting.  I sent these with my mom to share at work (because I can’t be trusted with baked goods at home).  So here’s a shout-out to the staff at Abbott Northwestern Hospital!  Also, big thanks to mom for playing photographer Continue reading →

Today’s cookie is for the Grinch.  Everyone is so busy leaving cookies for Santa, that I figured the Grinch probably feels a bit left out.  Using Dr. McGillicuddy’s mint schnapps, I made a few alterations to the classic Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe. Continue reading →