And So It Begins

As you all know, Thursday was Thanksgiving. Which meant that Friday was 'put the Christmas decorations out' day.

The two stockings in the background were made (by me!) two years ago. I meant to make something new this year but never got around to it. Every year I tell myself that the following Christmas I'll make a handmade ornament to add to the tree and then give as gifts - it just never happens. The closest I came this year was making 3-d snowflakes for the tree.

Here is village #1. Village #2 is on our CD/DVD rack. The village has officially grown out of its space. Starting next year, it'll go under the tree. The shelve/mantle has worked so far because my village is too tiny to justify being on the floor. But, this year I plan to do some serious damage at Department 57 so my village can take its next step to becoming (cue booming voice) the spectacular, dominating village it's destined to be.

Here's Santa's village and the Eskimo village. I really want to flesh out my Eskimo village and make it the focus of my overall village. Did you know that you can buy most of the Eskimo village figures, dating back to the very first ones, on eBay?

And here are the Santas From Around the World. Each time Sean goes on a trip, he'll bring me back either a Christmas ornament from that town or a figurine. During his last work-sponsored tour 'o Europe, he brought me back half of the Santas you see here.

I think this is the oldest ornament on my tree. Just thought I'd share.

Can I Apply For Betty Crocker's Job?

With Sean in Vegas this weekend, I had the entire condo to myself and it was fantastic. My weekend was equal parts productive and lazily-self-indulgent. One of the more productive things I did on Sunday was bake some cookies. The kids of some friends of ours sent us M&M minis from their Halloween booty and the M&M minis inspired me to bake something using them (the M&Ms, not the kiddies). It was a toss-up between cupcakes and cookies...and the cookies won out.

Chocolate chip cookies with M&M minis. I used the recipe that came on the back of the Tollhouse bag. Yes, I realized I failed to make creative leaps and bounds. But, after comparing the recipe on the back of the Tollhouse bag, to the recipe in my Betty Crocker book, to the recipe that came on the back of the flour bag - they were all basically the exact same recipe. So I went with the popular Tollhouse recipe. And I learned the lesson that the most popular choice isn't necessarily the best choice. The cookies came out average (I thought.) Nothing spectacular - no "holy cow, best cookies ever" moments. I've yet to make a great chocolate chip cookie. They always turn out flat and crispy. I dream of making a batch of big, chewy chocolate chip cookies. Alton Brown has a recipe that calls for cake flour - I may try that next.


Date-Nut Pinwheels. The recipe came from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book - the leading source for all of my cookie recipes. Considering it was the first time I made these cookies, they turned out really good. The date-nut filling was subtly sweet and the cookie itself had a great background taste of brown sugar. The cookies turned out a little chewy - but I don't know if they're suppose to be chewy or if the humidity in the air caused it. Either way - these were my favorite of the two.