Wednesday, December 26, 2007

I'm so tired

After 4 days of intensive cookie making (mixing the doughs, chilling, packing, shaping, cutting, thawing, rolling in sugar, baking, cooling, packing, mixing colors in frosting, decorating, counting, packing again in pretty vessels...along with heating up food for Nochebuena, setting tables, cleaning my kitchen, washing lots of bakeware and gadgets, gift-shopping, gift-giving, AND sleeping 4 hours a day for 3 days in a row, I can finally say Christmas is officially over this year, and I am totally wiped out.

My whole body aches, lower back, upper back, neck, shoulders, FEET!!!!!!, eyes, E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!!!!

But I do confess, the joy I feel when someone really enjoys what I baked, is a wonderful feeling.


I realized today, after packing little Christmas paper plates with cookie samplers (more on that in the following posts), I missed my friends so very much. Especially when I was decorating Gingerbread men, just like I had done with my friends some years ago. That was so much fun...

Friends, I miss you all terribly... I hope you all had a lovely and happy Christmas.

I hope I can finally sleep in. Although....tomorrow I need to deliver those cookies, or they will get stale if I take too long.

Monday, December 24, 2007

This is what happens

after being sucked in by American consumism...along with a dash of kookiness, a touch of simplistic humor, and a so-so attempt at amusing the people I love, since it's impossible for me to do it face to face.


http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1745823581


UPDATE: They say after January 1, the website no longer works, but perhaps by chance, you'll still be able to see me dressed like an elf, dancing and singing "I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas"

Saturday, December 15, 2007

What holiday food am I?

You Are a Gingerbread House

A little spicy and a little sweet, anyone would like to be lost in the woods with you.

The dessert I'm most like is a....

You Are a Brownie

Decadent and intense, you aren't for the weakhearted.
Those who can deal with your strong flavor find out how sweet you really are.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Christmas is coming


So, here we have some lovely cookies, recipe courtesy of Good Housekeeping Magazine (la versión súper chafa de Kena). This was my first try with this recipe, and I was very satisfied with how they turned out.... Light, crumbly, buttery goodness, not too sweet, not too spicy, just enough to be savored with a cup of tea.



Cranberry-Orange Spice Cookies ...just click there to see the recipe.


Althought, I must say... I think mine turned out even cuter than the one in the website. My colored sugar was a Holiday color mix, so it had white, red and green sugar crystals...ultra fine size. Courtesy of Target's Dollar aisle. Well, not courtesy, cause I paid for it.





Anyways.

I also made these peppermint twist cookies. The dough is basic sugar cookie with peppermint flavoring in it. White side has chopped peppermint candies mixed in, the red just has (lots of) red food coloring.



They turned out well. Not as visually attractive as I expected (well, it's not easy to get your food to look like the one in the magazine), but they tasted well and it was something different.

Recipe said to glaze them with confectioner's sugar mixed with milk (and I added peppermint extract even though it didn't call for it). But I left some unglazed cause I was afraid they'd be too sweet.



I like them better without the glaze cause the red looks redder.


But taste-wise, the glaze improves the texture and flavor.


Last week I tried another new recipe (Guava-Cornmeal Thumprints), but I ate the cookies before I took pictures...oops. They were so tasty, and, well, in my defense, the recipe only yielded like 2 dozen cookies. Bite-sized cookies. And my mother also had some. So I guess I can say I ate a dozen. Well, not in one sitting. Ok, enough rambling. I´ll be making them again for my Xmas gifts (which will be assorted cookies) and if I remember, I´ll take a picture of those too.

Oh, how I miss my friends....