
Here's Elf's first photo for the blog:
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When grandpa died last July, we had to clean out his house. One of the items I wanted was this candy bowl. As far as I can remember, it was always on grandma's shelf, always filled with candy for my brother & I. We would stare at it, trying to guess the kind of candy inside, working up the courage to ask if we could have a piece of candy. We would ever so carefully lift the lid, knowing that if we dropped it and broke it our parents would be very angry. Often there were M&M's inside. At Christmas, there was ribbon candy or those misshapen, different colored pieces of hard candy coated with very fine powder.
Speaking of grandma, when I was a little girl, I used to go over to grandma's house and 'help' her bake Christmas cookies. Mostly I got to dump already measured ingredients into the mixing bowl and to decorate cookies. By the time I was in high school, I was baking Christmas cookies myself. I used to bake only 2-3 kinds, but with each passing year, the list seems to grow!!
One year, I made so many kinds that my family had a 'cookie tribal council' to 'vote one off the cookie tray' (the cranberry-walnut were voted off; they got too soggy too quickly). SP and I have been discussing cookies for a few weeks and so far it seems likely that only 2 or 3 of the kinds from last year will also be made this year (but others from years past will make a re-appearance).
We haven't finalized this year's cookie list. There's so many yummy possibilities!! Here's a photo and list of what we made last year - the cookie containers were stacked around my Pillsbury Doughboy Cookie Jar but he actually holds tea, not cookies!
This weekend we'll be stocking up on butters and flours and sugars. Get ready for lots of cookies!
This might sound really dumb, but those M&Ms look really pretty. Seriously. Maybe it's the bowl, or Elf, but they look good enough to eat! (Hahaha, ok, I really need to get some extra sleep tonight.) :)
ReplyDeletehumanvacuum: the M&M's are funky looking - a mottled green & black color, and the candy shell is different from regular M&M's (not as hard/can't really be bitten off leaving just the chocolate interior!). But oh so yummy!
ReplyDeleteI think I'll be Costco-ing for my cookies this year. How do you store them when you bake ahead? Just the freezer?
ReplyDeleteWhitney: Storing is always an issue for me! Usually we have marathon baking for 4-5 days before X-Mas and just store in tupperware but this year we are too busy so we'll have to freeze. When I do freeze, I put a layer of waxed paper between each layer. I don't freeze cookies with preserves or other gooey ingredients.
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