In addition to the forced festivities I mentioned the other day, I have been thinking a lot about food. (You: Gasp!)
For one thing, I am thinking ahead to Christmas dinner. My husband and I have settled on beef tenderloin, I think. This will be the second time we’ll be alone, just the three of us, on Christmas and we made beef tenderloin the last time and it was delicious. I also want to make Caesar salad, which is a tradition on my side of the family. Maybe some sort of potatoes, as well? Normally I’d make the goat cheese garlic mashers we have on Thanksgiving, but… I may be sated on potatoes? Maybe I will feel ready for them again when it gets to be Christmas. For dessert, we’ll have our now-traditional sticky toffee pudding cake.
Last year, when my parents were here, I made a big snack platter for us to graze on during the day. That was fun and I can definitely do a more pared-down version for just the three of us. I’m thinking olives for me and Carla, definitely several cheeses (brie, cheddar, something fancy like a truffle cheese or a Cotswald?) and crackers (easy crowd pleasers like Triscuits and Ritz, plus maybe one fancy cracker), some sort of fruit (blueberries or grapes if they still look good? dried apricots? goat cheese stuffed figs? clementines?), and something fun (marcona almonds? giant Peruvian corn?), maybe some charcuterie (pepperoni and salami, probably), possibly some dips and/or spreads. This is now sounding enormous. Or, PRACTICAL, because we could do multiple snack trays over multiple days. I am a genius.
What is a snack-tray essential in your mind?
Right now it’s the fun thinking-about-possibilities stage of planning that I enjoy the most.
I am also thinking A LOT about cookies. Cookies are not really my thing. I mean, I make them occasionally; I’m not opposed to cookies. Usually, my holiday tradition is to make chocolates – but right now, it sounds like Too Much. (Maybe these Chai chocolate truffles would be a good compromise?) But maybe I could do some holiday cookies? I am not thinking about replacing the chocolates with cookies. The mom of one of Carla’s classmates does a whole big cookie tray, and I have neither the energy nor the creativity to undertake that kind of thing, but maybe a cookie or two, just for the three of us and maybe a few of the neighbors, would be doable?
To further reinforce my cookie urge, one of Carla’s Christmas reading calendar activities is to make cookies and eat them while reading a book. So baking cookies is really a necessity. And I love the easy anticipation of thinking about WHAT TO MAKE.
Some of my favorites are zimtsterne, which are delicious and lovely (and gluten free, if that matters to you). Carla voted for snickerdoodles, which are always good. And some months ago I made chocolate snickerdoodles that were delicious and fudgy and worth making again. (Why doesn’t fudgy have an E in it? WHY?)
But, while these are perfectly GOOD options, I kind of want to do something else? Something I haven’t tried before?
What are YOUR favorite cookies? To make and to eat?
These krembos look very similar to one of the challenges on the latest season of Great British Baking Show, plus chocolate and marshmallow is a classic combo. Plus they look very charming. I don’t know if I’m crazy about the coconut element, but they might still be fun. (And they are gluten free, which means we could share them with a family friend who has celiac.)
I’m a sucker for a big, chewy molasses cookie. You can’t really go wrong with those.
A batch of chocolate and peppermint cookies would be perfectly festive.
We happen to have a madeleine pan, and yet we have never once made madeleines… maybe that would be fun to try? They are certainly very pretty.
I absolutely LOVE millionaire’s shortbread. Or, along similar flavor/texture lines, this saltine cracker toffee is easy and super craveable. (Or there’s always regular toffee!)
There are too many options! I can’t decide! (And Carla is no help: “I just want to make cookies, Mommy. ANY cookies!” she said when I asked her what she wanted to bake.) (She has clearly not inherited the gene that accounts for endless agonizing over small, insignificant decisions.) (Sometimes the endless agonizing is ENJOYABLE, Carla.) (I do have a package of sugar cookie mix in the pantry; we could make those and cut them out in festive shapes and then I could save other cookies for later in the month.)
On a non-cookie note, I am strongly considering making these air fryer sufganiyot for Hanukkah. Maybe those will scratch the cookie itch? Possibly they will only scratch the donut itch, leaving the cookie itch as strong as ever.
What are you baking this month?
life of a doctor's wife 
I’m gonna try baking this thing called pastel de nata 😊 it’s my favourite dessert ever!
Mmmm now I am hungry after reading this. I make a ton of cookies, but also chocolates and truffles. I usually gift a lot of them but not this year, as I don’t have any in-person classes. So, I’m making small batches and it’s HARD to dial it back!
Kate wants to do snickerdoodles and I am intrigued by your fudgy ones! I also love to make mint-chocolate cookies, usually. Strangely, this year my cookie-baking mojo seems to be missing. All the other holiday spirit, I’ve got, but not baking. Weird.
I like to make these chocolate cookies and then ice them with peppermint flavored icing. My kids like to paint they icing on (powdered sugar, milk, peppermint extract, food coloring) with paintbrushes. https://www.thekitchn.com/rollout-chocolate-cookies-249776
1. the best fam fav for 30 years https://www.landolakes.com/recipe/17578/chocolate-butter-cookies/
2. 3 ingredient peanut butter cookie, put a Hersey kiss on top when it comes out of the oven. Honestly, Carla could do these totally on her own.
3. Thumprint cookies colorful, easy, good. https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a56358/easy-jam-thumbprint-cookies/
There was one year I was motivated to do cookie plates, and one really easy and delicious cookie to sort of FILL IT OUT a little is to take Oreos and dip them in melted Andes candies chips (the chocolate/mint kind, not the peppermint crunch). This was perfect when I was only making a few plates, so I didn’t want to make ENTIRE BATCHES OF EVERYTHING, but I DID want to have A Nice Assortment.
Another easy one (and easy to make a small amount) is to take Famous chocolate wafers (sometimes in the baking section, sometimes with cookies), melt some white chocolate chips and spread some on the flat side of each wafer, and then quickly sprinkle with (or press lightly onto a plate of) crushed candy cane.
I HAVE MORE. I was asking a friend for a recipe for a bar I like, and I realized I generally like to see BARS on a cookie plate, for variety. And she made me realize something else, which is that basically anything with sweetened condensed milk in it is what I like: she had me go to the Eagle Sweetened Condensed Milk site and look up bar cookies, and it’s like everything I dream of. I am adding so many cans of sweetened condensed milk to my Target pick-up. (This comment looks so sponsored BUT I ASSURE YOU IS NOT.)
My 6 year old is always begging to bake cookies and I always forget that what she really wants is to decorate cookies with icing, which I hate doing. This weekend we made the classic cinnamon/applesauce ornaments and I got glitter glue for her to decorate them with. It made the house smell amazing, she was happy, and no one got sick/sugar high from unlimited icing, so that was a winner all around!
Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter cookies are always a go to around here and are very easy to make. Usually at Christmas, I will pull out the stupid cookie press and make Spitz (butter) cookies – which is Man-Child’s absolute favorite – but that is a pain and time consuming. I made an oatmeal raisin cookie that everyone (even those who hate raisins) loved. I can’t track down that recipe to save my life. I haven’t decided if I will be making treats this year – but will probably break down and make some for a few friends/neighbors.
But is your hot water back on?!?!
Yes!! I wrote about the entire ordeal. It was a nightmare. But we are SO grateful to have hot water again.
I made the snickerdoodles yesterday – great recipe, thank you for sharing! They turned out perfectly. Last week I made ginger molasses cookies using chopped up candied ginger and they were pretty intensely flavored. Good but one cookie is plenty. (Actually, that’s a good thing!) I plan to try the fudgy snickerdoodles as well. And then I think I will share with a couple of my neighbors since it’s just the two of us and we should NOT be eating this many cookies.