Tomorrow's the big day! Day One of the cookie project, to be exact. As promised, here's the list (not in chronological order):
1. Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
2. Jelly Pinwheels
3. Christmas Sugar Cookies
4. Oatmeal Lace Cookies
5. Spiced Snaps
6. Rum Balls
7. Key Lime Meltaways
8. Chocolate Truffles
9. Peanut Blossoms
10. Chocolate-dipped Shortbread
11. Raspberry Linzer Tarts
12. Cherry Chocolate Chip
13. Ricotta Cheese Cookies
14. Pumpking Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
15. Meringue
16. Whoopie Pies
17. Pfeffernuesse (love that word!)
18. Pizzelles
19. Lebkuchen
20. Berliner Kranser (Norwegian, for Best Boyfriend)
21. Besitos de Coco (Puerto Rican, for my Grandma [and me])
22. Dutch Chocolate Cookies
23. Sables
24. Graham Crackers
25. Gingerbread!
YUM
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
The List
Yesterday, we went to a Christmas tree farm in Bainbridge (about 45 minutes northeast from here) where our dog Molly picked out what is actually a pretty perfect Christmas tree, and then had the distinct honor of riding in the back of the truck with our haul all the way home. Best Boyfriend and I sung carols both ways, cashed in $30 worth of coins to be able to afford the tree, and generally had a wonderful Yuletide time. The tree goes into the stand today, and will sit un-adorned until Saturday, when we will have our first Christmas party of the season--Christmas cards, dinner, decorating the tree, and, of course, Cookie Day 3!
But I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. On Wednesday, I shall release The List. A lot of thought and very little actual compiling has gone into creating the list so far, and I'm pleased to announce that I'm pretty sure things won't get too repetitive this month as the cookie project launches on Thursday with (spoiler alert) cranberry oatmeal cookies.
As I'm allergic to tree nuts, there won't be any recipes containing any of those (sorry walnuts, almonds, macademia and the like--this just isn't your year). I'm aiming for a festive variety of colors and textures that will lay out nicely on plastic platters from the dollar store and look great wrapped in green and red transparent gift wrap. So, today and tomorrow will be spent deciding which recipes to use, assembling them all into one place, creating a master ingredients list, and determining what additional supplies and tools I'll need to actually make this happen. Not to mention supplies for the tree decorating party.
I start the new job sometime this week. What a wonderful time of year to start teaching at a preschool!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Wait Your Turn, Santa
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Nevermind the ridiculousness that Black Friday has become (because, really, if your sale starts at 9 p.m. Thursday, then it can't be called Black Friday). The craziest pre-ejaculatory Christmas decision comes from the radio executive who decided that the Monday BEFORE Thanksgiving was the appropriate time to start 24/7 Christmas music on his channel. Not cool, guy. Not cool.
Anyway, I'm still collecting recipes for the cookie project, and now I'm adding a new twist--employment! Yesiree, Tom Turkey, this bored fake housewife found herself a job.
(applause)
After reconciling myself with two facts (fact one: teaching preschool was my favorite job ever; fact two: teaching preschool pays bunk), I decided to go for it and canvassed Binghamton-area day care centers on Monday. I got an instant hit from the YMCA, which, as it turns out, is in immediate need of several qualified assistant teachers. First interview that same afternoon, working interview all morning yesterday, job offer right before lunch. So, yay. I'm actually very excited about it, especially as I can start as early as next week if I can get my paperwork and medical reviews done. Grandma would have been thrilled. *sigh*
So, what does this mean for the cookie project? Well, for starters, it means cookies will have to be made every evening to accomodate a full-time work schedule, so I'm going to move a little bit away from "complicated cookie recipes that will take forever and thusly occupy my time well" to "a few rungs up the ladder from premade Toll House cookie dough." (I also need to figure out how to freeze cookies properly, for distribution as gifts later in the month, but that's a whole other barrel of elves.) It also means there might be days (read: weekends) where multiple cookies get made, rather than the convenient one-a-day spacing I had previously envisioned.
I've also decided on my grand finale. Best Boyfriend and I are going to make a gingerbread house from scratch on Christmas Eve.
Thanksgiving in Albany tomorrow (first one ever without my grandma, sad), then cutting down a Christmas tree Sunday. The season is almost upon us. Can't wait!
Anyway, I'm still collecting recipes for the cookie project, and now I'm adding a new twist--employment! Yesiree, Tom Turkey, this bored fake housewife found herself a job.
(applause)
After reconciling myself with two facts (fact one: teaching preschool was my favorite job ever; fact two: teaching preschool pays bunk), I decided to go for it and canvassed Binghamton-area day care centers on Monday. I got an instant hit from the YMCA, which, as it turns out, is in immediate need of several qualified assistant teachers. First interview that same afternoon, working interview all morning yesterday, job offer right before lunch. So, yay. I'm actually very excited about it, especially as I can start as early as next week if I can get my paperwork and medical reviews done. Grandma would have been thrilled. *sigh*
So, what does this mean for the cookie project? Well, for starters, it means cookies will have to be made every evening to accomodate a full-time work schedule, so I'm going to move a little bit away from "complicated cookie recipes that will take forever and thusly occupy my time well" to "a few rungs up the ladder from premade Toll House cookie dough." (I also need to figure out how to freeze cookies properly, for distribution as gifts later in the month, but that's a whole other barrel of elves.) It also means there might be days (read: weekends) where multiple cookies get made, rather than the convenient one-a-day spacing I had previously envisioned.
I've also decided on my grand finale. Best Boyfriend and I are going to make a gingerbread house from scratch on Christmas Eve.
Thanksgiving in Albany tomorrow (first one ever without my grandma, sad), then cutting down a Christmas tree Sunday. The season is almost upon us. Can't wait!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
My Grandma Never Made Cookies
Sometime in the next few days, I'm going to lose my grandmother. It's been the toughest thing I've experienced yet, and at the same time, it's helping me regain some focus for what I truly have to be thankful for this year. With that said, as I put together my list of cookie recipes I'm racking my brain for something that could be commemorative of her. Just now, I realized why I haven't thought of anything.
For the life of me, as far as I can remember, my grandmother never baked cookies.
As my boyfriend puts it, my grandmother was a real spirit of a person, strong minded and compassionate. One would have to be, I suppose, to succeed as a Luthern, Puerto Rican single mother in the Bronx in the mid-1900s. I still remember the feel of her apartment carpets, the faded, stained tiles and tub, and the scent... a lingering composite of decades of immaculately prepared Puerto Rican dishes. My grandma taught me how to fall in love with food--roasted pernil that melted off the bone, delicate combinations of spanish rice and saucy beans, and stews that simmered for hours until all the windows in the place fogged up, drooling in anticipation right along with us.
My grandmother taught me how to cook, and those will always be amongst my most cherished memories. But she was diabetic, and she never made cookies. She would bake a cake from a Pilsbury box from time to time, or make Goya flans in small custard bowls, but her Christmas cookies were simply a never-ending blue tin of sugar-crusted Royal Dutch cookies shaped like bows and gems, stacked neatly in cups of white paper.
Christmas cookies from scratch were really my mom's thing. And since her mother passed away long before I was born, maybe I won't be able to make an intergenerational thing out of this cookie project. But just for the hell of it, I'm going to find a Puerto Rican cookie recipe to add to the list.
For the life of me, as far as I can remember, my grandmother never baked cookies.
As my boyfriend puts it, my grandmother was a real spirit of a person, strong minded and compassionate. One would have to be, I suppose, to succeed as a Luthern, Puerto Rican single mother in the Bronx in the mid-1900s. I still remember the feel of her apartment carpets, the faded, stained tiles and tub, and the scent... a lingering composite of decades of immaculately prepared Puerto Rican dishes. My grandma taught me how to fall in love with food--roasted pernil that melted off the bone, delicate combinations of spanish rice and saucy beans, and stews that simmered for hours until all the windows in the place fogged up, drooling in anticipation right along with us.
My grandmother taught me how to cook, and those will always be amongst my most cherished memories. But she was diabetic, and she never made cookies. She would bake a cake from a Pilsbury box from time to time, or make Goya flans in small custard bowls, but her Christmas cookies were simply a never-ending blue tin of sugar-crusted Royal Dutch cookies shaped like bows and gems, stacked neatly in cups of white paper.
Christmas cookies from scratch were really my mom's thing. And since her mother passed away long before I was born, maybe I won't be able to make an intergenerational thing out of this cookie project. But just for the hell of it, I'm going to find a Puerto Rican cookie recipe to add to the list.
Monday, November 14, 2011
The Necessary Background
So, without going too deeply into matters, this past September saw the worst flooding in my area of upstate New York in history. Unfortunately for me, when the waters receded, so too did the national teleservices company for which I worked. They took their soggy flood insurance money and hunkered down in any one of the five other, drier branches they had across the country, and that's all she wrote for my employment. In an area already battling a withered job market, suddenly 200 new jobseekers flooded the market, and me... Well, I accepted my meager disaster unemployment and formulated a plan with Best Boyfriend Ever that involved things like "not taking the first telemarketing/grocery store/Walmart job available" and "working my existing network and skill set to try for something I truly love." One amazing (unpaid) internship later, I have an inbox full of the-position-has-been-filled emails and a growing resentment towards The Man that has "bah, humbug" written all over it.
Fun fact: I am not the Bah-Humbug type.
So, I decided to feed on holiday cheer like a solar panel in the summer time. With not one but two Thanksgiving obligations, I won't be basting a bacon-covered turkey any time soon, but for as much as I love to cook, why not bake? And for as much as I'm completely, utterly broke, why not bake cookies and give them away as gifts? Everyone wins, and I avoid becoming the deadbeat aunt who shows up with a second-hand book for Christmas. Yay!
And with this post, it becomes official. Today is November 14, and I have sixteen days to pick recipes, accumulate supplies, and find a way to not let life get in the way of things.
Wish me luck!
Fun fact: I am not the Bah-Humbug type.
So, I decided to feed on holiday cheer like a solar panel in the summer time. With not one but two Thanksgiving obligations, I won't be basting a bacon-covered turkey any time soon, but for as much as I love to cook, why not bake? And for as much as I'm completely, utterly broke, why not bake cookies and give them away as gifts? Everyone wins, and I avoid becoming the deadbeat aunt who shows up with a second-hand book for Christmas. Yay!
And with this post, it becomes official. Today is November 14, and I have sixteen days to pick recipes, accumulate supplies, and find a way to not let life get in the way of things.
Wish me luck!
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