Saturday, December 02, 2006

We Survived Cookie Baking!

Eight plus hours and 14 recipes later...

I started off by making two recipes last night and then today we made 12 more recipes.

For those of you unfamiliar with the tradition, it's known as "Cookie Baking Weekend" however lately it's just been a day-long event. Participants are Chris and I, my brother Andrew, my dad, his partner Liz, and her daughter Hanna. Each person picks two recipes. I have a hard time picking just two, which is why I made 2 more last night.

This tradition has been going on for umpteen years now- probably since 1999 or so. And in 2002 I started to make an annual cookbook with the recipes from the year as well as pictures of the bakers and the recipes. It's usually been a pretty simple cookbook- designed in PowerPoint. This year, however, I think I want to make a "scrappy" cookbook. However, since I need to make at least 8 copies, I think I'll just make one and then make color copies/scans of it for everyone else.

I was thinking I had to include this picture of Chris, but he just told me I couldn't. And then he told me I couldn't put it here on my blog. Hah! I mentioned I was going to post it to get opinions on if it should be included in the cookbook or not, and he relented to allow me to post it.

I have lots of pictures to choose from this year. However, many of them are not so good. When you don't use the flash and you let an 11-year-old use the camera, many of them turn out blurry. You also get lots of pictures of the cats, the ceiling, my ass, the trashcan, etc.

Stay tuned to see pictures of the actual cookbook!

Oh, and what did we make? Carmelitas, Easy Oreo Truffles, Truffles, Chewy Noels, Gingersnaps, Chocolate Mint Squares, Tree Cookies, Mommy Breecher's Brownies, Pumpkin Cookies, Brownies, Congo Bars, White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies, Forgotten Cookies, and Scrumptious Bars. And for those wondering, 6 of these recipes are included in the cookie recipe swap. (Just waiting on 2 more and they'll get mailed out.)

6 comments:

Tami said...

oh, those cookies look great. do you pass them out now or freeze them?

Tracy said...

I think if you posted that picture of Chris, that it is only fair that you post the picture of your ass. ;)

Can't wait to get the recipes!!!

~Mel said...

I've seen the ass shot - it's a good one!

And yes, there are a lot of pictures this year.. my fav is Hannah is the bathroom mirror!

I can't wait to see this year Cookbook as I've stolen a few recipes from past years!

ChristyR said...

what a great thing to do each year. I always want to have a cookie swap and every year I think well next year! That is so fun for you guys and your family!

Chris said...

Mel- I LOVE the picture of Hanna in the bathroom mirror. One of my favorites. So glad I didn't let her go back and delete pictures (gave her a second memory card instead) since I imagine she would have deleted that one because she would think it was silly.

I'll have to see if I can share the Hanna pic online. Many years ago Liz didn't want me posting pics of Hanna online, so anything I have posted I've blurred her face. But this is just a really neat picture.

Tami- The cookies are divided up between 3 main groups and then again into some sub-groups. So initially my brother takes some, we take some, and my dad/Liz/Hanna take some. Andrew usually takes only a few. We take some for our works, my mom, Chris' parents, and a few other friends. Plus some for ourselves. We generally give ours out right away, but I think my dad/Liz are planning to give some of theirs away in a couple of weeks. I think they just store them on their porch which is pretty cold this time of year.

Tracy said...

Too funny! It is a nice ass shot! Thanks for sharing!

I would love to share the work part of all the baking I do. But, I do it alone and then our friends and family reap the benefits. I need to get started myself. I do the same recipes every year with a couple of bonus recipes that I change every year. So the recipe pages will come in handy!