Cookie time!

This year I knew that I'd need to make a boatload of cookies...between the holidays with my family and the in-laws, we all eat our fair share of cookies.  For the past few weeks, I've been thinking about what cookies would make my list.  This year I narrowed down the choices to four (after all, I would like to avoid gaining 10 pounds over the next month):

• Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
• Peppermint Bark Bars
• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Toffee Bars

I chose 2 sentimental recipes, 1 classic, and one newby!  We've had the Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies ever since I could remember. A good family friend used to make these every year and bring our family a few dozen. The cookies are crispy and light, and the almond-flavored frosting is delicious. I generally avoid using Crisco - - but I know that's why the cookies are so great! The toffee bars are my grandmother's recipe. (I've shared the recipe previously) My mom, aunts, and grandmother used to get together a few weeks before Christmas and bake all sorts of cookies, bars, and fudge - and this is one of her recipes.

As for the other recipes - I could spend 3 hours making a very elaborate dessert or fancy cookies - and my husband would rather have homemade chocolate chip cookies.  So I made those for him. :)  My last cookie selection was featured on the Pioneer Woman Cooks - and these are a new holiday tradition. Peppermint bark bars - heavenly!

Friday night, Randy went out to have a boy's night - and I stayed home to make cookies! I finished icing the last cookie at about 3:30 a.m. But it was worth it to have it all done.  So now our freezer is stocked...let's see if we make it 'til Christmas.

I wish...

I wish that I could run a cooking blog.  I LOVE to cook!  I LOVE to try new recipes!  Sounds simple, right?  Well, I lack a few of the skills necessary to be good at it, mainly diligence and mad photography skills.  (Plus I lack the willpower to take pictures of my masterpiece before taking a big bite out of it).  So I live vicariously through my foodie blogs and Cooking Light magazine.  Well maybe not 'vicariously' because I find some great recipes that I work into my repitoire.

Take this week for example...my meal plans include:

• Mushroom Stew with Spetzle (a la Cooking Light) - I tweaked this and made mine a beef and mushroom stew with a double batch of spetzle. MMMMM!
• Fiesta Turkey Pie (from Cake Batter and Bowl) - like the love child of stuffed peppers and my Auntie Mary's baked mashed potatoes.
• Asian Foil Baked Chicken (from a friend of a friend's blog)

Unfortunately, I don't get to cook dinner on Tuesday/Thursdays, but I make enough to tie us over until another "cooking night"

While I'm on the topic of foodie blogs...I am also totally obsessed with Sweet Pea's Kitchen blog. SOO many good recipes!  (I actually made her pumpkin scones on Sunday also)

oh wow.

I am ashamed of myself.  I promised to make October the best blogging month to date - and didn't deliver.  In some respects, the month flew by - but mostly I'm glad to be done with the month.

I got a promotion at work, so now I'm the leader of my department.  I have been enjoying it so far, but it's been a lot of work.  But being so busy makes the day fly by - and here it is, almost Friday, and I don't remember where the week went.  My new role at work (and hiring/training 5 new employees) kept me busy all month.

The most notable piece about October is that Randy was out of the country for the entire month (hence the reason I was anticipating having so much free time on my hands).  He worked in our company's London office for four weeks - and he had a great time.  But in that respect the month crawled by because I missed my hubby like crazy.  I'm SOOO happy that he's back!

I had an entire "to-do" list mapped out - and projects penciled in here and there.  I didn't really have the chance to follow through on many of the things I wanted to try.  I attempted pierogies, but the dough was disasterous.  I did get some of my Cooking Light binder organized, but didn't get too far. 

But I did get the chance to decorate my house a bit more (my Mom came down for a weekend, more on that later) - and it's really coming along.  I only wish we had more house guests around these parts.

So my apologies to all of you who were settling in for an exciting month of blogging.  I let you down.  I've learned my lesson, though - being busy can creep up on you when you least expect it.

A perk ...

...of having a lot of free time is getting to try recipes that I've always wanted to try.  I LOVE Bakerella's blog - and her red velvet cake balls are something that I've wanted to try.  (I really would like to make her cake pops but I know myself well enough to know that I don't have a knack for being that detailed).  I had the day off on Tuesday and I thought that it'd be the perfect opportunity to try them out!

So on Wednesday I brought them in to work and they were gone in less than 3 hours (and the recipe makes 50!!).  People were coming out of the woodwork to try one of these.  SOO good!

You can really use any combination of cake mix/frosting and these would still be a winner - I'm thinking that carrot cake with cream cheese cake balls dipped in white chocolate would be divine!  AND I'm also trying to think of a way to make them with the mint/chocolate combination...which is totally my fave.



**This is the only picture I have.  Randy has the camera so my iPhone is all I've got.  But you get the point** 

On pierogies

You might call me a late bloomer.  It was only about a year ago that I had my first pierogie.  Randy's mom makes them quite frequently as a side dish - sauteed with onions and butter.  Lots and lots of butter.  It was love at first bite.

Since having them for the first time, I've made them probably 2 times a month.  Of course, I've used only the frozen kind and dressed them up and they've gotten the job done.

But then I went to J. Betsky's.  It's a German restaurant in Raleigh that makes everything - from sausage to spetzle - from scratch.  The added perk is that they use all locally-grown ingredients too, so it's super fresh.  The fresh pierogies were out of this world.  Seriously, heaven on a plate.

So I've added pierogies to the list of foods that I want to make homemade.  My mother-in-law, speaking from experience, says that they are an ordeal to make, but I think the effort will be worth it.  Maybe it will be a food that I will just make once in my life.  But I can make one half as good as J. Betsky's, I may need to work pierogie making into my schedule.

And I'm planning on making these sometime this month.  So I'll report back on that.  (Hopefully I don't get butter on my keyboard. That can't be good.)

Oktoberfest

I will be celebrating Oktoberfest on my blog.  Not with schnitzel, lagers, or pierogies.  But I've made a goal to be a blogging fiend in October and to be better about documenting the things I'm doing. 

So consider this your teaser...the goodness starts in one week.

From the fly on the wall

Today's posting is brought to you by a fly on the wall in our household...

Beth: Randy, if you were building a football team and had to put me in a position, what would it be?

Randy: [without hesitation] Waterboy.