Cookbook Project, Books #139 and 140

"Christmas Cookies and Candies," Taste of Home

This was another source of holiday gift cookies. I've been a fan of Taste of Home for a long time, or at least I was until they drastically changed their format, and they've been a source of a number of my favorite recipes. This booklet is just a collection of a whole bunch of their more popular holiday baking recipes - it was a stocking stuffer from my mother a couple of years ago, and I've used it more than once in the past.

I originally had the goal of making one recipe from each book, but I couldn't make up my mind as to which of the ones here I liked the best, so I wound up making two. The Raspberry Nut Pinwheel cookies were a new recipe to me. I've made pinwheel cookies before, but not this kind in particular, and I'm glad I tried them. While pinwheels are always kind of a pain in the butt (the ends never come out quite even, and they always want to flatten out one one side while they chill), these were excellent. The texture on the cookie was just right, and the raspberry flavor was strong but didn't completely overwhelm the vanilla in the cookie. Odds are these will be made again.

I also wound up making Chunky Peanut Brittle. I've made that before, which usually means I'll try to avoid making it again, but.... well, it's really good. Peanut brittle with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Sweet and caramel-y and salty and chocolatey and maybe one of my favorite candies ever. I'll admit that I make extra of this, and wind up nibbling on the extra and then using the broken bits as chips for cookies. It's heavenly. While the magazine itself may have gone to hell, this book is a keeper, no doubt.


"Christmas Cookies," Betty Crocker

And the last of my shiny holiday cookie checkout lane booklets. Honestly, I have no idea where this one came from; probably it was another stocking stuffer from my mother. Over time they all start to blur together, becoming 'the book with the good peanut brittle recipe' or 'the old book with the good nutmeg cookie recipe.' I don't think I've used this book before, though. Again, most of the recipes inside are just variants on sugar cookies, and while there's nothing wrong with sugar cookies, they're not the most interesting. And I don't need more than one kind for a cookie tray.

I did find one recipe that caught my eye, though, and so I wound up making Truffle-Filled Orange Thumbprint cookies. I'm fond of thumbprint cookies in general, especially since I figured out the secret to actually getting them to look good and hold their filling (use the handle of a wooden spoon to make the indentation, instead of your actual thumb), and the thought of a non-jam-filled variant was appealing - I had enough fruity flavors on my plate, and not much chocolate.

These came out quite nicely, much to my delight. The flavors balanced nicely, and they were little and pretty and the recipe made a large enough batch that I didn't have to double it. I liked them enough that I'm likely to give this book a closer look next year when it comes to holiday cookie time....

Showing Off

I don't tend to talk a lot here about the things I make, because for the most part the things I make are pretty humdrum. I crochet blankets, or baby sweaters, or scarves, I do counted cross stitch, stuff like that. There are enough other talented fiber artists reading this that I figure I'm not making anything that a half-dozen other people (or more) reading this couldn't do, and that most likely the other folks reading honestly aren't that interested in my fiddly creations.

But I've recently started playing around with a new craft, and I'm happy enough with the piece I just finished that I want to show it off.

I've done a little bit of blackwork before (for those of you who aren't geeky fans of obscure stitchery, blackwork is a form of embroidery, usually reversible, that was popular in the Elizabethan era), but mostly just samplers, and I never practiced enough to get very good at it. So I have no idea quite why I volunteered to embroider a chemise for the current incumbent royalty in the local SCA. I've never done blackwork on clothing before, I've never taken on a big project like this, and I hadn't practiced on anything less serious. But it seemed like a good idea at the time, and I've done enough general stitchery that I figured it wouldn't be *too* hard....

( finished project pictures back here, hidden for the sake of your friends page and in case you're not enthralled by obscure embroidery.... )