Chrits and Little Baby's Birthday

Oh boy, posting has been sporadic as of late because on December 21st D. and I welcomed little baby Georgie into our lives. He is our sweet sugar pie who makes us sooooo sleepy, but I will still try to come on and post semi-frequently. I don't know how I feel about posting pictures of him on my blog, so for now, no pictures but let me tell you he is the cutest little baby I ever did see!

Aside from baby news, around these parts we celebrate Christmas until Epiphany, which falls on January 6th and commemorates the visit from the magi to baby Jesus. I like celebrating the full 12 days of Christmas (yep, that's where the song comes from, the first day is December 25th ending with the feast of Epiphany), that way the day after Christmas doesn't feel like such a letdown. You know what I mean? With that being said, here are a couple of Christmas cookies that didn't turn out quite right...

It's actually more difficult than you might think to try to spell things backwards. I had problems spelling "Christ's Birthday" with the cookie stamp, and there weren't enough "s"s  to spell Jesus correctly. :)

Christmas Cookie Extravaganza!

This year I had a plethora of cookies I wanted to bake, and boy did I make a lot! Here's the cast of characters.

A whole lotta butter. I got a Costco membership as a wedding gift last year and I like going and eating samples and buying jumbo sized packages of things. I ended up not need as much butter as I thought, but hey, it freezes well.

Next up, some good recipes... I use a delicious sugar cookie recipe that was D.'s grandma's and I found a recipe last year for gingerbread boys that I like to make. I also made marshmallows, yes I know back a couple of years ago I made a horrible batch of gloopy marshmallows but I found a new recipe from Ina Garten and they turned out great!

Fixins for spritz cookies and sprinkles for the sugar cookies.

Cookie stamps that you can customize, these are fun but a little difficult to cram the little letters into place.

See, my marshmallows turned out just right and they were the yummiest topping for chocolate surprise cookies, I just didn't add the chocolate frosting that would actually make these cookies a surprise.  Delicious nonetheless, recipe here.

The final product: spritz.

I made some "fancy" sugar cookies which means I bought meringue powder and iced them. It was labor intensive but they turned out pretty cute.

I couldn't help myself.

I passed these out to our neighbors, but D. was afraid I was giving too many away. Don't worry D. we still have about 4 dozen left! Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, homemade marshmallows are scrumptious on hot chocolate. 

Merry Christmas Eve!

Easter Cake

Easter is just around the corner and I would love to try making this cake for the holiday. How cute!

What's Cookin'?

Today's post should be "what's bakin'?" oh well, mere technicality. I saw a recipe in Martha Stewart Living (of course) for popovers and I decided to try my hand at making them. Popovers are one of those recipes that intimidated me but I found out they are really simple to make. The recipe is so easy, but it does require that you have a popover pan. I had a merchandise card from Williams-Sonoma left over from my wedding plus 20% off so I stopped in my local store and picked up one of the funny looking pans. You can also find it on their website. 

They turned out picture perfect, I was pleasantly surprised.

Something about having these for breakfast was Christmas-y, always a bonus. I will certainly be making them again and again, so delicious with apricot preserves.

Popovers

2 1/2 C. whole milk (I used skim)

2 1/2 C. flour

1 t. coarse salt

6 large eggs, lightly whisked

Heat oven to 425 degrees. whisk together milk, flour, and salt. Whisk in eggs. (Mixture will be slightly lumpy) Heat two 6-cup popover pans in oven for 5 minutes, then quickly brush cups generously with butter. Fill each cup a little more than halfway with batter. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Turn our popovers, and serve warm.

Note: If not serving immediately, poke a small hole in each to release steam. Reheat before serving.

Makes 1 dozen.

Banana Coconut Muffins

Yesterday was such a dreary day that I decided to bake some scrumptious coconut banana muffins and have a cup of tea. The muffins are the best when eaten right out of the oven , but be careful, they are addicting!









Banana Coconut Muffins
1 1/4 C. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
3 mashed bananas
1/2 C. butter (melted)
2/3 C. sugar
1 egg
1/2 t. vanilla
3/4 C. coconut



Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together bananas, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla and 1/2 cup coconut in a large bowl until combined well, then fold in flour mixture until flour is just moistened. Divide batter into muffin tins and sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup coconut on top. Bake 25 minutes at 375 degrees. Yields 12

Bagel Bonanza

I recently left a job where the bagels flowed like milk and honey, and I could partake of one any time that I wished. Since my departure I find myself occasionally pining away for delicious everything bagels. I recently came across a bagel post at the angry chicken which used this fabulous recipe. They turned out wonderful, I do think that I will make my bagels from now on.