Mini-Baker

Kathryn has become a fan of a few blogs lately; notably, Chris and Bakerella, cats and cupcakes - the life of a twelve-year old! So when the demand was issued call came to gather at "The Big House" for a family dinner to celebrate* with baby brother and wife of just one year who are in town, we jumped at dessert for our "dish to pass". Nanee asked for a "pan of brownies". "Pan" of brownies you say - that's just not going to work here anymore.
Although we were allowed to use a package mix, mini-brownie bites were what K wanted. With a raspberry plopped right in to the middle. I had to do some serious maths to recalculate the amount of cooking time required for the mini-ness and the raspberri-ness and it took several attempts before we got the proper done-ness.

Because of the proximity to the holiday, the decorating theme was easy. Although we wanted to make flags, the mini-ness sort of took away the space required.

We compromised.

The nieces / cousins didn't really care so much that there were no flags on the brownie bites.

And all of a sudden my hopes that 48 brownie bites might get me through the family dinner AND the two meetings I have at my house on Monday and Tuesday evening this week - were . . .

. . . gone!!

Just vanished!

Not even one little brownie bite left for this guy who was waiting at the end of my parent's driveway as we pulled out. Guess he knows where to go for leftovers!

*Keep your fingers and toes crossed for baby brother Dennis and his beautiful wife Helen; they are expecting a baby early next year; grandchild number 10 in our family! xoxox

A Tradition Begins

"How come we never make Christmas cookies?" "Um, because it's two days before Christmas and I have tons of other stuff to do."

Of course that's what I was thinking, but not what I said. And I'm a happier and better mom for it. So we gathered our supplies from the grocery store . . . or . . .

. . . from the baking cabinet (and secret chocolate hiding place).

We made ourselves some cocktails - pomegranate orange fizz for Kathryn, Pinot Noir for me. Hey - we're on vacation!

And we began. First up: the sugar cookies. I cheated and bought the pre-cut frozen ones. Just bake . . .

. . . and decorate!

Peanut Butter Blossoms - unwrap twice as many Kisses as you need, eat half as many as you unwrap.

That way all the math works out just fine.

Everyone has a different name for these: Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes, Swedish something or others.

The perfect little hands of a future baker.

They get a little boring after the third roll through the sugar - but they are SO worth it.

The ghost of Christmas cookies yet to come. We had a such a great time. I hope she remembers to ask me next year. And I hope I remember to say "Yea - let's make some cookies again."