With my German oral exam, final exams, Christmas shopping, and work I have had zero time to bake or blog. However, now that I finally have a break I intend to catch back up a bit. I LOVE watching the food network/cooking channel and I saw a Martha Stewart Christmas special the other day and decided to make some of her cookies. In my haste to get these cookies made as Christmas presents I did not get any pictures but I can assure (as can my boyfriend) that they turned out delicious. I made Martha's Noel Nut Balls and Chewy Molasses-Spice Cookies. The latter were by far my favorite and the only ginger bread type cookie I have found so far that I like. Maybe I've just had bad ginger snap experience (I know there's a difference but I had only had the snap so I thought they all tasted that bad). I am going to be doing some more baking before Christmas which is coming up fast. I have also been doing a lot of hand made Christmas presents which I hope to post pictures of soon (probably after Christmas so none of the receivers see their presents early :P ). If you are wanting to make some of your own decorations or just make something as a family, FamilyCircle.com has some great ideas on their site. I hope everyone has their shopping done and if you don't... good luck. More holiday baking, cooking, and crafts on the way!
*Picture from MarthaStewart.com*
My boyfriend and I made a Ginger Bread house for the first time. I used a piping bag with a tip and he used his fingers. So you can easily tell who did which sides =P It was a lot of fun. I think more of the candy decorationg pieces ended up in my boyfriends tummy than on the house. It turned out ok but then when I went to move it from the table to the counter, it caved in on itself. lol It was still fun to make and it's not like anyone was going to be eating it or anything. One of my cats would probably have knocked it over anyway. Hope everyone has a Great Christmas! Don't get any coal.
I am so behind on Christmas baking. I have been in the kitchen almost none stop for the past couple days. I wish I had more time, now my presents won't even get to where they need to go by Christmas =/ But oh well, treats still taste good a couple days after. I have made a bunch of different kinds of cookies and also some butterscotch caramels. I had a few cookies that I didn't know what to do with so I decided to try out piping for the first time. I think they turned out pretty good. For my first time at least =) I have to make roles and Christmas dinner dessert. I'll probably end up making cupcakes or something since my brother is picky. They have some really cute desserts on Martha Stewart's website. I love her stuff but some of it is kind of hard to make, especially the crafts. I finally found a cake decorating book that I liked. I'm going to attempt to use fondant soon. I'm kind of scared, I've read a lot of mixed reviews on it. Some people tell me I shouldn't buy the pre-made store stuff and others say it's fine. I've also heard that it's very sensitive to make and if you don't really know what you're doing it's easy to mess up. So if anyone has any suggestions I'd take them gladly. I am getting money for Christmas that I am going to use to buy some cake decorating and fondant tools. I might get some fondant at Michael's just to experiment with.
I am going to go see The Tale of Despereaux today. It looks really good and I hope it isn't full of little kids. I am all done Christmas shopping and am pretty much done baking as well. Now it's time to relax =) I hope everyone else is finished too. Other wise you are either very brave or very dumb to wait this long to shop, it's going to be crazy. Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend!
