Christmas cake

In addition to being a Christmas post, this is my 100th post! Time to celebrate! With cake!

The husband and I enjoyed a quiet and peaceful Christmas morning, not so different from our many other quiet and peaceful mornings, but enhanced with Christmas cake.

Actually, it's just this cake, but instead of raspberries I used cranberries, and I grated some orange zest and squeezed some orange juice into the batter. I love this cake. Buttermilk is just a wondrous thing, isn't it? Makes cakes so light and delicate.

I served it on the two Christmas dishes that we own, cherry red plates bearing happy little snow men and perfectly symmetrical snow flakes.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Visions of sugarplums and rocky road

While I'm not a huge Christmas person, there are three things I really like about this time of year:

1) Extra days off work.

2) The license to consume obscene amounts of sugar and alcohol.

3) The spirit of generosity.

All of these things converge this week. Starting tomorrow, I have five days off, which is not as great as the two weeks some people have but is certainly better than no days off! Among the things I want to do before Christmas is deliver cookies around town.

While many people bring sweets to their friends and neighbors, I've gotten in the habit of delivering cookies to some of the people I appreciate all year round even though they're not friends. This sometimes includes the corner grocer or the local drycleaner, but it always includes the butcher and the vet.

This year's goodies include the fabulous array of cookies my friends and I baked on Sunday. Of course there were my Mexican wedding cookies, but there were plenty of other treats, truly something for everyone.

Peanut butter and jelly cookie sandwiches: a good excuse to eat two cookies masquerading as one.

 

Biscotti, for the adult in some of us.

 

Soft ginger cookies.

 

Thumbprints filled with homemade jam.

I'll happily risk losing a tooth for this toffee.

Cranberry-orange-pistachio cookies, in perfect Christmas colors.

My miniature black and whites (which were not nearly as photogenic as the ones on the Gourmet cover.)

 

Sugarplums, which I'd never had before. They were nutty, chewy, and delicious.

 

Shortbread with peppermint bark: buttery, minty, chocolatey perfection.

 

German cinnamon stars, crunchy and spicy.

And the divine rocky road.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Love,

Hungry Dog

Lonely heart Mexican wedding cookies

This morning, the husband left at the crack of dawn for Kentucky. It was so early--around 4 am--that I barely remember kissing him goodbye before he was off, and Frances and I shuffled back to bed. When I awoke several hours later, it seemed like a dream.

But once I was up and the dog was walked and I was settled in front of the newspaper with a cup of coffee, I became intensely aware of how quiet the house was. Don't get me wrong--the husband is not a loud person. In fact, he's particularly quiet in the morning. But when you've got a steady routine built up for about 10 years, something as subtle as someone not being around to say nothing is noticeable.

It's nice to have a few hours to yourself, that's true. I lazed around the house, finished my mystery novel, and wrote out a few holiday cards. After that, I started missing the husband for real.

So as not to dwell on things too much, I thought I'd better make some cookies. Tomorrow, my mother and some family friends and I are gathering for our annual cookie baking day. We'll all bring a few batches to share--some dough to bake off, as well as some cookies baked but needing final touches, and we'll spend the day baking, frosting, decorating, and eating. At the end of the day, we'll stagger away in sugar comas, having swapped cookies so that we all return home with at least a dozen different kinds.

I usually bring two kinds, and the first I'd decided on were Flo Braker's Mexican wedding cookies. The recipe is dead simple and took just moments to pull together. Once I pulled them from the oven and dusted them with powdered sugar, I had trouble resisting them.

Since no one was around to judge me, I decided not to.

I mean, look at these little guys. They're positively bite-sized.

They had a buttery, tender crumb, and I could taste the walnuts running through them. These cookies are beautiful and easy and will definitely become a staple in my repertoire.

Later tonight or tomorrow, I'll start my miniature black and white cookies. I'm planning to bake them ahead of time, then frost them at the party. But for now, I think I'll settle in on the couch for a bit, see if I can find some guilty television to watch. I miss my honey but I may as well enjoy being master of the remote control while I can. With a little plate of cookies, of course.