Yay for Christmas Cookies

One of my many favorite things about Christmas is Christmas cookies. I love to bake and give away yummy (well, hopefully yummy but in my opinion, put enough frosting on anything and it will be good) treats to people. It is one of my earliest and most frequent Christmas memories. I can remember making cookies for all of our family friends and neighbors growing up and always trying to get them to people BEFORE Christmas which was always a challenge. Mom was in charge of creating THE LIST of who received the treats and what was made. I think kitchens should always smell like vanilla and baking goodness. Anyhow, Boy and I helped to make cookies and Dad was in charge of just one treat: the buckeyes. Now, in my years, I have tried many a buckeye from various suppliers. They go by different names: peanut butter balls, chocolate drops, and some creative names that implied animal scat. I have to say with a completely unbiased opinion that my father's are simply the best. Hands down. None of the others have the creaminess in the peanut butter or the correct texture on the chocolate. And I'm not saying this because they are my father but as an avid chocolate fan, they are the best. One of my favorite parts was watching him dip the peanut butter balls into the chocolate. He rarely dropped one into the chocolate or dipped it oddly but in the off-chance that he did, it had to quickly disappear, usually into my mouth. Shucks.



And because of Dad's overwhelmingly excellent buckeyes, I refuse to make them because I know that mine won't be as good as his. So I make other things and I try to make different ones each year but there are some standbys:

Doods or 7-layer cookies

Matt's fudge

And this year I'm adding:

Butter cookies

Cream cheese cookies (which just sound good)

Oatmeal cookies that I can make with Splenda. I have two co-workers and a m-i-l who are diabetic so I always try to make something with Splenda that they can enjoy. It's hard to find Christmas recipes that you can use Splenda in. Fudge won't set up, doods are just dripping in sweetness and even other things just won't work well. But I try and find something so that everyone can enjoy something at Christmas. It's a challenge that I enjoy.



I'm very excited to start baking. Today makes it even worse because we are in the middle of a snow storm and I'm home from work. We've decided that if the weather is bad enough that the local schools close, no one in their right mind is going to want to go to a museum. No one came yesterday and today is worse than yesterday so I have a snow day:) I got to sit and drink my coffee while I watched Matt get ready for work.... Oh, the poor boy..... It is really early in the season to have a snow day already, actually it's still fall and winter isn't even here yet. Uh oh. Looks like it's going to be a doozy. I did realize earlier that I didn't have any salt to throw on the steps for the ice so I tossed Kosher salt on them. Hey, it's salt and it's cheaper than the icemelt stuff you can buy. Now if I only had some pepper......