An afternoon in the kitchen....

I like NEVER make more than one kind of cookie in a day. But I had this bright idea I would make a bunch of cookies/candy today. Like other people do. So I set out with this list:
coconut macaroons
sugar cookies
chocolate covered peppermint marshmallows
chocolate peppermint chip cookies
oatmeal cookies
peppermint patties

I haven't made the oatmeal cookies yet. Or the sugar cookies - but the dough is made and in the fridge. I may put the sugar cookies off until tomorrow. Actually, I'm fairly sure I will. My lower back hurts. But I did make the other stuff. I even took count. 19 macaroons, 27 peppermint patties, 44 chocolate peppermint chip, and 21 chocolate covered marshallow poops. Yep, poops, because that is what the little lumps look like.


I will also take this opportunity to say I hate white 'chocolate'. For one, it's not chocolate and I don't like the taste. My son and husband do. And two, it's not chocolate so it doesn't melt as well. It sucks. I tried to make white poops with it and it was not cooperating. Well, it still looks like white poop. LOL But I didn't get it to melt right and the marshmallows wouldn't cover right. I think I'll have to do the stove method instead of the microwave when I make hubby's covered pretzels.

Christmas surprises....

Yesterday I received a wonderful Christmas surprise in the mail from my (online) friend, Rosey. Actually, the surprise part was when she told me she was sending me something - it was too good a deal to pass up. I let her keep it a secret what it was but based on what she said about she'd tell me if I wanted to know and I could cross it off my Christmas list, I had a feeling they were Maeve Binchy books. We talked about them before. She sent me 3 of them - to add to the 2 I've gotten in the last couple of months. Wasn't that so sweet of her? I can't wait until she gets her Christmas card because just a day or two after she told me about the surprise I was in the store and found something I got for myself. And then I thought.... oh, Rosey will like these, too! It's just a very little something but I think (and I hope) it will give her a big smile.

Oh, so yesterday we (or I should say I - hubby was just getting them out of the closet) were wrapping presents. He hands me a box and tells me it's for our daughter (and he also tells me to be careful with it). I just figured it was a bunch of paperback books we got for her (manga). So I wrap it up and give it to him to put a tag on it. Then my daughter comes in and he has her put a tag on it she wrote on. I thought that was weird, having her write her own tag?? So I look - and it's actually for me. Yep, he had me wrap my own present! Then it all came together and I'm pretty sure I know what it is, too, since he told me to be careful. It's a set of pyrex mixing bowls I wanted (from the early 80's). If he hadn't done that I wouldn't have known whether or not he actually got them! There are some other presents I know about because I got them myself. (This usually doesn't happen.) One is a cricut cake machine because it was a really good deal. I'll be using it to cut paper actually - the cricut I have is smaller and doesn't have all the features either. The other is a stamp set because I was telling hubby about it and he said to just go ahead and get it. I'm almost sure there was somthing else that I picked up but for the life of me I can't remember, so if there is, that will be a surprise. And then I'll laugh at myself. LOL

It's here! My new cricut!

I got a cricut cake machine during a special sale. It came with 2 cartridges (one is a bonus) and free shipping. I have just the small original cricut - which will be 5 years old this Christmas, and this is a bigger machine. I'm using it for paper, not food. The cake blade works just fine on paper. Now I can cut stuff bigger than the max of 5 1/2 x 11 1/2 plus the other features it has the little machine doesn't. Woot! Now, part of justifying my buying it was to sell the cartridges it comes with. I have plenty of other cartridges to work with (and 3rd party software) so I don't need them. Selling them will help pay for the machine (or buy other goodies instead! gee, I like my thinking. ROFL) However, it is going under the tree (minus the cartridges). I only have to wait two weeks though - and I did make a test cut to make sure all was well.
If my few readers know anyone who might be interested here's a pic (one doesn't come sealed because it's bundled with the machine but never used - I used one of my own cartridges to make a test cut.) You can find images of the cartridge contents here:
cake seasonal cartridge
cake basics sample sheet
cake basics handbook pdf