Traditions: Making Cookies

Here is the baking team....the elves....my crew, if you will.  Some take it more seriously than others...Brooke for instance likes to think of herself as a chef...not a cook, not a baker...a chef..hence the chef's hat.

See my little elves busy at work making 

"grandma cookies."

Grandma cookies are a recipe that our family makes each year and it's definitely the recipe that signals the holidays have arrived.  The original recipe came from my grandmother and it was enormous... it seriously said to "start with 5 lbs of flour"...at any rate, over the years we have figured out how to make them for a family of 5 and have managed to retain the original flavor. It's a thick cookie with lots of great nutmeg flavor and so great for dunking in hot cocoa or coffee which makes it a perfectly great breakfast cookie.....yes there is such a thing as a "breakfast cookie"!! So yummy! 

 

So this is our first batch of the season...oh yes, there will be several more batches made in the coming month....which is why a new elliptical machine is now on my list of things to buy during the post Christmas sales.

There will be lots of baking going on...we make grandma cookies, sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies (which Charlie is fully in charge of and he's already made some this year with the kids too), pb fudge, peanut brittle, magic bars, haystacks...oh the list goes on.  At any rate, baking is definitely one of our holiday traditions that we love.

Almost as much as taste tasting after the last of the cookies have been made and the kitchen cleaned up.   So tasty....

I'll leave you with this final thought....just so we are clear.....we are vigilant about washing our hands and having impeccably clean cooking and baking surfaces.  But, pants...well pants are always optional...

because sometimes it gets too hot in the kitchen and you have to take your pants off... Hey it happens!! 

                                                                                                               

P.S. Yes, she had on underclothes.