Walkin in a Winter Wonderland

Snow! Yes I have snow! I have it on my doorstep, I have it on my bushes, I have it on my car...I HAVE SNOW! As I mentioned in a previous post, the Westside of Albuquerque doesn't usually see snow. So when I was at work yesterday and the beautiful flakes kept falling from the sky and suddenly turning into 3 inch piles outside the office I was ecstatic. There's something about snow that turns everything into a beautiful serene landscape.

This is the time I wish I was a kid again! Our schools are, for now, on a two hour delay, which takes me back to my own childhood snow days. I would wake up, run into the kitchen and have my ears ringing with the words that came out of my mom's mouth, "No school...snow". My brother and would get all bundled up and head out for our first mission, snowman building. But not just one snowman, we would make a Daddy, a Mommy, a Sister and a Brother snowman. The next task was sledding.

We used to live by a park that had this huge hill, we actually the park was built kinda like a pit. We'd show up at the park and all the other kids would have these fancy sleds and would make it half way down the hill and come to a complete stop. Well we didn't have enough money for a sled, so my parents gave us an extra scrap of linoleum they had from when we revamped the kitchen floor. All the kids gave us a look of disgust when we pulled out our blue checkered linoleum sled. Chris and I were a little embarrassed at first, but the second we zoomed down the hill like a speed racer, making it all the way to the bottom, the embarrassment quickly faded.

Pretty soon everybody wanted to take a turn on our sled! Ah, those were the days! As I'm writing this post they just announced all schools are cancelled, and I just received a text from my boss that we still have to go to work, no delay, no closure. Please, please can I go back to being a kid?!

This week's TWD was another great cookie recipe, that I'm sure Santa would LOVE to eat during his busy night of present deliveries. This recipe, Buttery Jam Cookies, is brought to you by Heather of Randomosity and the Girl . I really enjoyed these cookies, they were light, buttery and the surprise chunks of jam really got me excited! Not only will this be a favorite of Santa's but of favorite of my family, and hopefully yours!

Dear Heroes,

See, I'm a little too old to actually mail my Christmas Wishlist to Santa (Hey, I still make one, it just doesn't go to the North Pole). So I figured this year I would send my Christmas Wishes and Santa Cookies to someone a little more special. Jason Lansdon is my new found Santa. At the young age of 25 Jason is a Sergeant in the U.S. Marines, and is currently on his four tour in Iraq. This Christmas Jason will be away from his wife Jackie and his three month old baby girl Jayden.



I was introduced to Jason when I joined the Baking Gals group. Baking Gals has teams of bakers, who bake for an individual, and their troop, who is serving our country. After reading through this round's teams, I was struck by Jason's introduction. Being that I am 24, I can't imagine having been to Iraq four times and to be away from my family at the Holidays.



Jason's favorite cookie is Chocolate Chip, and I wasn't going to deny him of his favorite cookie. But, I figured some of the other bakers would also be sending chocolate chip cookies, so I wanted to make mine a little different. I added some grated orange zest and grand marnier to the batter. Why have I never done this before? I made myself a mini cookie and was in heaven at first bite.
I also sent along some Oatmeal Crisps. Which are crunchy, mixed with a little bit of spice. A perfect holiday cookie.



I am just so proud of all these men and women who are serving our country, and know that cookies could never say how grateful I am for their strength, bravery and selflessness. They truly are my heroes, and I will always be thankful to them for making sure that all of us here at home wake up every morning to a safe and free United States of America! My Christmas wish is to say Happy Holidays Sergeant Lansdon and Crew and may you have a safe and blessed New Year! You will be in my thoughts and prayers!



Oatmeal Crisps

Ingredients
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon grated whole nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (optional)
1 cup packed brown sugar
5 tablespoons butter or stick margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup regular oats

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 7 ingredients (flour through pepper) in a medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg; beat well. Stir in flour mixture and oats.
Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until crisp. Cool on pan 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

It's officially holiday time here in Albuquerque. As I woke up and turned the TV on this morning the first thing that I heard was notice of school cancellations, which can only mean one thing...SNOW! Now in New Mexico, we get quite a bit of snow up in the Eastern part of the state, but when it snows here in Albuquerque, it's usually only the mountains that see any of the snow.

Albuquerque is pretty much divided in half, one half is the east side. Which is home to the Sandia mountains (which holds the worlds longest tram ride!) and pretty much downtown Albuquerque. Then you have the west side, which is where I live. The west is the newer, continuously growing part of Albuquerque.

So, although my side of town hardly ever gets any snow, I love waking up in the morning and looking over at the Sandia's which have been frosted with white icing! Then you get the sun peeking up over the mountain and you have the most beautiful winter wonderland you've ever seen!

And although this weeks TWD could mimic my Sandia's with a good coat of icing, I chose to leave my Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies icing free. I did however decide to adjust the flavor a little bit by adding some orange zest and some allspice to the mix. And boy-oh-boy did I hit the Christmas nail on the head! The cookies were fruity, yet had the warm coziness that everyone loves during the holidays from the allspice. To check out the recipe and make a batch of these yummy cookies for yourself check out Ulrike's blog Kuchenlatein.

It's the Holiday Season

It's that time of year again people! It's time to wake up at the crack of dawn and stand in 3 hour lines for Christmas presents. It's time to get on the wobbly ladder and hang the Christmas lights. It's time to have the smell of an evergreen tree permeating your house. It's time to get in the kitchen and bake, bake, bake and then bake some more Christmas cookies!

TWD started off the Holiday baking with Linzer Sables, chosen by our first male TWD-er, Dennis of Living the Life! And I have to say that this recipe is pretty easy going. I sometimes hate when it seems like Holiday cookies take more effort to make than they do to enjoy. But these cookies were simple and straight forward.

I still don't know if I'm a big fan of them yet. I'm not sure how I feel about the cookie itself. It was good and crisp, but for me tasted a little bland. I also am not a fan of inhaling powdered sugar when I eat my cookie so I chose to fore go suffocation this time around :)

There's plenty more to bake and plenty more to decorate, so stay tuned for more Holiday Baking!

Light as Air

This has to be one of my favorite times of the year. Here in Albuquerque, if you look out your window just as the sun is rising, you'll notice jewel tones filling the sky. You'll hear roaring noises that are floating up above. You'll see people gathering on their porches, in their backyards, and in the street, all staring up at the sky. And for what? This...



The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. This world renowned event brings balloonists from all over the world, with balloons of all shapes and sizes to this great city to participate in the World's Largest Balloon Fiesta. The event is a week and a half long and hosts regular Mass Ascentions, Balloon Glows, Special Shapes Rodeos and Glowdeos (Shaped Balloons that fly in the morning and glow at night), and Balloon Races (hundreds of balloon race into the park to grab envelopes off poles that are 15 ft in the air).



If you ever needed an excuse to travel to Albuquerque, this is it. People begin arriving at the park at 5 am and stay all day to see the over 800 balloons take flight. Of course, to get up that early, it requires a lot of coffee, well for me anyway. We woke up at 4:15 to get ready, and by 5:30 I had already had three cups of coffee. And what goes best with coffee?



Cranberry Pecan Biscotti of course! Which was this weeks TWD pick by Gretchen of Canela & Comino. Gretchen actually picked Lenox Almond Biscotti by Dorie, but I wanted to change out the nut and add some cranberries. I just think cranberries have such a "fall" feeling and I adore them in any type of cookie. These were so lite and crisp, and a perfect mate for my little coffee mug :)

My Big Fat...

There are so many things that could finish this title.

First things that comes to mind is My Big Fat Crazy Family. (But I'm sure many bloggers could say the same thing). I'm tellin' you my family is a crazy group of people. First there's Dad, who is ultra reserved until Coors Light shows up, which turns Dad in to a fun loving, joke crackin', "what'd you say?", kinda guy. He often has many moments of forgetfulness too. You can tell him something one minute, and two minutes later he'll have totally forgot what you said.



Then there's Mom. She's a crazy lady who can totally keep herself entertained. I remember, as a kid, she would make up the dumbest jokes and she would die laughing over them for about an hour. For example, here in New Mexico there's a little city know for its caverns called Carlsbad. Well we had gone down to Carlsbad for a family vacation, and Mom's big joke was "Oh Carl's bad". We just looked at her with a blank stare as she broke out in laughter. Thank goodness she decided not to become a comedian :)



Third is me. And I already know that I'm a nuthead. I'm ultra controlling, things have to be done my way or no way. (Which is something I'm working on desperately to fix). I'm also very silly and stupid. Andy hates it, but I always talk in weird voices or constantly quote from movies.



Finally is Chris, my younger brother. He's always making up these crazy inventions. We used to have a big huge trampoline outside called, The Tramp. Well Chris came up with this crazy idea to take the wheels off his bike and put padding all over the frame. He then proceed to use the padded bike to do flips and tricks on The Tramp, kinda like a motorcross rider does tricks off a dirt ramp.

But, I guess every family has their crazy stories. With those stories come some of the fondest memories, hardest laughs and face streaming tears. And there is no way I would trade my crazy family for anything in the world.



However, of all the things that I could use to complete the My Big Fat title , I would say that My Big Fat Chocolate Chip Cookie would have to be the best choice! Months ago I watched Bobby Flay throw down with Levain Bakery, and I was star struck. These cookies from Levain were the biggest cookies I had ever seen. I slowly started seeing copycat recipes pop up and finally decided to give them a try. I used this recipe from Cookie Madness, but made one small change. I found a Lindt chocolate bar that had a cherry chile filing, so I chopped that up and substituted it for half of the regular chocolate chips.



I cannot tell you how good these were! Each cookie is 4 ounces, which you can see from the picture. They were so big that the 12 cookies were overflowing out of my cookie jar. I'm sure this shouldn't be a problem though seeing as I don't think they'll last very long. So here's to many Big Fat things in our lives that end up being the greatest blessings (in disguise).

It's Alive!!!

It's Alive! It's Alive! Buhhaaaaha!!!


My camera that is! As many of you know, new puppy Chloe tore my USB cord to shred, so I've been using my cell phone to upload my pictures (which has been a real pain in my ass). But, yesterday Andy and I went to WalMart to buy some groceries. We were kind of wandering around and happened up the Electronics department. "Do you think they'll have my cord?" "Doesn't hurt to get check..." So off I went to the counter to ask the almighty question.



"Well no we don't carry those those cords here," Mr. Man with a big Santa beard said. "But, if you're only looking to upload your pictures on to the computer we have a memory stick for it." He guides me over to the large rack of camera accessories and picks up this tiny plastic package. "This here device lets you take your memory card out of the camera, and upload the pictures to the computer." BRILLIANT!!

I was so excited to get home and try it out. But, I have to admit, I was a little skeptical. I just had a bad feeling that this new toy just wasn't going to work. I took it out of the package (fingers crossed) and stuck it into my USB port. Then, with a hope and a prayer, I took out my memory card and inserted in to the little device.




Next thing I knew I hard a "ba-ding" from my computer letting me know that it had reckognized a new device. And suddenly, to my heart's amazement the screen for my picture download came up!!!! WOO-HOO!

So I give you my TWD Chocolate Chunkers!! Thanks WalMart!

Compromise

This week's theme is compromise. I am trying to compromise with my camera (see previous post for info). I had this ingenious idea that my video camera can take pictures, and that was going to be the solution to my problems. Only problem was the battery on the cam-corder is dead, and the charger is at my parents house. Ok, I'll compromise...I'll go over to their house and get the charger. Yes, yes, yes! I was so excited on the way home thinking that I had my camera problem all figured out.

Well, I pull out the cam-corder and realize it's the wrong charger. That's just great! As I look around the house trying to get an idea of what else I can use for my pictures I glance at my phone to check the time. Wait a minute! My phone takes pictures! Yes, that's right. It takes pictures I can totally e-mail them to myself and post them on my blog. Problem solved.

Well, turns out that the pictures aren't the best quality, but you know what, at least it's a picture! And that is good enough for me!

Being on the theme of compromise, I decided to "compromise" this week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe a little bit. Rachel of Confession of a Tangerine Tart chose a most fabulous chocolatey cookie. Da-da-da-daaaaaa...Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops!! And might I say, if you like chocolate, this is the cookie for you! The recipe calls for regular Whoppers and Chocolate Chips, which I had to compromise with Reese's Peanut Butter Whoppers and Peanut Butter Chips. I'm an addict for chocolate and PB, and these cookies hit the spot. The chocolate fudigness of the cookies really brought out the nutty PB flavor, and are great dunkers in a glass of cold milk.

Obviously these were a hit with Andy, because I made these cookies in the morning, and by bedtime, this is what my cookie jar looked like.

Bake on Bloggers!

Who Says Granola is Boring?

Back in the day granola was thought as something boring and bland. Just a bunch of oats toasted up and nothing special or fancy. Lately though granola has been all the craze. With it's versatility and variety of flavor combonations what's not to love?

Especially when you can add granola to a cookie!



Yes that's right...a COOKIE. (And dare we call it healthy? Sure why not ;) ) With this week's Tuesdays with Dorie we did just that! We turned already scrumptious (yet a little boring) granola into one of the best, and I mean best, cookies I have ever had.



The combination of almonds and peanuts into the batter gave it such a crunchy texture, and the nuts were practically roasted while the cookies were baking, which really brought out that nutty flavor. And I am such a sucker for raisins, especially in cookies. There's something about a hot oven that can plump up raisins, that really gets me going.



I really love how these cookies are sweet but not too sweet either. When I usually eat cookies I can only have one, maybe two, at a time because they give me a tummy ache. But not with these bad boys! Which, now that I think about it can turn out to be a big problem if you know what I mean!



Excellent, excellent choice Michelle! Check out the recipe at Michelle's Bad Girl Baking blog!!

Ok, Ok, I Give In!

After making my ice cream sandwiches for TWD I began receiving requests for the recipe of the cookies that I had made. And let me just say that these were the best oatmeal cookies I have ever had. They were crunchy on the edges, but still soft on the inside and had a real yummy nutty oatmeal taste to them that rules over any other oatmeal cookie.

So I decided that since so many people were interested in the cookies, and the simple fact that I forgot to post the recipe in my rush to make the "TWD Deadline", that I would make yet another sandwich and post the recipe.



These sandwiches came together so easily with the help of a jar of Marshmallow Fluff, and yet they were outrageously delicious. Everybody at work was mad at me that I brought these in because they all had their fair share of cookies that morning. I tried to tell them that the oatmeal in it made it ok, and I guess they bought it. Because those cookies were gone in a flash :)



Nut Oatmeal Cookies
Courtesy of The New Best Recipe
Ingredients
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
16 TBSP (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 c light brown sugar
1 c sugar
2 eggs
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 c chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions
Adjust oven racks to the low and middle positions of the oven and heat to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt together in a medium bowl.
Beat butter on medium speed until creamy. Add the sugars; beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Stir the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Stir in the oats and nuts.
Working with 2 TBSP of dough each time, roll the dough into 2 inch balls. Place on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake until cookie edges turn golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool at least 30 minutes.