Christmas Cookie Exchange

We decided to start a new Christmas tradition in our new home, a cookie exchange. We do do a lot of entertaining this time of year, but mostly in the fall. We both felt a Christmas cookie exchange would be a fun thing to do as a family. And as Oscar grows older had an help prepare cookies and invite his friends down the road to be a part of it all.  

Holly and I each came up with a new recipe to share. It was fun perusing many cookbooks and looking online. I decided to to a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but added a bunch of toffee bits and pretzel chunks into the batter. It came out to be a nice salty-sweet concoction.

Holly made a really rich & dark chocolate cookie with chunks of peppermint and white chocolate chunks in it. The fun thing about a cookie exchange is you can try all sorts of new things and add some new recipes to your cooking repertoire.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Holly Craven

1-1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup dutch-process cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounces good quality semi sweet chocolate coarsely chopped

4 to 6 ounces peppermint chunks (such as Andes baking pieces)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1-1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla or pure peppermint extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

Melt the 4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate with the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Let it cool slightly.

Put chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs and extract in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined. Reduce the speed to low and gradually fold in the flour mixture. Fold in the peppermint chunks.

Using a 1-1/2 inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto silpat or parchment lined baking sheets spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces are cracked, about 15 minutes. Cookies should be soft. Let cool on parchment lined wire racks to prevent sticking.

Cookies can be stored between parchment layers in an airtight container. Best if eaten within 3 days, or frozen.

Yields 2 to 2.5 dozen cookies. 

Pretzel Chocolate Toffee Cookies
Dan Craven

2-½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 to 3/4 cup toffee bits (such as Skor baking pieces)

1 cup roughly chopped pretzel chunks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. In mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter till light and creamy. Add sugars and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add dry ingredients ¼ cup at a time until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips, toffee bits and pretzel chunks. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto Silpat lined baking sheet.

Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Yield 4-dozen cookies. 

With our house full of friends old and new, I also made a big batch of Aztec Hot Chocolate. This was pretty much milk & cream based, with spices and some chopped-melted chocolate to the simmering milk.

Lastly I made a big pitcher of Cranberry Shrub. Holly and I both like Cranberry Shrub, and it stems to our time we spend in Williamsburg, VA. We honeymooned there, as well as spending our 10th Anniversary there. Many of the traditional tavern recipes can be enjoyed in King's Arms Tavern, or Christiana Campbell's Tavern to name a few. Cranberry Shrub traditionally is spiked with your liquor of choice, but we typically make it alcohol free. It's a very tart & refreshing combination of 100% juices and lots and lots of fresh lime juice. It was a fun new tradition to start and we look forward to doing this in the years to come.

Our Hanukkah Celebration

We had a great time tonight with friends enjoying our rookie take on Hanukkah. We all decided to pitch in and enjoy a meal based on traditional Jewish food custom. None of us left hungry, and it was fun to learn a few new things.  

 Our decked out dining table. 

Meatballs with matzo, rice finished with a tomato & sour lemon sauce.  

 Hanukkah Geld for kids (and adults). 

Holly made some venue appropriate place cards for everyone.  

A traditional present for our pal Miles. Miles also gave Oscar a cute wooden hand car. 

Meatballs cooked and steaming away, alongside the tomato & sour lemon sauce. The whole house smelled fantastic while these bad boys simmered away.  

No Hanukkah feast is complete without potato latkes, sour cream and my home canned applesauce.  

I picked up a nice loaf of Challah from Whole Foods.  

Yvonne brought a great spread of bagels, lox, cream cheese, capers, sliced red onions and thinly sliced cucumbers to enjoy for appetizers. 

The spread. I didn't get a photo of the yummy potato doughnuts that Steve & Kelly made for dessert. 

Our first toys of the season. Some fun driedel's to play with. I don't need much of an excuse to cook & entertain, and to invite others into our home to partake. It's also fun to have Oscar be exposed to other seasonal religious customs from around the world. 

Annual Harvest Party & Seasonal Treats

We've been hosting an annual autumn open house for years. Nearly 20 years to be precise. I started these way back in High School, and have kept up on the tradition for years as I've married, and as Holly & I have created our own family traditions. It's a time each year where I make a spread of soups, chowders, chili and stew to share with all our friends and neighbors. We also make a bunch of homemade confections as well. 

We make homemade suckers (lollipops) every year. In traditional autumn hues. I always make root beer and orange-cream suckers.

Cooking down the sugar syrup to make a batch of root beer suckers.

Crock pot's full of potato-leek soup, and Guiness Beef Stew.

All the fun Fiestaware Holly has purchased for me/us over the years for this fun annual tradition.

A big batch of chorizo chili, and clam-oyster chowder on the gas stove.

Our treat table. Complete with baked goods, homemade confections and of course some store bought Halloween treats.

I tempered a bunch of dark and white chocolate and made some pretzel rods. Holly always designs beautiful labels to package up all our homemade goodies we make together.

The homemade orange & root beer suckers, alongside a bunch of chocolate oatmeal cookies and peanut butter cookies with big chocolate kisses.

I love the way the suckers look all wrapped in saran wrap and on display.

All the individually packaged pretzel rods with Holly's custom labels.

All the soups are ready to share with the masses that come and visit us each year.

Chowder ready for eating.

Chili ready for eating as well. 

Our fun new Halloween purchase this year. Some 1940s retro pumpkin couple, each about 3 feet high. Picked these up at a antique store, that I perused online via Etsy.

Also, each year we put out our collection of antique Ball canning jars, in various shades of blue. The look gorgeous lit up with candles all up and down our entry & driveway.

Enjoying some rest time on the couch with our snuggle bug.

With the annual open house complete, it was time to put all the Halloween specific decor away, and break out all the Thanksgiving specific decor to complement the harvest decor and pumpkin collection we've grown over the years.

Our minimal, yet sophisticated Thanksgiving table.

Some of the antique turkey tureen's I started collecting.

Another turkey tureen.

I still love the beauty of the black walnut dining table we recently purchased. Looks great adorned with holiday decor, and lots of candles illuminated.

Also my sister Melanie, made Oscar his first "silky blanket." He loves this treat that Aunt Mel sent him.

Another turkey tureen.

We love our annual harvest time traditions. Our fun soup party and open house we put on. Making seasonal goodies. Getting out all our decor for this time of year. Autumn, and the holiday season are hands down our favorite time of year.