here come the holidays

dunno 'bout you, but I'm really excited about the holidays.

Last week, I made 9 varieties of cookie dough. Mind you, it's just the dough, I haven't baked em ... yet. Baking them will take more time. And it would be better to bake them closer to the time I'd actually serve them, so they're fresher. Plus, it's easier to store frozen cookie dough logs than large tupperware containers of hand-molded and shaped cookies.

Here's what I've made so far:
- gingerbread
- chocolate mint pinwheels
- peanut butter blossoms
- peanut butter bon bon
- lemon pistaschio pretzel-shaped cookie
- cream cheese dough for raspberry pinwheels
- secret recipe chocolate chip cookie
- white chip island cookie

This week, I hope to use up the rest of my bulk butter (4lbs.!) by making:
- gingersnap
- chocolate/ cinnamon vanilla checkers
- snowy chocolate crinkles

I also am planning on making candies (good if I don't get around to making all the cookies.. or maybe I will enlist my baby sis to bake them this week-- she could take some back to school with her, in exchange...hmmm).

So far, I've made one batch of homemade caramels. I have the supplies to make caramel and peanut butter dipped pretzel rods and then dip them in chocolate and sprinkles. I also found a cool recipe for making english toffee. I also found a recipe for homemade chocolate truffles. I think I can make all of them in the evenings over the next two weeks if I work at it.

I also have a can of pureed pumpkin, ripe for pumpkin bread or pumpkin butter to go with those gingersnaps.

Sick huh?
Don't know why I am so obsessed with making cookies and sweets. Maybe it's 'cause I'm not allowed to eat 'em! Maybe it's 'cause I haven't spent as much time on cooking in the last couple of months... and I can't help myself liking to watch others enjoy the fruit of my labors. Sigh. It's a crazy thing I do every year. A sick, compulsive need to make use of my hands. Nothing beats the feeling of hand-mixing certain cookie doughs, or using a smooth wooden spoon to stir a hot mini-vat of molten butter, cream and sugar. The high I get in smelling the caramelizing sugar and spices like cinnamon, ginger, vanilla and nutmeg... the feeling of accomplishment when I package the treats in cute, christmas-y cellophane bags.

Yay. Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Christmas! Bring it on.