HOLIDAY BAKING

i have finally goten started. better late than never. i started at 12:00 midnight and it is now 1:50am here. i alreay have 2 chewy cakes in the freezer and 10 mini fruit cakes in the oven at this tiime. have you all started too!

Oh, you are doing great Janet! Those mini fruit cakes sound yummy. I'm one who does like a good fruit cake.

I started my Christmas baking last weekend with a co-worker. We got together at my house and baked 9 dozen cookies each for the cookie exchange at work. She doesn't cook, so I helped her and we did her 9 dozen and my 9 dozen in one day. It was great fun. The cookie exchange is tonight after work, so everyone will get one dozen of 9 different cookies. I can't wait to take a plateful of those to the holiday gatherings and put platefulls out here.

Today, I power cleaned and finished wrapping presents while DH baked nestle's tollhouse cookies with the new green and red nestle's Christmas shapes that I discovered in the grocery store and couldn't leave there. LOL! He also made 6 batches of chex mix, because our kids think that is the most important thing on the Christmas menu.

I gotta do pies and buns yet, then it's on to salads, turkeys and hams.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

I started baking cookies yesterday and finished up today. I still want to make some more microwave peanut brittle and some marshmallow fudge.. but that's tomorrow! My Kitchenaid mixer gave up the ghost before Thanksgiving, so we bought a new one... it's black and classy... so I've been having a great time breaking it in!

I've got plastic containers full of cookies all over the place. I baked seven kinds of cookies today! I'm not sending any out this year, I can't eat them, so I'm depending on my husband and two grown sons to put a dent in them. The rest can go here & there around town. We've already taken dog chewies down to the pound, so I guess we should treat our fellow man, as well!

i have 20 christmas tins waiting on the cookies i will cook tomorrow. i try and share with neighbors and friends. i really should have started sooner.

its now 4:10am and all cakes are in the freezer. going to bed now. night all.

Mmmmmm, Janet, those cakes sound good! Your house must smell wonderful.

My baking is all finished. I try to get done about a week before Christmas, gives me a few days to just relax a bit before Christmas actually gets here.
I start my baking about a week or so before Thanksgiving and bake right on up to Christmas; starting with 50 pounds of flour and 25 pounds of sugar and usually ending up buying more baking supplies.
All my cookie and bread trays are usually delivered a week or 2 before Christmas. Ended up delivering right around 18 cookie and bread trays this year. Always nice to get those all out of the way and not have to worry about them at the last minute.

I'll do cookies tomorrow. Just came down with a cold and still working so weekends are hectic! LOL I did get 7 pounds of fudge, five dozen buckeyes and a couple pounds of potato candy made on Sunday. I'll get a good nights sleep after work tonight then blast into cookie mode in the morning. :) Now, who is gonna eat it all???

You folks are so much more ambitious than I am ! It all sounds delicious. Two weeks ago I baked three different kinds of cookies. Everyone must have enjoyed them, because they are all gone. That's it, back to oreos and LL Fudge until next year.

I don't bake but I did start making chocolate covered pretzels last week. I feel like I've made about a million of them.

Badseed what is potato candy?

yeah Michele..sounds good. Can we have the recipe?

Cookie baking was all finished in early Dec. But all the cookies kind of discenigrated, so she started over today.
Looks like lots were baked. Maybe some of these will be around for guests on Christmas Day!
Bernie (Hard to talk with cookie in mouth!)

today i baked 2 pumpkin pies, 2 pecan pies, 10 more mini fruit cakes, and 1 large fruit cake. taking a break right now.

Elsie, Badseed has a cold and hasn't gotten back with you yet so I'll tell you about the potato candy I know about.You use mashed potatoes as a base for powdered sugar,butter and vanilla, then you mix it real well,chill in refrigerator, then form into a ball around a marchino cherry,chill again and then dip in chocolate. yummy! there is probably more ways to make potato candy but this is the one I know. Merry Christmas to all.

Sorry kids, been busy working. Retail+Christmas=headache. LOL Zen, your potato candy sounds wonderful because I LOVE cherries-would almost trade a kid for chocolate covered cherries. ;) I don't know who came up with the recipe we use but my grandma has made it for years. I started making it when I was in my late teens and I am so glad I learned since my grandma is no longer with me. :( The original recipe did call for a small boiled and mashed potato but my grandma changed it and used 3oz of cream cheese in place of the potato. It makes the dough easier to work with and gives the candy a creamier consistency. For this recipe, you use the cream cheese, vanilla, a bit of milk and butter and a bunch of powdered sugar. You mix it thoroughly, split it into thirds and roll it into a very thin dough then spread it with peanut butter. I trim off the odd edges and use a nice rectangle. Then you roll it up and slice it, so it comes out looking like pinwheels about the size of a quarter and half in inch thick or so. If you like peanut butter, this is a must have! The dough is tricky to work with but well worth the trouble. :) A few years back, when I was disgusted I called my grandpa. You see, when my grandma made it, she could fill any sized box with alternated peanute butter fudge, chocolate fudge and potato candy. It always turned out like a perfect checker board-everything exactly the same size. I called my grandpa to see how she did it!! He told me I never saw how much she threw away. It made me sort of sad but also made me remember what a perfectionist she was. If anyone wants the exact recipe, just email me. :)

Have you guys ever had "reindeer poop"?? LOL One of the young girls at work made this for some of us. Boy! Is it good! It was some sort of check cereal, mixed with butter, melted chocolate chips and peanut butter. Then it is tossed in powdered sugar. She put it into little bags with a note attached. I laughed and laughed. It smells like peanut butter fudge and looks like well, little aged poopies. :) It sure is tasty!

Since y'all got your's done......why not come down and help me with mine.......going right now!

"eyes"

LOL Eyes! Oh no you don't! You gotta make your own. ;) We just finished peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses. Chocolate chip cookies coming up next. Hmmmm, five little helpers-a good thing or a bad thing????

Badseed, I make the peanut butter rolls too. I use every thing but potato and cream cheese. I'm going to try the cream cheese.I bet it does make it more creamy and not quite so sweet. Thanks

This sounds like a different recipe, but may try to get some made for the little kiddies. I'm baking two pumpkin pies and have dough raising for buns now. Cookies are all done. Still have to make cheesecakes too. Is Christmas Eve really tomorrow? Yikes.

Gourmet
Reindeer Poop

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons cocoa
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups oatmeal -- not instant
1/2 cup chopped nuts -- optional


Method:
Mix butter, sugar, milk and cocoa together in a large saucepan.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; boil for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients.
Drop by teaspoon full (larger or smaller as desired) onto wax paper and let harden.
They will set up in about 30-60 minutes.
These will keep for several days without refrigerating,
up to 2 weeks refrigerated and 2-3 months frozen.



Pack into ziplock sandwich bags and attach the following note to each bag.


I woke up with such a scare when I heard Santa call...
"Now dash away, dash away, dash away all!"
I ran to the lawn and in the snowy white drifts,
those nasty reindeer had left "little gifts".
I got an old shovel and started to scoop,
neat little piles of "Reindeer Poop!"
But to throw them away, seemed such a waste,
so I saved them, thinking-you might like a taste!

As I finished my task, which took quite awhile.
Old Santa, passed by and he sheepishly smiled.
And I heard him exclaim as he was in the sky...
"Well they're not potty trained, but at least they can fly!"

Hey, thanks for all these wonderful recipes. I've printed them all out. My baking is done for this year but these will definitely be on my list for next year!

Joan, that recipe sounds good! The note on mine was the same though. :) I'll have to show your recipe to my young friend, but I bet she'll like her easier one. LOL

JoanJ, I make that too but we have always call it Horse Poop. lol

............I had decided not to bake a bazillion cookies this year.Instead I have made a simple Peanut Brittle and a White Candy Cane Bark.
..........A large Old Fashioned Marble Poundcake with German style Buttercreme Chocolate Frosting (This is not the common sugar laden icing almost everyone knows)

Miss J.
........I will make some Reindeer Poop though. Thanks for the easy and fun idea (-:
...................Has anyone ever made Kitty Litter Cookies? I took some to a board meeting once, in one of those disposable/travel kitty litter boxes. Sprinkle some Grape-Nuts cereal in the box (looks like K.litter), scatter cookies over top. You should'a seen thier faces..ROTF funny.
My Best to all of you,
Shirley

Scooterbug,next Halloween treat your board room with this. It's not for Christmas by any means, but it tastes great!

http://www.kidskuisine.com/asp/recipe.asp?recipe=104

Think I should make that for GS's B-Day party? Pre teens giggle at anything poopy or gassy.
I know .................Bad GM ! HaHa =)
Last year I squirted him with Whipping cream till I couldn't catch him anymore.
Really Bad GM !

I made my Holiday candies last week because we send many to my business suppliers. (That hometown "Iowa Touch") Alkl the ones I have here at home have been eaten. Same with the 3 kids of cookies I made. I'm not as ambitious this year as most. Seems like the time goes too fast or I'm too lazy...