Cookie Exchange Mayhem

Over the last three years, I've participated in a really fun Cookie Exchange that one of my friends has thrown. Every time, she's changed the theme so people can get pretty creative with their cookie names, designs and even how they dress. Sadly, this is her last year doing it since she'll be moving back to the states in the middle of this up coming year. *pout*

Being true to form, I stuck with my traditional cream cheese cookies since they seem to be a hit every year, despite never winning "Best Tasting". I don't get that..I really don't, lol. Every year, I get loads of compliments on them, always get asked to make more, but I never win that specific category. 

This year, I figured I'd box up all the cookies and would keep my fingers crossed for hopefully winning the "Presentation" category. So, I scoured the internet while I was back in California, found some "Winter Wonderland" themed cookie boxes and had 'em shipped here. Honestly, I was pretty shocked at how nice they actually were considering they weren't all that expensive. For the life of me, I can't remember where I ordered 'em from :(

Pictured below are all the ingredients I used to make this cookie factory come to life: 

25 cups of flour

10 cups of sugar

10 cups of butter

56 ounces of cream cheese
10 egg yolks

YES, that's a whole lot of cookies to be made with that amount of ingredients! When I originally RSVP'd to the exchange, I could've sworn that participants were required to bake A LOT of cookies...like thirteen dozen. Apparently, I really didn't read the directions properly because people only needed to make FOUR dozen..go me! So, everyone ended up with a dozen and a half cookies each box...and I made eighteen boxes, lol. 

My trusty Pampered Chef Cookie Press:

I ended up using six of my stoneware pieces to cycle through all the cookies that needed to be baked...aye aye aye..

By the time I was done, I made a total of 400 cookies in which 288 was used for the Cookie Exchange. The others were given to friends who asked for some when they found out I was making them, lol. I ended up doing coconut frosting since that seemed to be a massive hit last year, verses using my traditional lemon frosting. Eric was absolutely thrilled *please note my sarcasm* to help me "paint" all of 'em since it gets really tiring, yet wasteful, to dip all the cookies in the icing. 

Here's how everything looked by the time we were done :) 

Oh, and I won "Best Presentation"! YAY!

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Guiltless Meringues

I swear, my dreams as of late have had meteor sized cupcakes smashing into my house, or it's raining cookies and white chocolate.

One of my favorite things on the planet is lemon meringue. Mainly the meringue part. SO, I poked around online and found a recipe that's diet friendly, and quite delicious.

• 2 egg whites
  
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar 
• 1/3 cup Splenda
  
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
  
• ¼ teaspoon coconut extract (or change it up a bit, a cap full of lemon juice OR perhaps peppermint)

Preheat oven to 350º

( Note: Allow the oven about 10 minutes of preheating time before use. )  

Beat egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar.

Beat well and gradually add Splenda. Beat until very stiff. 

Add vanilla extract and coconut extract. 

Make sure it's stiff!! *snicker*

Drop by teaspoonfuls on cookie sheet. 

Place in oven that has been set to 350. Bake for 10 minutes then TURN OFF THE OVEN and leave it in there. No peeking allowed!Check back within an hour and your "cookies" should be done!

 

Tasty little treats without the guilt! AWESOME! 

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Part Duex of CC Cookies

As you read from yesterdays post, I had made some Cream Cheese Cookies for a party that we're attending later tonight. Eric got a little grumpy that I made, literally, just enough for the party and none for us since I wasn't wanting to temp the "Expanding Waist Fairy". That fairy is rather unforgiving when it comes to being naughty and making my clothes fit tighter...not a fan of it. 

Well, after enough heavy sighing and whimpering on his part, I finally made some more. This time, I rolled out the dough and cut out some stars since I gave the option to Eric between: Cookie Press, Reindeer cutter, Tree cutter or Star cutter....star won. And, the cookies needed to be red, lol.

 Follow the same recipe I posted from the last entry, but if you're wanting to make cut out shapes..you'll need to flour the counter top and rub flour on your rolling pin. I usually knead more flour into the dough so it won't be as tacky when I'm trying to roll everything out / scrape it off of the counter to put on the stoneware.

 When doing cut out cookies with this type of dough, you really need to be patient. Sometimes it'll like to rip when you're trying to take it from the counter to the stoneware piece. Just be gentle with it!

 As you can see, one of the cookies isn't happy about his current situation. He knows he's gonna get shoved into a hot box, then eaten. Can't say I blame him. 

 Once all the cookies were hammered out and cooled down, I made a batch of Coconut Frosting (same recipe from the previous post) but with a splash more coconut extract. Eric is a glutton for it like a moth to a flame! So, I slathered it on the cookies..let 'em dry..and tah-dah! All donesies! 

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Hey, look! A real post!

Aye Aye Aye, it's been a while since I've actually posted something that isn't either a recipe or something to do with the 30 day challenge :) 

I've been under the weather for the last several days. I guess there's some sort of bug that's making it's way through the base..so I suppose it was only a matter of time where it got me. So, for the most part, I've been trying...I say, "TRYING" to take it easy since everything feels like it takes 10x more energy to accomplish. 

We finally got some snow! It actually started snowing earlier this week, so sorry for just now posting some sort of picture of it. There have been some pretty big snow storms mauling England and have steadily made their way to here, but nothing as severe as to what they've been dealing with. I think I've gotten the hang of driving in snow..at least on my street since there's a nice, thick layer of ice to drive on, lol

 My side mirror:

The backyard:

Due to the snow and everything, I got around to dragging the Christmas tree from the garage and got it all set up and decorated. I found some really cool aluminum poinsettia ornaments while I was at the BX, so I figured those would look pretty cool on the tree. I'm sittin' here and actually staring at my anorexic tree and thinking about all the places I've managed to see since we've been in Europe. For every place that I go to, I pick up a cool little vintage glass ornament (except Poland, that's an actual Polish pottery piece). As of now, I have a beer stein for Belgium, a tea cup for England, a coo coo clock for Germany, a pottery bell from Poland, a church tower for the town we live in and I'm working on finding either the Eiffel Tower or a croissant for France. 

My favorite little ornament...chunky lil sheepy :)

Eric and I are heading to an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party tomorrow, so I figured I'd make some of my Grandma's "Cream Cheese Cookies" . I absolutely LOVE these lil cookies..and so do a lot of other people. I try to switch up the icing by using different flavors (orange, lemon, almond, or coconut) ...they taste great even plain! My only real complaint about making these is that you (usually) use a Cookie  Press. Sometimes it's your friend, sometimes it's not. Your batter can't be too thick or too soft...and if you use stoneware, it has to be COLD (as in running cold water over it once it's cooled down a bit) to impress the dough onto it. I looked like a cookie factory earlier since I was using four different stoneware pieces to keep the flow of little tree's going.

Ingredients

I tend to double this recipe! So if you want a good amount of cookies, double all of the ingredients)

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups Self Rising flour

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease cookie sheets.If you have seasoned Stoneware, you won't need to worry about greasing.  

In a large bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in flour until well blended (I tend to sift the flour into the batter so it insures no clumps). Drop dough by spoonfuls or use a cookie press to place onto prepared cookie sheets.  

Bake for 15 minutes (no more, no less) in preheated oven. Cookies will look pale (that's normal!). 

Ingredients for Icing:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons of milk
• 1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 Tablespoon of flavoring (lemon juice, orange juice, almond extract or coconut extract. Or, nothing at all). 

I HIGHLY recommend you use FRESH squeezed lemon juice (you can even buy it in those little bottles that look like lemons), get oranges and squeeze 'em out (I use a Citrus Press)...I haven't tried processed orange juice that you buy in the carton, then again, I can't drink that stuff, lol. Try not to get any pulp in the icing..it'll give a weird texture I don't think you'll want.. Oh, and I say fresh is better than the orange / lemon extract cause the extract stuff makes the icing taste "chemical-y". I tend to "paint" on the frosting on with a silicone basting brush. Oh, and you can add more "flavoring" as you plug along depending on how thick / runny you want the icing :)

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