Sunday, November 23, 2008

Holiday Planning!

I'm so excited that the Holidays are here! This will be the first year that Dimples and I have Thanksgiving at our own apartment, and this means I'm making a turkey. Lord help us all. Well, actually, Pioneer Woman help us all. She's showed me everything I need to know here and here, so I'm feeling prepared. My Mom and sister are coming over, so it's going to be very small and cozy (the cozy part is because our apartment is like 600 square feet, so when I say cozy, really I mean cozy.) My Mom came over yesterday and we planned our menu:


Turkey-me
Gravy-me
Acorn Squash- Me
Onion Bread-Mom
Salad-Sis
Mashed Potatoes- Sis
Walnut Pie- Mom (we fought over who got to make this. She won...this time. :)
Pumpkin pie-Me
Stuffing- Mom (and since I'm making the turkey, we wont be cooking the stuffing in the turkey, thank goodness. I find that practice disgusting. Would you like a heaping dish of salmonella? Yummy)
Cranberry sauce-Me


And we'll each make an appetizer. I'm excited. Thanksgiving is probably my favorite Holiday because all you do is hang out and eat all day. If we could somehow incorporate gifts into Thanksgiving it would be pretty much the best day ever.


I'm still working on my handmade Christmas gifts, though to be honest I haven't done much since I finished the purse. I'll get there. Really I should have got some done yesterday because I had the entire day off, but nope, I just watched old movies all day. It was fantastic.


And to finish up, last week a sister of one of Dimples clients sent Dimples home when a can of homemade oatmeal cookies. She told them not to eat them all, he had to share some with his wife. I thought this was adorable, so today I made a batch of sugar cookies with a peppermint vanilla frosting to put in the can so he can take them back to her. :)

Here is the easiest bestest Sugar cookie recipe ever, which I found on the back of a set of Wilton cookie cutters:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teas vanilla extract
1/2 teas almond extract (I omit this. I don't keep almond extract around)
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teas baking powder
1 teas salt


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl; add to butter mixture one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Do not chill dough (this is my favorite part! I'm all about instant gratification when it comes to cookies). Roll and cut with cookie cutters as desired. Bake 6-7 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool on racks and frost.

And here are my finished cookies:





And boy howdy are they good. I know what you're thinking: Those would've been prettier if she'd waited until they were cool to frost them, right? But remember when I said I'm all about instant cookie gratification?


True story.

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Yes! That was my plan, to have you make the cheesecake for me, muhahaha! I'm really looking forward to Christmas, it's going to be a blast. (and tell Danny I said Haha, I get the real onion bread.)
    p.s. that walnut pie is the easiest pie ever. I've got the recipe saved on my computer if you want it.

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  3. Walnut pie - post the recipe!!! ANd same (if you've got it) for the onion rolls!

    Your Thanksgiving sounds awesome. We had ours here last year - our first married one. It was really fun, but time consuming.

    Oh and where is the recipe for the frosting for the cookies?? :-)

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  4. Haha Tink, here's my frosting recipe: Buy one can of pillsbury vanilla frosting. Eat half of it with a spoon. Unwrap one candy cane, cover it with saran wrap on a cutting board and crush it to death, mix it into the remaining frosting :)
    I'll post the walnut pie recipe, but sadly, the onion bread recipe is my moms, I don't have it! I'll try to get it from her on Thursday!

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  5. You make me giggle. :-) Thank you!

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