Need to BLOG! Need to BLOG!Yes, those are the words I keep repeating to myself. I MISS, MISS, MISS blogging! But everyday comes and everyday goes and life just gets in the way. Good thing this is NOT my full-time job, I would be failing miserably.
A number of things have come in my path... 1) LIFE 2) KIDS AWAY AT COLLEGE (means less cooking) 3) A HOME FLOOD 4) PURE LAZINESS!!! But baking, it's Christmas time and I can FOR SURE find lots of time to get my baking in. The kitchen is OPEN FOR BUSINESS and the baking has begun in my home. I hope to share with you a few ole' recipes and of course a few new ones too!
Yesterday was my first ever Pinterest Baking Party, which I hope there will be many more baking parties in my near future with this new tradition. The plan was for each person to bring a recipe (or two), we went with two because we only had 4 people commit to this 1st EVER Baking Day. We all spent approximately $100 dollars buying all the stuff for 8 batches of goodies (but we all left with 8 batches of goodies). So, for my $100 bucks and my ONE ALL DAY baking event, I left with the 8 batches of stuff I received and I was able to package up 7 teacher gifts, 1 extra large tray for the entire school office, 6 add'l medium size containers to give away (one to a neighbor and five to needy families in our community) and then 2 small individual gifts for the orthodontics office and one more container for my new house cleaner (a Christmas gift to myself this year). Plus there was at least a plate full left at home to munch on and a dozen or two cookies left I put in the freeze for my son to snack on (Spice Cookies, his favorite)!
We all shopped and brought enough stuff to make TWO items (and since there were 4 of us) we bought and brought enough stuff to make 4 batches of EACH of the two items. This way we would all go home with 8 batches of goodies, 1 batch of each item = 8 items = 8 batches of per yumminess!!! It's a little complicated, but actually quite simple.Tina (myself) picked 2 recipes = Cranberry Crunch Bark and White Chocolate Spice Cookies
Sandy picked 2 recipes = Snickerdoodle Cupcakes and Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cynthia picked 2 recipes = Cookie Butter Rice Krispy Treats and Cinnamon Pecans
Ashlyn picked 2 recipes = Hershey Kiss Cookies and Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
We made 4 batches of each of the above recipes.
We used Pinterest for some inspiration on some of these recipes and some were just ole' time favorites. We made a Pinterest Board for everyone to pin too and follow for ideas so that no one made the same items.
Then we all gathered at my house from 11am to 8pm (it went over about 2 hours more then originally planned), but it was our 1st time. Everyone began creating and make 4 batches of each of the 2 recipes they brought. I had huge 6' tables set up, one for each person. This helped with organizing and collecting all the goodies at the end of the day.
4 Batches each of all this Deliciousness: Cranberry Crunch Bark broken up and then packaged into little baggies. The White Chocolate Spice Cookies were easy but required alot of cooking, so watch the recipes that need the oven and space them out. Cynthia made two recipes one used NO oven and went into a 9x13 pan (which even brought their own pans needed) and then these cut into nice squares to package, and the pecans were easy to also add to goodies bags and just tie with a bow. The Snickerdoodle Cupcakes worked great for me to send a plate to my son's school office and also for my daughter to take to work on leave on the break table. And of course cookies and Homemade Peanut Butter Cups were another huge hit in the containers I packaged up.
This was such and easy way for everyone to only be able to worry about making 2 recipes and yet leaving with 8 different items! This takes on a whole new level of the Cookie Exchange.
Here are some great photos and we made some great memories too, like my daughter who now calls herself the one-sock baker. She was hot/cold, hot/cold and got comfortable with one sock on, one sock off. I guess it's kinda like one foot out of the covers! Overall it was a great baking day and I can't wait to plan next year's baking extravaganza.
