Christmas Cookies

Here is the last documentation of our Christmas baking. There were attempts at caramel and peanut butter fudge made by me that left me close to swearing, but holding my mother in awe remembering how she cooked them to perfection year after year. Both turned out too hard and the caramel also scorched in those few seconds I was testing the ball firmness. I am not giving up, but will take a year off before attempting again. The caramel corn turned out much better. We tried two different recipes and both were a hit. The last of it disappeared after church today. The gingersnaps we made and half dipped in white chocolate turned out beautiful and were complemented as neighbor gifts.

But below are pictures of the last batch of sugar cookies. We made dozens a couple weeks ago and the kids frosted and sprinkled them to within an inch of their lives. But I didn't take pictures and then they all disappeared at the ward Christmas party. The kids loved watching people take their cookies and reported back, "Makenna, a teenager has one of yours!" "I see one of mine." "That person took two!" They loved the fact that all 6 dozen were GONE long before other varieties. We had to make one more batch for Santa, and this time I introduced them to cookie painting.


This is a tradition from my childhood. You can mix a few drops of food coloring with egg yolks and then "paint" the unbaked cookies. It's a very thin coating that doesn't make them taste egg-y at all, but gives them a colored gloss. With little paintbrushes, you can get very fancy and detailed. They loved it, of course.

These are some shots of the work in progress. First was Makenna, then Jess above.

Here are Isaac and Jess sharing a tray. Isaac would go back and forth between the girls depending on which shape he wanted to paint next.

Here are some of the finished products. It was such a hit, I think we'll have to try it again at Easter and Halloween.

This last picture is not for the faint of stomach. They didn't use up much of 4 egg yolks and I still had the egg whites, so I decided to make Isaac an omelet for lunch as a special treat. Omelets are one of his very favorite breakfasts that he doesn't get nearly enough, but he wasn't too sure about this one. He laughed and laughed when he firsts saw it. He tried eating a few bites with a blindfold and realized it tasted just the same and finished the rest in plain sight. I don't think a meal has ever made him laugh so much.

Isaac's ham and green onion omelet.