I say this as I sit in my hot tub of peppermint hot chocolate whilst wearing a Santa hat and blasting every Manheim Steamroller Christmas album and debating the merits of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer vs. How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the hierarchy of Christmas specials with my good buddy Frosty the snowman (don't ask me how he's not melting, it's some sort of magic that I refuse to question). And yes, we've already established that A Charlie Brown Christmas is superior.
I think all of the treats and bright colors are going to my head. Even my oatmeal is getting festive.
Matcha, raspberries, and cream cheese, yum!
But hey, I like treats and bright colors, so I'm having fun with it. See, I was productive this weekend. Let me brag a bit to all you procrastinators out there *ahem* MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IS DONE! To be fair, it's not a difficult task for me since my siblings decided not to exchange gifts, so that leaves my mom and dad. I would brag about what a great daughter I am by telling you what I got them, but they might read this blog. I'm perfectly fine at keeping secrets unless it involves gifts, then I just wanna tell the person and make them happy. But no, I shall remain strong. I was also in the market for a clever gift for a white elephant party, which I was able to find. It may or may not be wrapped in bright pink paper because I'm too cheap to buy a whole roll of paper for one gift and the pink was what I had.
The majority of my Christmas shopping happened in Grapevine, the self-proclaimed "Christmas Capitol of Texas." Not sure how they got that title, but every building was decked to the nines and full of holiday cheer. One of my good friends and I trolled the stores and got some really great, unique items for the people we care about. I would tell you about some of the cool local shops we went to, but that would be a dead giveaway for a couple of the gifts. It was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. We ended out trip properly with some edible cookie dough from a scoop shop called Doughlicious, which was great, but it was a sugar overload for ME, so I recommend splitting a scoop with your friend. For those of you not up on your food trends, "edible" cookie dough is cookie dough made with heat-treated flour and either pasteurized eggs or egg substitute, meant to be eaten raw. It's a fun treat that's a nice mix-up from the usual ice cream.
With all of this shopping an general holiday cheer, I didn't really do much cooking this weekend. But, fear not! I am sharing one of the great secrets to my power as a baker: my fudge puddle recipe. Growing up, these have always been my absolute favorite cookie to make and devour at Christmas time. I have given many plates of cookies in the two Christmases since moving to Texas, and these are hands down the most popular ones. Peanut butter and chocolate, you really can't go wrong with these. They may look a bit plain next to the decorated sugar cookies and truffles, but they won't be around for long. I'm used to making these from an index card in my mom's old recipe box, but that index card has a clipping from a Taste of Home magazine from who-knows-when. So I checked the Taste of Home web site and lo and behold, there was my recipe. Yay, I don't have to type it! I don;t have any pictures of just the fudge puddles , so enjoy this one of my cookie plates. I know it's a repeat, but it's a good picture, darn it! If you can't figure out which of these are the fudge puddles just by looking, then maybe you shouldn't be in the kitchen to begin with.
Sprinkles of Kim:
-I use a melon baller to get the indentation
-We've always done the fudge over a double boiler, which I think keeps the fudge from hardening too early
-I haven't done it with chopped nuts. I do not trifle with perfection, and these cookies are perfect.
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