Sweet Thoughts

Krisp Kringles

Busy, Busy, Busy! That’s a battle cry for so many of us at this time of year, isn’t it? The holiday season can be a bloggers worst nightmare. But then again if I’m going to call the miracle that saves my spirits in winter a nightmare, I must acknowledge MS as this blogger’s best friend! I wasn’t diagnosed yet last Christmas, but I’m planning my balancing to be the same way. One batch of cookies or cakes at a time with a break in between dough and bake and another break between bake and clean, new recipe, repeat. During breaks, I blog. That may sound like a cumbersome way to do it, but I’ve been making Davinities at Christmas since I was 7 years old and the mobility issues and fatigue have gradually onset over the past few years, so adapting has been pretty easy. This year I really don’t feel confident with carrying trays of hot cookies from the oven to the counter. I have that planned out. I’m going to use my large poly cutting board on the seat of my walker to put the hot cookie sheet on and wheel it to the counter where I can move the cookies to the counter and have a seat so I can put them on the cooling racks. Easy peasy!

I’m still deciding on the “other” Davinities for this year. I do Krisp Kringles every year. They were the very first Davinity when I was 7. Butterscotch and peanut butter are Pop’s favorite sweet flavors and when I read that recipe in the Nestle Cook book I got, I just had to make them for Daddy! As I think about it now, that was MY cookbook I got the recipe from when I was 7. I wanted it and most of the words were in my vocabulary if not my reading vocabulary yet. That’s the nice thing about baking. There aren’t so many complicated words or instructions that a 7-year-old can’t do it, with Mom’s help, of course. I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me that Tori had cookbooks on her wish list at 8 or 9, similar DNA and all.

So other than the Krisp Kringles, I do Mr. Goodcookies every year for me. Yes, that’s my one selfish indulgence. I love Mr. Goodcookies. I created the variation on everyday chocolate chip cookies because I wanted my favorite candy bar in cookie form. Fortunately I have friends and relatives who enjoy them too!

Nameless Hazelnuts

Last year I made a small sample batch of chocolate chunk hazelnut cookies for David and he loved them. A few other people tried them and they got good reviews, so I may officially make them Davinities this year. I think I’ll call them “Piccolo Bacio,” which takes off on my favorite hazelnut and chocolate Christmas candy and is Italian for “little kiss.” Since I made them first for David, maybe I should play on HIS favorite hazelnut and chocolate candy and call them “Rochereuse” or something. I still have time to name them.

As for the other cookies, my friend, Marie, has retired from professional baking and has released some of her cookie recipes. Since I can’t just order from Celebration Generation this year, I might just give a try at making her fruitcake cookies. By the way, I’m not a big traditional fruitcake fan but I LOVED these cookies when Marie made them. I’m also planning to try her recipe for macarons, which are light merengue type cookies, usually with filling. They are gluten free and the cookies on their own are very low in calories too. I’ll experiment with that one before Thanksgiving and if they turn out as good as they are in my mind, I’ll bring some for Thanksgiving dinner. It will also give me a good opportunity to try out my cookie-walker idea.

I really love the idea of doing some cake pops, but I just don’t think the pans for them will work with this year’s budget, so maybe that will be the new divinity for 2012. Since the pans are available now, maybe someone will make them and sell them, maybe at the Eastern Market? I love the Starbucks ones, so yes, I’d gladly buy some for David and me Christmas day. Christmas Eve is Saturday this year, so the market should be open all over there this year. I definitely want to go, if for nothing else, to stock up on carrots for the rest of the year. For years, the Eastern Market has meant that I buy a few containers of carrots, because I’ll eat half a peck in the car on the way home!

Okay, this blog post has taken a few hours to write. I’ve been writing during the commercials. There’s a Harry Potter mini marathon on ABC Family. I saw the Chamber of Secrets and The Prisoner of Azkaban will be done at the top of the hour. Goblet of Fire, my favorite of them all, is on tomorrow!

So, commercial is over. So it this blog.

Links:

Celebration Generation
Great recipes here!