I just couldn’t do a whole week of cookies without mentioning these favorites, Buttery Pecan Snowballs. They might actually be the most ubiquitous holiday cookie of all time (or are did they originate as Mexican wedding cookies, or tea cakes in Russia?) and I do not know of one person who doesn’t like them. My Mom’s recipe has always called for pecans so that is what I use in ours. Like a true Powernap recipe, these cookies are an absolute cinch to make. The dough calls for four ingredients assembled in one bowl. Then they are rolled up and baked before be covered with a light dusting of sugar.
When some Moms and I decided to get together for an early holiday gathering we all agreed to bring some tasty cookies. It wasn’t a cookie swap per se, more like a cookie potluck. I asked around for ideas on what people wanted and got a whole variety of requests, but the two that stuck out to be were eggnog cookies and snickerdoodles. At first I thought about doing both cookies separately and then I thought, heck no, I’ll combine them!
This is the latest installment of my Tales from the Trenches Series. An ongoing series where friends and readers share their stories and recipes about the great food they fit into family life. We all have tips and tricks to share with each other: when we cook, what we cook and how we cook the delicious food we love to eat. If you are interested in contributing a story and recipe please feel free to contact me. Today my friend’s Cara Eisenpress and Phoebe Lapine, the talented bloggers behind Big Girls, Small Kitchen and Small Kitchen College are sharing one of their favorite holiday cookie recipes. Be sure to check out their first cookbook, In the Small Kitchen: 100 Recipes from Our Year of Cooking in the Real World, it was published in May and makes a fabulous holiday gift!
Around this time last year, as our Thanksgiving fullness waned and our tummies grumbled in anticipation of holiday food, we had the opportunity to attend not one but two cookie swaps.
Full admission: we’re not sure we’d ever been to a cookie swap before those two invitations landed in our inbox, but the idea is pretty genius, and of course we caught right on. If it’s not obvious (it wasn’t to us!), here’s how it works: everyone in attendance makes enough cookies for everyone else in attendance to take at least one of each variety home. Participants put out their own cookies, fill up empty boxes, and leave with a far vaster assortment of cookies than they’d ever have had the patience to make themselves. Like a potluck, a format of which we’re very fond, since it cuts down so much on prep time and clean up. And a cookie swap is even more productive than our philosophy of BYOB to dinner parties, since normally by the end of those there isn’t anything to take home. All the wine’s been drunk.
Welcome to Naptime Chef Holiday Cookie Week! I am a huge fan of baking holiday cookies and I know I am not the only one. This week I want to hear all about your naptime cookie baking. Are you working with tried and true recipes? Experimenting with new ones? Do share! Of course, no Naptime Chef theme week would be complete without a great giveaway package. Today I have loads of goodies you will love for your holiday baking!
I am popping in today with a quick holiday hello and some crafting ideas to kick off the holiday season. Before I begin I need to offer full disclosure and tell you I am not a heavy duty crafter. I like to decorate things here and there, but I’ve never once made anything truly worth displaying. That said, when I was invited to craft with the Martha Stewart Family Room Blog team I jumped at the chance since I knew it would be a chance for me to finally learn how to set-up some great holiday crafts I could do with my daughter. I view crafting together as the same bonding activity as us cooking together, and the more I know about it the more fun it will be for both of us.
