December 21, 2012

today is the first day of Winter...and the shortest day of the year...

found this really cool chart of hours of daylight in major cities

around the globe....

had our first snow .....not much accumulation....

made everything look pretty though....

Ross and I did ALL of our Christmas shopping tonight....finally!!!

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wanted to make some Spritz cookies tonight.....here is my

moms recipe....hope your open house went great tonight MOM!!!

SPRITZ Cookies : family recipe

1 1/2 cups softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

mix the butter and sugar together....add egg , milk, vanilla and extract.....mix well.....in another bowl....mix the flour and baking powder together.....gradually add the flour mixture into the wet and mix well.

my Mom makes Spritz cookies every year for her Christmas Open House...

so I have either been a part of making them or seen them made every year....

a few years ago....I bought a cookie press with the expectation that I would be able

to duplicate the cookies that I have had all of my life.....well...as you can see from the

top tray...I started with Christmas trees....they did not come out well at all...so as I

am yelling for Ross to come into the kitchen, he reminds me that I tried this

a couple years ago and it didn't work then either.....needless to say...I wasn't going

to waste the dough so I just rolled them into balls and pressed a fork into them (like a

peanut butter cookie) sprinkled the goodies on top and put them in the oven....

now...if any of you have ever had Spritz cookies before, you know that they are

dry to begin with and not much sugar is added....so they are not really sweet...so

I have several dozen heavy, not sweet cookies....I would mark this cookie night

as not a huge success, but Ross loves this kind of cookie...so all is well I guess!!!



while the cookies were baking...I went in search of a Vintage Cookie Press,

found one on Amazon and promptly ordered it.....now this is the one I am

used to using......not the plastic piece of junk I have.

I will try again once it arrives......

Pleasant Dreams!!!