The Cookie Extraveganza

New Year's Day had us up early enough to be the very first customers at the local Starbucks of the New Year. Literally. We stood outside the door and waited for them to unlock it.

Mike, Rob, Kristin, Goldie and I piled into the SUV and began the trek to McKeesport. Because of the weather forecast, the Winter Classic hockey game was moved from it's original 1 p.m. start time to an 8 p.m. start time. That meant my plans for a fancy-smancy dinner were blown to pieces.

Upon our McKeesport arrival, Mike and Robert decided to do some defensive eating before the cookie making. Since there are only fast food restaurants in McKeesport, we ended up at KFC. Where I promptly dared the two of them to try a double-down.

They decided to split just one.

Robert wasn't really amused by this suggestion.

It was so disgusting that this was as much of it that the two of them combined could not eat.

On to happier things. The cookie making was a huge success. I already showed you how prepared for us Heather was, what with aprons and recipes. We got to work as soon as we arrived, and, well, I think these pictures can show you how much fun we had -- and how many cookies we ate -- more than I can.

Making the PB Ritz sandwiches, ready for chocolate dipping.

She's a born cookie-maker!

Dipping the PB Ritz sandwiches. It took serious technique.

Mmmmm. Chocolate, AND wine.

This system was set up for the Raspberry Jam Thumbprints. Heather weighs a small amount of dough, rolls it into a ball, dips it in egg wash, rolls it in coconut, places it on a pan, pushes her thumb into it to make a hole and fills that hole with jam.

After baking.

Heather and coooookies.

Kristin rolling out the sugar cookie dough.

More peanut butter Ritz sandwiches.

Do you know how hard it was not to just devour them all. Oh, wait, I did.

The Raspberry Jam Thumbprint assembly line.

Mike putting the left over melted chocolate to good use.

Peanut butter blossoms with candy centers.

Sugar cookie icing.

We were nearly comatose by this point, and we only made 4 different types of cookies. Heather makes over 12 different types at a time, and does that for 4 straight days during the holidays.

A bit more Crayola than Christmas.

The Day in Pictures -- Christmas Night Edition

Thank you, Melissa, for calling me out on not posting. You're right, I haven't. I can't exactly claim how hectic it's been (since the holidays are for everyone), but I haven't gotten the precious-to-me time alone, on the couch, with my laptop since the previous post.

I hope everyone had an incredible holiday. The Petron family certainly did. I took a video of all the presents under the David Petron's tree, once Barb and Joe arrived with theirs, and Mike and I brought over ours. But, that video, along with all the Christmas photos I took, are gone, along with my iPhone. Hold your breath in anticipation, because the next post will be about the aforementioned iPhone getting stolen.

But needless to say, it was a present extravaganza. Nate didn't quite understand the opening of presents for himself, but I truly believed he loved watching everyone else open -- and react -- to their presents. We had a blast after a great brunch on Christmas morning (oh! And this was after a great night at the David Petron's before... wait for it, wait for it... 7:30 p.m. candelight service!!!! NOT 11:00 p.m., as we've gone in the past. Do you know how much happier I am at a 7:30 p.m. service instead of an 11:00 p.m. service?!?!)

After the present extravaganza, Mike and I went home and took a nap for 40 minutes (said all quite and whispery so you don't judge) before staring dinner. I had worked really hard the day before to cut, prep, marinate, and cook as much as I could, so it was just a matter of pulling it all together.

The Keelings joined us, which was the best Christmas present of all!, and thanks to Kristin for taking all these pictures of the meal and general merriment.

Notice the plethora of glasses on the table. A lot. We filled them all. A lot.

Butternut squash soup. The only non-paleo course served, and it was at least primal, if not paleo. It had a bit of cream, and topped with a little bit of honey.

Then a simple spinach salad.

And for the main course, Barb's family's tradition of fillet and lobster tail. Accompanied by a port-red wine sauce, roasted broccoli, and roasted mushrooms.

And while not my making, the delicious and famous Christmas cookies. Please note that you see on this plate -- out for everyone to eat!! -- are the triple chocolate chip and the peanut butter ritz sandwiches dipped in chocolate.

A good time was had by all.

Tipsy.

Upon the Keeling's last visit, Kristin requested caroling at Christmas. Joe not only brought his violin, but also printed out packets of music for all to sing along.

I think Nate was fascinated more by the singing than even the present opening.

Although, eventually, the night won out and defeated him.

These two, though! These two! I'm not sure they ever run out of energy. See me holding that rope? Luci didn't much care for the caroling, and wanted to play tug of war instead. See Goldie in the picture? No? That's because it was all too much for her to handle, and she was curled up asleep in the dining room.

Mike holding evidence of the amount of fun we had.

Although at this particular moment, Nate might disagree.

The Cookies That Weren't

A few days ago I said I was going to attempt to make chocolate chip cookies with almond flour instead of regular, unbleached flour. This, it turns out, was not a good idea.

It started great. Almond flour doesn't feel exactly like unbleached flour (it's more mealy, less silky), but what with the added benefit of it, um, not actually being flour, it appealed to me.

Of course, I steadfastly refused to go truly overboard. These were Christmas cookies, after all, so leaping all the way to these cookies, truly "primal," was more than I was willing to commit.* Therefore, I didn't shy away from the sugar (two kinds!) at all.

Mixed all together with the eggs and butter and vanilla and baking soda, it downright looked like cookie dough.

Especially when I added the chocolate chips. (Two kinds of those, too. Nom nom.)

Yup. Still lookin' like cookies...

Hmmm, now that's odd...

Did I say cookies? I meant cookie. As in, one of them.

Oops. It seems almond flour doesn't exactly have the same binding properties as unbleached flour. The cookies cookie spread out really, really thin on the baking sheets, melting together into one, large gooey chocolateness. They were so thin I couldn't even scrape them off the sheets to cool, I had to let them cool on the cookie sheet, then cut them with a knife, and scrape them off. Most came off in a pile of pieces.

Except for this batch, interestingly enough. The third tray I put into the oven. Maybe I spaced them far enough apart, but these came out of the oven actually looking like real cookies.

Mike even said they tasted that way. I think the taste is a bit "off" from what you'd expect from regular chocolate chip cookies. Besides the obvious that they have a slight nutty taste to them, I can also taste  waaaaay too  much butter int them.

So I'm going to have to categorize this recipe as a failure, albeit a really funny experiment. 

* Primal Blueprint diet "essentially follows the evolutionary model of meats, fish, greens, nuts, vegetables and limited fruits," with minimal refined carbohydrates. I'm not nearly a die-hard primal eater, what with all the sugar I consume, but it's the best way to describe how I aspire to eat. Which is why I've asked hubs for this cookbook several times for Christmas, although every time I do, he acts like he's never heard the request before. And that's why I'm putting it here, again.