This year I had the pleasure of participating in the Second Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. Basically, a long, fancy name for a good, ol’ fashioned cookie exchange. Don’t mind if I do.
Here’s how it worked: Lots of food bloggers signed up to participate in this cookie swap, which was organized by Love & Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen (two absolutely amaaaazing food blogs, drool drool yum yum hungry hungry). Once everyone signed up, you receive 3 matches who you will send cookies to, and 3 other people are assigned to send cookies to me. These 3 matches are kept secret until cookie time. When it came time (last week), I baked 3 dozen cookies–1 dozen for each of my secret matches–and sent them on their merry way.
It was fun to check out my secret matches’ food blogs, too. I can never have too many food blogs to read, I tell ya. If you want to see the wonderful ladies who I sent cookies to, check out Lacey from Small Town Cookie, Fran at Fran’s Favs, and Lauren at A Picture Journey. They are talented, talented bakers!
I also got some cookies of my own! Many many thanks to Rosie at ForkPenMouth for Buckwheat Cocoa Nib Shortbread Cookies, Amanda at Culinary Quirks for the most incredible Strawberry Cheesecake Sandwich Cookies (my husband devoured these in minutes), and Tina at The Daily Bite for melt-in-your-mouth Italian lemon cookies!
This cookie swap has really gotten me in the Christmas spirit. Happy Christmas cookies to all!
Beat together the melted butter and brown sugar until light and smooth in texture, about 3 minutes.
Add your egg, and beat a little more.
Pour in that rich, thick molasses.
In another bowl, toss together the flour, baking soda, salt, and all those Christmassy spices.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture, and stir by hand just until combined. Refrigerate dough for an hour or two.
Form little balls and roll into the white sugar.
Food has a sentimental effect on me. I just celebrated my wedding anniversary this week, and you better believe I can’t think of my wedding day without thinking about food.
The night before my wedding day, I stayed up late making batch after bath of homemade butter caramels to give out as favors to my wedding guests. Thankfully I had a troupe of workers (a.k.a. select family and friends) to cut and individually wrap them in parchment paper and fold cute, little favor boxes. Needless to say, it was stressful.
And yet, I look back with so much pride and the utmost sentimentality when I think of all those caramels that I made with love.
What do you make that’s chock-full of memories and love?
This is a casserole recipe, and, by golly, casseroles always feel sentimental and homey to me. In honor of Thanksgiving coming up next week, I wanted to share an alternative to that green bean casserole. It’s very similar—but made with broccoli instead of green beans and incredibly easy. It even has those tasty french fried onions on top! Happy casserole baking!
Start by gently steaming or cooking your broccoli.
Mix together the soup, milk, soy sauce, pepper, 2/3-cup onions, and 1/2 cup cheese. OK, so it doesn’t look the most appetizing yet. Just give it time!
Combine the cooked broccoli and soup mixture in a casserole dish.