Cookies, Cookies, and More Cookies

I've never baked so many cookies in my life!  But I have a Christmas/Open House party this Saturday and I want to have a variety of cookies out for our guests.  So, I started baking a bunch of cookies, including kinds I've never made before.

Then I decided to give all of our new neighbors plates of cookies as a way of saying hello to the three that I haven't already met.  Just like that 6 dozen cookies were out the door.

Yesterday, the older kids and I went to U-Haul to buy boxes I needed to make a cute kitchen I thought Josh would like for Christmas.  While we were there, I told the guy working what I needed them for and showed him a picture of the finished product.  He told me that he had a wooden kitchen from Target sitting in his garage because his child's mom went out and bought a newer, bigger one.  He offered to bring it to work and give it to us.  That was so nice of him; the least I could do was bring him a plate of cookies.

I also RSVP'd for a homeschool Christmas party a couple of months ago and forgot about until my email reminded me.  There's a cookie exchange at the party so I need more cookies for that and our own party on Saturday. 

We've already made over 200 cookies in the past week.  I saw we because my oldest two have helped with parts of them.  I still have more to make for the party on Saturday.  Yikes!  That's a lot of cookies.

So, far we've made:

Shortbread
Chocolate-Regular Swirl Shortbread (see comments of shortbread)
Snowballs (aka Mexican Wedding Cookies, Russian Tea Cookies)
Macaroons
Chocolate Crinkles

The shortbread and macaroons will be dipped in chocolate tomorrow.

I'm also planning on making fudge (the marshmallow fluff recipe), chocolate peanut butter bars, french silk pie, and chocolate cream cheese pie.  If I can squeeze in the time, I'd like to make more snowballs since most of them went to the neighbors and the shortbread swirls because I love them.  Somewhere in there, I also need to hit the store for non-dessert snack foods and drinks.

School for the week: baking 101

Yummy and Healthy Smoothies

We have been super busy and sick for ages. It's getting OLD! So, I declared this weekend my war against sickness.

First, I canceled all plans. Our schedule has been so full that we've been having to finish up the week on Saturdays. Canceled. Cleaning? Canceled. Taekwondo? Canceled. Church? Canceled. What are we doing instead? We are consuming health-producing foods and resting.

I went to the store and bought Airborne, fresh and frozen fruits, and chicken soup supplies. I went to Blockbuster and perused their new releases and 99 cent family rentals, and I found seven movies to bring home. Then I started my plan. Three times a day, everyone gets Airborne. Two times a day, everyone gets yummy fruit smoothies. We had homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner, and we will have leftover soup for lunch tomorrow. Nap or an hour reading in bed is required for everyone. Sleeping in is encouraged. Wake time is spent watching movies, though I'm letting the kids have a little bit of computer time, too. Anything to encourage them to just rest. It seems to be helping; Sam declared that he felt "18 million times better than yesterday." Hopefully, come Monday, we'll all be feeling on the mend.

Here's our smoothie recipe (it's quite good):

1 cup 100% pomegranate juice (POM)
2 cups 100% orange juice
2 bananas
1 cup frozen blueberries
enough frozen strawberries to fill the blender to the very top

My blender holds 48oz. As it is blending, I add more strawberries until it is very full. It takes a while to blend, and it is quite thick, but it is also quite good.

Dessert

We've been trying out some new desserts in our house as I haven't been interested in chocolate in the slightest. Pregnancy food-moods are strange, I tell ya!

Above was/is tonight's dessert. It is a lemon-coconut cake (made with lemon boxed cake mix and lemon gelatin). Then it was frosted with cream cheese frosting (rather than the fluffy white frosting of the recipe) and some flaked coconut. It's good...not the greatest...but good.

Now if you want great, you'll have to go to the Betty Crocker website and try their Honey Bun Cake. It is, by far, the BEST coffee cake type cake I've ever tasted. YUM!