CookieD-oh

I've decided to embrace who I am. I am tacky. And I'm OK with that. Especially if it means I get to make Santa flamingos and lighted palm trees. The flamingos actually went through a bit of an evolutionary process.  They started like this: But they needed a little something extra, so I added the coat.  I was quite pleased with the result. Here's few more of the set. The very best ones were the last batch I decorated.  Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of those.  They were lovely.  Really.  The snowflakes, bulbs and presents were just what I was trying for.  I'm also a doofus and never get pictures of the really good cookies. But, in the spirit of a tacky Christmas, I am going against everything I believe in and I am posting a picture of myself on the blog.  I'm with my friend Mark, at work, shortly before the Tacky Christmas Sweater Contest. I am wearing the most awesome sweater in the whole.  wide.  world. It is epic in its tackiness.

Wow, it's been a while since my last post.  Sorry about that. I imagine I should have posted this BEFORE Christmas, but I've been so busy making cookies, I haven't had time to blog.  And since I did individual recipes last year, this year I'm just going to make a list.  Here we go! This year the Christmas cookies consisted of: Pumpkin Bread Gingersnaps Gingerbread Men  (some were ninjas) Chocolate Chip Cookies Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Sugar Cookies Iced Sugar Cookies Stuffed Cookies Peanut Butter Cookies  (honey variation) Snickerdoodles Oatmeal Carmelitas Buckeyes Fudge Peppermint Patties Butter Toffee That's quite a lineup.  I tell you what, if you give 2 of each to someone, they get a haul! Here are some pictures: Oatmeal Carmelitas Peppermint Patties Pumpkin Bread Snickerdoodles Gingersnaps (my favorite!!) Gingerbread people Grandma's Sugar Cookies (I pinwheeled them this year...came out pretty cute!)

So the day before Thanksgiving I was cruising Pinterest, wasting time searching for recipes, when I came across this:  http://www.ohnuts.com/blog/cinnamon-bun-pecan-pie-recipe/ I was enchanted. In fact, I was so excited, I almost squealed.  And I'm not really a squealer. So I made it forthwith. Is that, or is it not, the most amazing thing you've ever seen?  It's a cinnamon roll PIE CRUST!! It's so cool I have to post two pictures. Anywhoo, here's the finished pie: If I'm going to be perfectly honest, I'll have to say that I would have preferred traditional pecan pie filling.  The recipe says that it's close to traditional pecan pie filling, and it is, I just would have preferred straight up traditional pecan pie.  I would, however, add some cinnamon and some Princess emulsion.  And the frosting. But the crust was to die for.  Amazing. And very impressive-looking. :-) (I did make my own crust and my own icing...the recipe in the

Hello there!  I hope everyone had a fabulous and festive Thanksgiving! (At least everyone here in the U.S.) I've been on a baking frenzy since Saturday, so no time to blog. Christmas is almost here!  But I wanted to take a few moments to share what's been cooking in the D-oh household of late. We've had Turkey: Pie: Obscene amounts of gravy: And my very favorite sweet potatoes in the whole wide world: And because Thanksgiving is over, and we only serve these on Thanksgiving and Christmas, I'm sharing the recipe.  And here's hoping I'm not letting a family secret out of the bag. My grandma made these, my mom made these and now I make these.  I can't imagine a Thanksgiving without them. Start with some yams, pineapple rings, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, salt, and flour. We'll get to the marshmallows later. Open the pineapples and drain the juice into a measuring cup. Line a baking dish with pineapple rings. Throw

Thanksgiving is almost here!  That means it's time for pie!  Yay pie! This pie is epic, especially when it's warm.  It's good enough when it's cold, but you really have to have it warm to get the full experience. First things first, I apologize again for the pictures.  I found my camera, but it's broken now.  Of course. Anyhoo, first thing is to make some taffy.  Mix melted butter, brown sugar and flour in a bowl until it's crumbly. Don't make fun of my pitiful little plastic bowl.  It was a wedding gift. It's like, 16 1/2 years old. Now peel, core, and slice some apples. Go ahead and forget to engage the peeler for your first apple. It's fun to peel a sliced apple. I use winesap apples that I get from the local fruit farm. I have loved winesap apples since I was a child. We lived in San Diego and we would drive up to Julian for apples in the fall.  Stopping at Dudley's Bakery on the way.  Is Dudley's still there?  I lo

Enough with the healthy food, already.  Let's get back to the bad stuff!  Who wants cupcakes?!?!?! I saw these over on Make Me Cake Me ages ago, and I finally got around to making them.  They're lime cupcakes with lime Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC) frosting.  I've been meaning to try SMBC for some time, but because I'm lazy, I haven't. What does lazy have to do with trying another kind of frosting?  Dishes, that's what. I plan entire dinners by how many dishes I have to wash afterward. And this frosting uses extra dishes. But you know what?  After trying it, I may not care about the dishes.  It was delightful. Silky and smooth and not too sweet.  Perfect! Anyhoo, it was the boss' birthday, so I brought cupcakes.  And because I took them to work I opted not to use the booze that the original recipe calls for. That, and I don't really drink, so I don't have any Tequila in the house and I didn't want to go to the liquor store for T

My husband is going thorough cheese withdrawal.  It ain't pretty.  But we found a pretty good plant-based vegetable lasagna recipe to help him work through it. It's a lot of work to make it, I'm not going to lie.  But the recipe makes a TON, so you only have to make it once to eat it two or even three times. Or more.  Seriously. Start by prepping your veggies!  It took about an hour for me to chop/thaw/mash all of these veggies. The weird looking thing on the bottom left is mashed sweet potatoes.  That's the first thing you'll want to do.  Peel, chop, steam and mash two sweet potatoes. In the meantime, chop an onion, two carrots, one head of broccoli, and two red bell peppers. Slice 8 ounces of button mushrooms and 8 roma tomatoes (when I went shopping they only had three roma tomatoes, so I had to go with regular tomatoes. I used two...they were large). Thaw 16 ounces of spinach and a few cups of corn. While you're at it, cook a large box of