11.12.06

trying my hardest to feel christmassy but it's pretty hard when it was almost 40ºC all weekend. i did spend about 6 hours yesterday, holiday tunes blaring, baking up a storm of christmas cookies, recipes courtesy of martha. i made chewy chocolate gingerbread for the fifth (or sixth?) year in a row and this year tried out the carrot cake sandwich cookies instead of my standard shortbread. both very highly recommended, although maybe try to find a day that's not ridiculously hot to have the oven on for 4 hours (my oven is pretty small and i only have two little wee pans that fit in there so the baking took far, far longer than i anticipated). the actual making of the cookies dough was made oh-so much easier for me this year with the help of a beautiful 50s sunbeam mixmaster, dropped off in exchange for future cookies by my good buddies, lou and sandy. it worked like a dream and was so stylish as well, i've been scouring eBay all morning trying to find one all for myself. the only personal little touches i threw in to the cookies were to add my famous (to me) burnt sugar crackle to the gingerbread (melt a cup of sugar in a saucepan and drizzle over the cookies, crunchy and delicious) and to add some vanilla bean paste to the cream cheese icing. again, highly recommended!