Holiday Baking

It's been years since Lisa and I were able to pool our resources and just bake like fools for the holidays. Well, this year, my oven conveniently quit. Go figure - the damn thing is 20 years old. And Mark won't buy a new one. Had to wait until a new pilot was shipped out so he could fix it. So, I packed up my ingredients and recipes and pans and racks and hauled my ass over to Townsend after work on Friday the 15th and didn't get home until Sunday evening.

By the time we were done, Lisa had goody trays for 23 deliveries. And I got to bring home a big bucket o'nummies for Mark.

Let me see if I can list all the stuff we did:

1. 7 Layer Bars
2. Peanut Blossoms
3. Peanut Butter Fudge
4. Chocolate Pizzelle
5. Peppermint / White Chocolate Bark
6. Dark Chocolate / White Chocolate / Almond Bark
7. Peppermint Brownies
8. Nutella Peanut Ravioli
9. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
10. Oatmeal Cranberry Nut Cookies
11. Lemon Tartlets
12. Pecan Tartlets
13. Coconut Raspberry Tarts
14. Special K Peanut Butter Cookies
15. Lemon Poppyseed Loaves
16. Pumpkin Cranberry Loaves
17. Almond Something Loaves (I forget what else was in there!!)
18. Decorated Sugar Cookies
    

Gail was in for the weekend too, so she helped decorate the sugar cookies and kept us company while we baked and fried and melted and stirred and and and.

Jess called while we were working- so had to get a pic of Lisa talking to her.

This is the daSilva Christmas tree - Lisa is seriously considering keeping it up until Jess comes home.

This is the final result - it's hard to believe that all that work came down to this. But it was worth it - and had a great weekend making mudpies with Lisa. We don't get to spend enough time together.

GingerBread Party 2006, Part 4

And our last guests, the delightful Roscoe girls. Wanda brings Meghan and Sarah (Wanda if I mispelled their names, let me know, I'll fix!!!) every year. This year they didn't have quite enough time to finish before having to leave in time to catch a new American Girl movie on TV - but I did catch some Work in Progress shots.

Meghan is laughing so hard because I had just told her the Tootsie Roll chimney on her house looked like a turd. Yeah, I'm a classy broad. But it really did.

GingerBread Party 2006, Part 3

Next to arrive, Gina and Timmy. It was getting pretty crowded, but we just threw another table at the problem, and got to work. Tim also veered toward the twisted - I really look forward to seeing what he does next year. I think he was influenced by Mr. Jeremy's evil crimescene!

Miss Gina's house was adorable, just like her, of course!

GingerBread Party 2006, Part 2

Lisa, Jeremy, and Holly were next to arrive.

Lisa brought cookies to decorate, but ended up knitting the whole time. Oooooh - is she hooked or what?

Jeremy needs serious therapy. His "house" was more of a crime scene diorama. Blood, guts, and mayhem. I am so proud.




















He also decorated a cookie for Jess, and we found a perfect backdrop for it.

Holly went with a Hurricane Katrina theme - the house pretty much looked like a levee broke allllll over it. She added POLICE to the roof as a finishing touch.

GingerBread Party 2006, Part 1

Phew. My feet hurt. Let's get that right out of the way. Now - on to the good stuff. So far, 7 guests, 6 houses. Some twisted and sick, others traditional and adorable.

Ahva and Rita got right down to business - Rita's first time at one of these things. She managed to stick 20 lbs. of candy on a 2lb house - absolutely amazing. Ahva went with a more traditional cottage - very cute, in pastels and of course, heavy on the pink!