Christmas Musings

It's Christmas Eve, and I'm blessed to be spending the night on the hide-a-bed at a dear friend's house. Her boys are with their Dad, instead of home this Christmas, so I'm not intruding on the whole Santa Claus thing, and I don't have to make an extra trip back to Weatherford after being here for Christmas Eve church before I go see my blood family on Christmas Day.
It's been kind of a weird Christmas season, at least for me. My current roommate is NOT a holiday sort of person, thus doesn't seem to have a tree or ornaments. My tree is still buried in my storage unit, where it will remain until I get moved into my own place & have space to store my stuff at home. He's agreed to just "ignore" my herd of wooden reindeer on the front porch, 3 of which decided to faceplant when the winds came through earlier in the week. It's been windy enough off & on since then that I decided just to let them stay face down, rather than risking them snapping & breaking on a subsequent faceplant. Other than the reindeer, and my table full of ornaments, there's been no sign that it's Christmas at our house. Next year WILL be different.
I've been a baking fool, and virtually all of my gifts this year are baked goods. I made 3 different kinds of cookies, 2 kinds of scones, and 5 loaves of bread. I take that back, I made 5 different kinds of cookies, one got trashed because they were just AWFUL, at least to my taste buds. Now, to be fair, I was sort of rushed, and may have missed a step, or not had enough sugar, or something, but they were just not cookie enough for me. I hate that I had to limit who I could include in my gift list of baked goodies, but in the end, my toaster/rotisserie/convection countertop oven will only bake so much at a time, and the 3 dozen scones my double batch makes takes 3 pans to get cooked in that sucker, whereas in a regular sized oven, it would take 1 and a half!
I've been blessed with a variety of family (blood & chosen), who celebrate in December a variety of things, Yule, Solstice, Hanukkah, and Christmas. I love and respect them and their beliefs, whatever they may be, and I'm grateful that we live in a country that offers all of us the freedom to choose how, where, and when we worship. I pray that those who cannot be with their loved ones during this joyous season are safe and that they are able to at least talk with their loved ones. I appreciate that so many are willing to give up their traditional holidays with family in order to do their jobs, whether they are sailors, soldiers, marines, airmen/women, police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses or other people who are essential to the operation of places like hospitals, that simply cannot shut down. That you are willing to serve, especially in a military or other first responder capacity speaks volumes to the sort of person you are, and I thank you for your service.
And now, a Texas Style Night Before Christmas, that I first saw over at A Southern Fairytale. 
 

Cookie Swap 2011

This year, I heard about a food blogger cookie swap. Honestly, I'm not sure how I wound up there, but it was probably a Facebook link, as are many of the places I end up on the 'net. I do follow Love and Olive Oil, which is one of the organizers. I'm not strictly a food blogger, but I am kind of a foodie, and I do like to find new recipes to try, and have begun to post them more and more often. When I first discovered the swap, my immediate thought was to use my favorite chocolate chip peanut butter cup cookie recipe, unfortunately, I first published it on my blog back in 2008, after I discovered the teeny tiny little peanut butter cups in the bulk section of one of the fresh foods stores. Aren't they cute? 

Since I couldn't use my favorites, I decided that I should just go through my cookie recipes and my late mother's recipe books and find something I could modify to include the peanut butter cups. I decided to go with the chocolate chip cookie bars in one of her notebooks. I simply substituted the peanut butter cups in place of the chocolate chips. 

Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Bars
2 C brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 C melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
2 C all-purpose flour (NOT packed)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C extra mini peanut butter cups (I get mine in the bulk foods area. These are the TEENY ones, not the original "mini's" that come individually wrapped from Reese's. Sometimes you can get a 1 or 2 oz pkg of Reese's in about this size now too) or chopped up regular peanut butter cups

Heat oven to 350 & grease 9x13" pan

In a large bowl combine sugar & melted butter & blend well, then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in Vanilla. Add flour, baking powder & salt & mix well. Fold in peanut butter cups & mix through.
Spread into prepared pan & bake 25 to 35 minutes, or until set. Be careful NOT to overbake.
Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Makes up to about 36 bars. 

As I don't have a full size oven right now and am using a nice toaster/convection/rotisserie oven, I made up the whole batch, but had to bake it in 2 smaller pans to fit them in the oven. 

It was lots of fun, I've already enjoyed and shared my first dozen cookies that arrived over the weekend from KidEats. That recipe is DEFINITELY going into my book!