Holiday Cooking and Baking

I can't believe it's already the last day of Thanksgiving Break! Boy do breaks fly by!
Thanksgiving morning I baked a bunch of homemade rolls for the big day (they were the hit of Thanksgiving I must say; my nephew had 7!)! I was able to make both gluten free and regular, and the gluten free may be the best gluten free rolls I've ever made! See recipe here: http://www.artofglutenfreebaking.com/2009/11/dinner-rolls-gluten-free-revised-22810/

After making the rolls and a few salads Mark and I headed out to Afton to celebrate with the Aronson clan + Paul and Susan. It was a nice day :) Lots of kids, football, food and a little bit of flurries :) The only thing that would have made it better was a mystery (Only the Gerlach clan will understand that: Thanksgiving circa 1990-2010) Unfortunately even with 17+ people there only 1 picture was taken... and upon taking the picture I realized she spit up... but since it's the only picture I have from Thanksgiving I'll post it any ways....

The day after Thanksgiving Mark and I enjoyed a nice omelet breakfast with leftover fruit salad and enjoyed celebrating the holiday just the 2 of us (2.5 of us?)

Later this weekend I made cookies that just SCREAM Christmas and may be the most unhealthy thing I've ever made, but boy were they good! See recipe below. After enjoying a few cookies Mark and I used a gift card from a student last year and went to our special date night locale McCormick and Schmick's. Unreasonably expensive but extremely good, Mark and I enjoyed some delectable fish and reminisced together the last times we went to McCormick and Schmick's (Like the first time, when Mark was still trying to impress me and our bill topped $100!) It was neat to just have a fancy night out together and remember the things we loved and miss about Kansas City and our Teach for America lives.

We're ending this weekend with Vikings, walk and prepping for the cold week ahead. Supposed to get snow/slushy mix Mon-Wed, and a cold front coming Thursday bringing lows in the negatives... Winter has arrived in MN!


White Chocolate Peppermint Chunk Cookies!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter  room temperature (usually I use 1/2 applesauce....this time went for it!)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup white sugar (usually half the sugar too, not this time!)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (I used a GF flour blend)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup white chocolate chips (recipe called for 1 cup... I think it'd be too much)
• 1/3 cup peppermint candy cane, crushed

1. Mix butter and sugar until well combined and creamy. Add egg and vanilla.
2. In separate bowl mix dry ingredients.
3. Add dry to wet. My mixture got pretty thick.
4. Add in candies and chocolate chips (This part was hard because dough was so thick, really had to work the dough!)

5. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
6.  Roll into 1 inch balls and put on baking sheet.

7. Bake 8-10 minutes, flipping 1/2 way.

8. Take cookies out and WAIT! Do not remove cookies for at least 1-3 minutes so they have time to set. If you remove from pan right away they are too gooey and will break apart. Cici hates waiting...

9. Once you've waited, move cookies to wire cooling rack, let cool (we couldn't wait!) And then enjoy!

*Note these are far from healthy but OH soo good :) My recipe made about 30 cookies (even though it originally said it'd make 12!) Too many to eat alone... I have to share with someone.