5 Generations in the Kitchen

Great, great grandma's rolling pin.

I'm not a big fan of sugar cookies (or many pastries for that matter). But I'm on vacation. And part of my vacation, and the spirit of the season, means that "no" isn't really in my vocabulary.

So when my daughter asked to make sugar cookies, I hopped to it; found a fairly simple recipe for dough and icing; and started mixing.

Future Farmgirl wanted to be involved from the start. We aproned up and got to work mixing dough, then rolling it out and cutting out shapes.

Even though I don't have much experience making sugar cookies (I've maybe made them two or three times in my life), my daughter and I were armed with five generations of cookie-making know how as we mixed dough and sprinkled flour.

After I (2) helped mix the ingredients and chill the dough, my daughter (1) rolled the dough with my great grandmother's (5) rolling pin, which I inherited from my grandmother (4). After rolling the dough, we cut out our shapes with cutters from Sim's mother (3), my daughter's beloved Omi.

Included in our cookie cutter collection is a Kermit the Frog cutter, which was perfect for this year's release of the new Muppet movie.

The Kermit cookie proved the most popular today when we had a mini decorating party during a playdate.

No surprise that so many of our decorated cookies didn't make it off the drying rack into take-home boxes.

I'm still not a big fan of the sugar cookies. I don't crave them or anything. But I'll make them again in a second when my daughter (and our five generations of bakers) asks me to.

Party Faves and Flubs

I'm on the couch watching "Hart to Hart" as part of my recovery from our holiday party last night. I always love when we have a party where I thoroughly enjoy myself. This was one of those times.

We had a great mix of people, old and new friends, a good representation from the 'hood.

I'd had some health issues in the days leading up to the party, so we did a few things more last-minute than I'd wanted. But I was delighted that my kids jumped in without hesitation when asked to help clean, decorate and prep food.

Future Farmgirl turned out to be particularly helpful putting the finishing touches on our buckeyes, which would have been served without the chocolate had she not pitched in. Those turned out to be pretty popular. So was her peanut butter ball snowman display.

Here are the other runaway favorites from the party (followed by some flubs).

The Top 5:

1. Chartreuse and lime cocktail. [This may be the most popular drink we've ever served, beating out the Alberto No. 1 we've served off and on over the last 11 years. There's a great story behind the making of Chartreuse - which is distilled in France from a secret recipe of 130 herbs that's protected by a vow of silence by Carthusian Monks and named for the Grande Chartreuse monastery. The story, which we learned after reading the bottle, was a conversation starter and drew interest in the drink].

2. Carolina pulled pork sliders with coleslaw. [The empty crock pot is evidence.]

3. Beef meatballs cooked in grape jelly and chili sauce. [These are not my thing, but I threw in the towel a long time ago and will keep these on the menu as long as our guests (and my kids) keep polishing them off.]

4. Hot chocolate bar. [This was much more popular than I'd imagined. I learned though that I need more whipped cream. We had plenty of marshmallow varieties, candy cane stir sticks, and four flavors of hot chocolate but the whipped cream tapped out earlier than I'd have liked.

5. Dried beef, pecan and cream cheese souffle. [I'm sure that's not the real name. I don't know because this was a treat brought by a guest. Clearly, I need to get him to cough up the recipe. Another guest brought homemade flan, which was also spectacular. We do, happily, have some of that leftover.]

The bottom three:

1. Espanola butternut squash soup. [I think this fell victim to the popular pork and meatballs. Given the choice, this just wasn't an option.]

2. Blue cheese and pecan spread served with panatini, apples and pears. [This is one of my absolute favorite things, but I never even had to refresh this on the table.]

3. Hot spiced apple cider. [I'm pretty sure this was mainly because it was poorly placed...in the kitchen simmering on the stove. I need to find a better way to serve this, maybe in a thermos so it's easier to access and pour.]

Guests who dared to grab the apple cupcakes dipped in caramel were complimentary of those, but I have plenty to bring to work on Monday. I also refreshed the dates filled with goat cheese.

I won't lie that I'm not disappointed that I made too many of those so I have leftovers to munch on.

As a parting gift, each guest got one of 10 varieties of popcorn from Wisconsin's Fireworks Popcorn, with Smencils for the kids & knitted snowflake ornaments.

Visions of Sugar Plums Dancing in My Kitchen

Maybe it's because I chose purple as a base color for decorating this year, but I've been thinking about sugar plums for days now.

Of course, it didn't take long to find out that there aren't actually plums in sugar plums. And, btw, they're not purple.

There's also not one single tried and true recipe. The possible combinations of fruit and nuts, plus bindings are as numerous as the imagination of whoever's manning the kitchen and whatever's on hand in the pantry.

I opted to riff off of this recipe from Use Real Butter.

Sugar Plums

2 cups plain or lightly salted almonds (roasted)
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp grated orange zest
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup dried apricots
1 cup pitted dates
1 cup powdered sugar

Put almonds in food processor and chop on the pulse setting. Add to medium bowl. Pulse process the apricots and dates, then add to chopped almonds. Add honey, zest and spices. Mix well.

Use a teaspoon to measure out mixture to roll into balls. I used a melon baller, which kept the size uniform. I rolled 43 balls with these proportions.

Dust with powdered sugar, then refrigerate for up to a month I'm told (If they last that long). My husband and kids have been eying these little drops of heaven.

I initially thought I might wrap these as party favors/gifts, but I think I'll make another batch to serve along with the finger foods at our holiday party.

New Favorite Local Vendor: VertModerne

On Saturday, after a morning of party and holiday shopping, my sister-in-law and I headed to Irving to grab some treats from the Cookie Crumble.

We were too late. The Cookie Crumble was apparently a huge success and there were no cookies left. Disappointed, we turned our attention to the tables filled with crafts, treats and wares made by students, teachers and moms from our community.

I'd almost forgotten there was going to be a craft fair in addition to the Cookie Crumble. I only regret that I didn't give myself more time and bring more cash.

As it happened, I gravitated to one particular vendor, a mom with a child at Longfellow. Marci's creations -- VertModerne -- are all very creative, many made from recycled bicycle tubing, plus jewelry made from words torn from dictionary pages and letters from Scrabble sets.

I even broke one of my own rules and bought something for myself, a pendant featuring the ultimate curmudgeons Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets.

Star-Shaped French Doughnuts

These star-shaped beignets are just the start of this test-kitchen weekend.

We'll be prepping for our annual holiday party next weekend. I'm making some new recipes, so we'll be practicing this year's signature drink, which includes chartreuse, a very fragrant French liqueur.

I've also been hunting for a recipe (or two) for sugarplums, which I've learned don't necessarily include actual plums. If those turn out as I hope, they'll be party favors. If they're not as good as they look on my computer monitor, I'll dream up a Plan B.