Can you believe it is December? It seems like we just took our tree down and it is time to put it up again. I’m trying to get into the Christmas spirit by starting my holiday baking early this year. This cookie is one of my favorites and always makes me think of the holidays. There are many names for this cookie, Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding cookies, Snowballs, etc… These cookies are very simple and easy to make, which makes it a great cookie to start your baking this year.
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Archive for the ‘Holiday Fare’ Category
A Snowball’s Chance
Posted by Candace on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008Bacon Butter
Posted by Candace on Monday, December 1st, 2008I’m finally clawing my way out of the turkey coma and blogging about my Thanksgiving. We’ve been unusually busy the past few weeks with weddings. Last weekend, we photographed a wedding in Miami Saturday night and then hopped on a plane four hours later at 6:00 the next morning to shoot another one in Cape May, New Jersey. Returned home late Monday night, and started Thanksgiving cooking on Tuesday. Needless to say… I’m still catching up on my sleep!
As I was flipping through my plethora of cooking magazines, I came across a recipe that piqued my interest. It was for a turkey flavored with Bacon Butter. Yes, you heard me right. That’s bacon and butter, thrown in the food processor and pureed. Seriously… its so wrong, it’s right. The original recipe called for mustard, but I omitted it and added fresh herbs instead. I did my usual brine, but instead of boring old butter under the skin, I made the bacon butter and schmeared it between the skin and meat. My arm still hurts from repeatedly patting myself on the back. This was the best tasting turkey I’ve ever made. The flavors of the bacon and herbs infused the meat and also made it oh so juicy.
You can find most recipes here, from last year’s post. I tend to make the same recipes every year, with one or two new ones. The bacon butter is a new addition that I’m pretty sure I”ll be making again! Check out some pics of our Thanksgiving spread. As usual I have to thank Stephan for documenting the whole cooking process.

Feel the Passion!
Posted by Candace on Friday, December 21st, 2007Who gets Gourmet Magazine? I love it for the beautiful pictures, the fabulous recipes, and the great info about restaurants. This month’s issue had an amazing array of recipes for Christmas cookies and treats. If I had the time, I would have made everything. Hmmm… guess its good I didn’t make everything, or I’d be pulling out the “fat pants”… before Christmas even gets here. :)
I made the Passion-Fruit Gelees, as I’m a huge fan of Passion Fruit. I’ll admit… it wasn’t as Passion-y as I would have liked. It definitely could have used a little more passion puree. But all in all, it was tasty. Something I’ll make again, with minor tweaking.
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My Checkered Past (Part II)
Posted by Candace on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007Honestly, I don’t have a checkered past, I swear! It just sounded like a good title! These checkerboard cookies look so complicated and hard to make, but in reality are somewhat simple. OK… they really are not simple, but not as complicated as you would think. Yeah, they are also quite a bit time consuming. For these reasons, I only make these once a year, and that’s for Christmas. It really is a fantastic cookie. They look so cool, with the perfect checkerboard pattern, and each bite you take is slightly crumbly, buttery, chocolaty and vanilla-y. Good stuff.
Please excuse my lazyness before… recipe is now included!


























