Thursday, January 15, 2009

Do you have a sweet tooth?


T-minus 4 days until Jesse turns 2.

Can you believe it?

T-minus 2 days until my niece Grace turns 11.

We are going to have a rip-roaring birthday party for Grace and Jesse on Saturday night.

(Don't I sound about 80 years old? I do remember that when my family would visit my grandparents in Florida in the winter, we would come home talking like we were 80. Maybe I'm channeling what my parents are hearing in Florida...but enough of that tangent!)

By now you are wondering what exactly my title has to do with the post.

Some of you know that I hate giving each post a title - maybe I'm rebelling.


Really though, do you have a sweet tooth?

Because if you do, and you are coming to the birthday party on Saturday night, you will get to try my two latest attempts at cookies.

I don't like to make cookies. It has something to do with my impatience, my distractibility, my inability to get them just right. The cookies that I make are usually either over- or under-done. Never just right. But I found two recipes in my January issue of Better Homes & Gardens and I just had to try them. The first is Red Velvet Whoopie Pies. I totally love whoopie pies and figured I should try the red velvet kind. Turns out they are not as good as ones from Golden Delight Bakery outside Kalona, but they aren't bad at all. They are actually pretty good. (Doesn't my description just make your mouth water?)

The second recipe is for a biscotti-like cookie called Cinnamon-Sugar Sticks. As usual, I didn't have exactly what the recipe called for, so I had to make-do with the ingredients in my pantry, but they turned out really good. And you dip the top of the cookie in melted white chocolate and put crushed red hots and sugar on the top. Seriously, how can you go wrong with that combination?

Anyway, Meredith and I had fun spending yesterday afternoon in the kitchen making these.

(You'll notice that she had finally changed out of her pajamas, and I had finally combed her hair. She got tired of her pajamas before lunch, and I wouldn't let her help me in the kitchen until her hair was put back and out of her face.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yum! Yum! I love biscotti. We are sorry to miss the celebration. We are finally settled and its warm. How cold is it in Iowa?

Kim said...

Hey, it's hard to beat the whoopie pies at Golden Delight! How about sharing the recipe for the biscottie like cookies? They look great! It's nice to see you enjoying all of these snow days :)

Theresa said...

It's a balmy 8 degrees ABOVE zero right now in Iowa. Isn't it so totally sad that 8 degrees doesn't even feel that cold.

Kim, you can go to bhg.com and search for Cinnamon Sugar Sticks, but I think you may have to have an account and log in to get the recipe. Or you can go to www.bhg.com/recipe/cookies/cinnamon-sugar-sticks/ and I don't believe you have to log in. When I made these, I didn't have enough almonds, so I added almond flavoring and added flour to the ground up almonds to make up the 1 3/4 cup. I think maybe that's too much flour then because I had a really hard time getting the dough to stick together to even roll out.

Enjoy!

The Hartsocks said...

Ok - so I will reveal myself as a lurker/frequent reader of your blog (love it! - found you through Kim) to ask about the red velvet cookie recipe (when I click on the link, it's not the recipe) . . . my dad loves red velvet cake and whoopie pies, so this would be a great treat for him. :) - Jill