Starlight Sugar Twist Cookies

Every Christmas season my mom and I would take two weekends and make 6-8 different types of cookies for the various holiday parties we went to as a family. With each batch making 4 dozen or so, that's a LOT of sugar, flour and mommy/daughter time. One that always was the favorite were the Starlight Sugar Twists. Similar to a sugar cookie with a snicker doodle-esque quality about them. There is no cinnamon but LOTS of sugar folded in layers and layers creating a caramelized bottom of crusty goodness while still being soft and yummy on the inside! *Runs to cookie jar to eat another* Ok I'm back! So here's the recipe of these yummy goodies.

Starlight Sugar Twists

What you need: 
3-1/2 C Flour
1 C Margarine
1/2 C Sour Cream
2 Eggs slightly beaten
1 pkg dry yeast (prepare according to directions)
1-1/2 C Sugar
2 tsps Vanilla

Rolling Pin
Cookie Sheets

Directions:
1. Cut margarine into flour until size of peas. Add eggs, sour cream and yeast. Mix thoroughly and divide into two. Wrap in saran and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

2. Mix sugar and vanilla; cover until used.

3. Roll one portion of dough in vanilla sugar to a rectangle 16x20. Sprinkle more vanilla sugar and fold into thirds. Add more vanilla sugar and fold into thirds again. Roll dough to 16x20 rectangle again and cut into 1/2 inch strips. Cut strips into 3 inch pieces and twist several times. Place on baking sheet and bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from baking sheet immediately, or else they will stick like concrete!!! Cool on brown paper bag. Makes about 4 dozen.

Day Twenty Two/Twenty Three - Cookies/Sparkle

Day 22 was cookies. Knowing that the hubby was going to make his family Scotcheroos to take to work I decided to wait until they were made to take the photo. Not technically cookies, but still a holiday treat that we don't go a year without making!

Day 23 (today) is sparkle. Now we had glitter and lights already over the course of this photo challenge, but I thought I would take inspiration from the Bokeh trend and take a whirl at my own shot. Taking the "sparkle" of our Christmas tree and making it unique, in a way. Figuring out how to do it on our DSLR was interesting, but I finally got a couple of cool shots! Whoop!

Santa had a big heart this year!

Every year it seems that Christmas comes earlier and earlier. This is because big business decides when they are going to begin the advertising of their Christmas sales. This holiday has become so commercialized that many people seem to forget the real reason why this holiday is so special. From Thanksgiving through the new year is supposed to be a reflective time about your life and the people you chose to spend your time with. It is a time for celebrating wonderful memories with your family and friends. While it is always nice to receive gifts, the most important thing to me is quality time spent together and the month of December has been just that.

Darin and I have decided that we need to start our own traditions as a family that I have outlined in previous posts (Tis the Season - Decor, Cards and Clocks , Christmas Cookie's) along with our tradition of painting a ceramic piece. Those traditions are relatively old (considering we have done them every year since we got married and we haven't been married that long, so not too old I guess) so my best girlfriend Hope decided that we needed some baking therapy. She called all the girls over to her home for a baking frenzy day. She even had her fiance John go get supplies for this massive girls day. What I mean by supplies is a 25 pound bag of flour and like a heart attack supply of butter and various other needed items. Granted he went to Sam's Club so it was the only thing available, but you would have thought that we were going to start our own bakery. It was pretty funny. We had some pro bakers (Hope, Shannon, and myself) and some newbies to the trade (Amanda and Sam). Many different styles to make the cookies were utilized including using hands as a mixer! We had snickerdoodles, brownies, Black Eyed Pea cookies, sugar and like 6 different cookies that Hope made. It truly was a blast and we giggled a lot while listening to Christmas music. Alas we had very dirty hands so I forgot to take pictures of this classic moment in our lives, but it will be a memory that I will have forever. I propose to my girlfriends that this be a tradition every year!

The week after this was the week of Christmas and we went to dinner for Miss Hopa's birthday. The Anthony's, The Ransdell's, The Kimball's and the Basher's-To-Be went out to Piccola Trattoria in Canyon Country for some yummy Italian food and wine. We enjoy celebrating any special occasion and you throw in good food and wine and we are there! The evening before Christmas Eve, The Ransdell's, The Basher's-To-Be and us went out to celebrate the holidays at Backwoods Inn. A favorite restaurant in our group of friends. We had a wonderful visit and exchanged some gifts between friends. It was a wonderful beginning to our holiday celebration, as we all described our holiday plans, the Ransdell's planned to go to Jamaica from the 25th through the 3rd. We are all jealous!

Since Darin and I have been living together it has been hard to get around to spending time with my family on Christmas. Between Darin's work schedule and the weather it has been nearly impossible to actually see them and spend quality time with them on Christmas. This year was going to be different. I was very excited that Darin got transferred to a branch that is closed on the weekends so we made plans to got up and spend Christmas with my family. We went to Darin's family and spent some time with them and his grandparents. Exchanged gifts then packed up our pup and away we went to the country. When we got to Tehachapi, my mom was dressed in her holiday sweater and we were greeted with one of her awesome hugs. Shelby was so excited to see Grandma that she jumped all over the place, until she saw the platter of cookies on the counter. Then she focused..."How do I get one of those?" I helped set the table and put out the food, made our traditional salad, and poured the wine (with the help of my parents neighbors Bruce and Kristen we went through 5 bottles!). After dishes were done and all the food was put away we all jumped into our matching pajamas's and settled down to watch a movie.

Christmas morning came fast and I awoke rather early at 730 and nobody else was awake. I guess my parents aren't spring chickens anymore and the night of laughter and wine got to both of them. I grabbed a glass of water and planned to go back to sleep for a bit when I looked around for Shelby. I couldn't seem to find her, even though I heard the jingle of her collar. She had pushed her way into my parents bedroom and jumped onto their bed to wake them up. I guess she couldn't wait to open her gift from Santa! When everyone finally made it out of bed, we opened our goodies. Darin received a new camera bag, a new video game that he had been wanting and various other goodies. I got (2) cake plates, I guess my mom and Darin didn't chat on what they were going to get me! Hehe. Also a new electric blanket from Shelby (because she chewed the cord on the other one) and a new pan set! I guess I can start cooking more because I have the proper hardware now! My dad got a Wii! After everything was opened and Shelby was satisfied that there were no more gifts for her, Darin went straight to the task of setting up my parents new Blu-Ray Player, surround sound a Wii up, while my mom and I made brunch. The rest of the weekend was spent with long walks around the area, movies on Netflix and of course playing the Wii. 

I had a wonderful holiday and couldn't have asked for a more perfect Christmas. Thank you to everyone who  celebrated with us and we can wait to do it all again in 2011!

Christmas Cookie's

Here's a continuation of my Christmas traditions. For years growing up, my mom and I would make various types of cookies for our families. But us I mean my mom would make them and I would sit on the counter and add the various ingredients to the mixing bowl, and then of course be the taste tester! I have continued this tradition in my own little family. Every year I have made Darin's family recipe of Scotcheroo's, but it wasn't until last year that Darin and I decided to delve into my family recipe's and made the go to chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies with frosting. This year, after digging deep into my memories I remembered a candy cane cookie recipe that my mom used to make. So I decided with our go to recipes to add this to our repertoire.  Shortly after beginning to make these I realized how time consuming they were. Not complicated, just a long stretch of time to make. Below is a description of how to make these and Darin's favorite as well. Enjoy!

Candy Canes

What you'll need:

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon red food coloring

1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix thoroughlt butter, shortening, confectioner's sugar, egg, almond extract, and vanilla.  Blend in flour and salt. divide the dough in half and blend food color into one half. 

For each candy cane, shape 1 teaspoon of dough from each half into a 4-inch rope. (For smooth, even ropes, roll the dough back and forth on a lightly floured board.) Place the ropes side be side and press together lightly; twist. Place on a greased baking sheet and curve the top of each twist to form the handle of the cane.

Bake about 9 minutes or until set and very light brown. Mix candy and granulated sugar; sprinkle on the hot cookies and remove from the baking sheet.

Scotcheroo's

What you'll need:

6-8 cups Rice Crispies

1 cup Karo syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup peanut butter

semi-sweet chocolate morsels

butterscotch morsels

Pour Karo syrup and sugar into saucepan over medium to high heat. Bring to a gentle boil stirring constantly. Once boiling take off heat and add peanut butter. Stir until blended smooth. Once blended, pour into rice krispies bowl and fold until well blended. Don't forget to get all the rice kripsies at the bottom of the bowl. Pour mixture onto cookie sheet. Roll firmly into cookie sheet.

In a large measuring cup, put 1/3 cup butterscotch morsel's and 2/3 cup semi-sweet morsels. Heat in a microwave in 30 to 40 seconds at a time. Each time stirring well. Do not over heat. You can do it slower if you desire. Spread over rice krispies treats and put into refrigerator until firm. Cut and enjoy!

We hope you enjoyed baking and traditions as much as we do! Merry Christmas from the Kimball's and Santa's Little Helper (Shelby).

Santa's Little Helper! - "I can lick the bowl for you!"