Flavors 518

After a lot of math and baking and decorating , the day of the cookie exchange finally arrived. I was excited and hoped that everything would work out in the end. Here we set up the samples for people to try. You may remember those trays, vases and plastic wine glasses from my Fall Mexican Themed Cocktail Party. One trip to Party City supplied two different little get togethers. I thought about making little centerpieces, and pretty much wandered around town looking for the best option. I sort of had candy canes in mind, but spotted some ribbons at the newstand and stuffed those in the vases.  You can spot my Sol LeWitt and Edward Hopper cookies. Also molasses cookies, almond cresents, mini cheesecakes, lemon poppy seed thumbprint cookies with raspberry filling, chocolate crinkle cookies, pumpkin cookies, pecan sandies and chocolate chip cookies. Not pictured are a few kinds including sugar cookies and chocolate chip chai. I just put a ribbon where the salsa went during ...

 Last week I posted about my plans for the staff cookie exchange and my art museum inspired cookies. I had watched a video online about painting fondant . I learned about fondant at a class I took at Bettie's Cakes .  I bought a huge box of it at a craft store. I also bought some gel food colors, and some vodka. I rolled out the fondant and cut it up in squares. The first batch I did I put too much vodka mixed in with the colors. This made them take forever to dry, and therefore the coloring was still wet while the fondant got a little hard. You want a little vodka (you can also use vanilla or lemon extract). It is not like a watercolor painting. You just want to add a very small amount to thin it a little bit, and prevent the color from globbing up. I also bought some brushes from the cake decorating section of the craft store.  This is my Edward Hopper's "Morning in a City". After they got a little hard, and I had a disastrous time trying to put plastic...

My boss and I decided to organize an office cookie exchange. Part of the idea was that people would have extra to take to holiday parties, or wouldn't have to bake as much if unexpected guests stopped by ( Martha is very worried about these ). My boss looked around for help with the guidelines online and found some pretty crazy ideas. This one here says no meringues, no bars, no "no bake" cookies", no chocolate chip cookies - there must be a story and it must be all a lot of work!! Too easy or common does not count!! Martha Stewart has a 17 page guide and other ideas on the subject of cookie exchanges. I made a sign-up sheet and we waited to see how many people would sign up. It turned out 16 people signed up. Then it all got out of control. One of my coworkers said she thought it was supposed to be a dozen person that you bring. "Otherwise what is the point if you don't get enough cookies?", she said. She also thought everyone should bring a ...