Day 3 of my Christmas baking: Buckyeye delights

Final product...Buckeye Delights

Another recipe from bettycrocker.com that I thought looked very interesting. I usually make traditional buckeyes for Christmas because my husband requests them.  I'm not a big fan of them.  I don't see what the big deal is. But for him I make them. This recipe was easy enough to make with a Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix to start with. The cookie as a whole is very rich with the chocolate ganache on top but pretty good. Something different and it is pretty. I think I over baked the cookie base so I felt mine were a little dry. My husband had one...said to me, "wow, these are rich!" So, I think I'm going to have to break down and make the traditional buckeyes for him....so, now on my list for tomorrows baking: triple chocolate fudge, caramels AND buckeyes.

Day 3 of my Christmas baking: Apricot pinwheels

Okay, so I started making the pinwheel shapes and I just thought the heck with this its just too much work just for the pinwheel shape. So I just went back to what I normally do and that is to wrap the dough like a blanket over the apricot filling. It went by much faster.It all tastes the same, right?  ( I'm trying to justify my reasoning here)

Here is the final product.They still turned out just as delicious!

Day 3 of my Christmas baking: Pecan tarts

It has been a busy weekend with finalizing my Christmas shopping and battling this darn cold that I have. But, none the less, it was a great weekend!

To finish off my plans for this weekend I am baking pecan tarts from tasteofhome.com and apricot pinwheels. I'm trying the recipe for apricot pinwheels for the first time from goodhousekeeping.com. The pecan tarts recipe is a great recipe. I have been baking these every year for at least 8 years now.

Here are the pecan tarts! I'm pleased with them. The crust is flaky, buttery and cream cheesey. Bite into one and the center is flowing with a pecan filling. Topped with a maraschino cherry half. YUMMY!

Day 2 of my Christmas baking: Mrs. Bell's Cookies Part II

The final product: Mrs. Bell's cookies

Oh my goodness are these cookies are a lot of work to make! But, they are very much worth it. I've already ate oh, maybe 6-8 of these. 
I asked my neighbor Fran today ( the lady that gave me the recipe ) who is Mrs. Bell? Fran told me that her sister used to be a hair dresser and Mrs. Bell was an older lady that used to get her hair done at where Fran's sister used to work. Fran's sister and Mrs. Bell used to swap recipes and that is how Fran acquired the recipe. Mrs. Bell has since passed away. 
I also asked Fran how long has she had the recipe( remember Fran is 94 years old) and she said to me, "Oh, many years now." So, who knows where Mrs.Bell got this recipe from, if she created it herself, or if was passed down from her family or someone else.  I will definitely keep this recipe and only make it at Christmas time and pass the recipe down to my kids because it is such a special little cookie with a story.....

Day 2 of my Christmas baking: Mrs. Bell's Cookies

Across the street from my house is the sweetest lady you'd ever meet. Her name is Fran and she is 94 years old! You would never in a million years guess her to be that age. She still drives, she keeps the cleanest house I have ever seen, and she and her 80 something year old sister go everywhere together. She has been a mother and homemaker her entire life. She has never worked a day outside of her home. I admire and respect that about her. In my opinion, motherhood is the most important job on this planet. What would this world be like without mothers like her.
Anyway, she is a wonderful cook. The more I get to know her (and sample some of her delicious baked goods) the more I realize that I can learn a lot from her. Last Christmas she made these out of this world little pastry cookies that I have never seen of or tasted before. I couldn't get enough of them! To describe them I would say that they are little flaky bites, with a date and nut filling, with a sprinkle of powdered sugar on top. I could of seriously ate a dozen of them at one sitting!
I asked Fran for the recipe and she so graciously gave it to me. As far as how old is this recipe, I'm going to have to ask her. And where did it come from, I don't know, I will ask her that too. So, today I am excited about attempting to make these for the first time.
This is exactly how Fran wrote down the recipe for me:

Mrs. Bell's Cookies

1 lb. oleo
5 cups flour
5 tablespoons sugar
Mix like dough for pie

Add:

1 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg yolks
8 tablespoons sour cream

Make filling:

1 lb. dates chopped
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup nuts
1 1/2 cups milk
Cook 4 mins. and cool


Bake at 350 degrees - 20 minutes
Roll into powdered sugar

In a few hours I will be posting, what I hope to be, pictures of just as  delicious of a cookie that Fran made.

Christmas in downtown Jefferson, Ohio

 Jefferson, Ohio...it is a quaint, cozy little town. My family and I have lived here since 1989! 

Located in Ashtabula County, the largest county in Ohio.

Visit Jefferson by clicking here:www.jeffersonohio.us

This picture was taken in the center of town at the Gazebo. 

 Across the street from the gazebo is the Ashtabula County Courthouse. What appears to look like snow is RAIN! It has rained here for the last two days.

 Another view of our gazebo. I really like this picture.

 Welcome to Jefferson, Ohio!

 Trust me when I say that when you step through these doors for a hair cut it really feels like you stepped back in time. I used to take my son there to get his hair cut. Sure seems like so many years ago.

The first business to the left is Extreme Hair. The owner Amy, does a great job! The business on the far left; Deli In The Rye has some of the best food around. The food there is so thoughtfully prepared and delicious. I especially love the warm bread pudding with rum sauce.



 

 In this picture you can't really see the message on the train but the message says Merry Christmas. I love the fact that it says that instead of Happy Holidays.

Jefferson Diner... this is another business in town that when you walk in, it feels like you're in a different era. My husband and I go here for what we call the gravy boat. On the menu it is the open faced sliced turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy. But, the way we order it is with french fries instead of mashed potatoes and gravy over the whole thing! I know, it's so bad for you. But, oh sooo goood.

 This is a side view of the court house and our main street.

 I had a neighbor, her name was Dorothy, she turned 98 years old just before she moved to live with her daughter. Dorothy used to tell my husband and I stories about  how her father helped build this church. Every time I walk by this church I think about Dorothy. She passed away at the age of 101 a few years ago.

Day 1 of my Christmas baking: Peppermint Snowballs

This recipe came from an Gold Medal recipe booklet. I tore the page out that has this recipe in it years ago.

1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 1/4 cup Gold Medal flour
1/4 teaspoon salt


Heat oven to 325 degrees.
Mix 1/4 cup of crushed candy and 1/4 cup of powdered sugar. This will be used to roll the cookies into when they come out of the oven.
Beat butter, 1/3 cup of powdered sugar, vanilla and the rest of the crushed peppermint candies. (1/4 cup)
Then mix in the flour and the salt.
Roll teaspoonfuls into 1 inch balls, place about 1 inch apart on cookie sheet and then bake for about 12-14 minutes.
When done baking, roll into powdered sugar mixture and let cool on rack. Wait about 10 minutes and reroll cookies in sugar mixture.
                                                                  

Ready to roll the baked cookies into the powdered sugar and peppermint candy mixture.
If you like peppermint it's a sure guarantee that you will like these.

I am done baking for today! It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Day 1 of my Christmas baking: Thumbprint Cookies with cherry filling center

Finished product: Thumbprint Cookies

 I've got my Burl Ives Have A Holly Jolly Christmas cd playing on my stereo to get my Christmas energy going and it's working!

All of my assembled ingredients

Mixing the butter, shortening, brown sugar, egg yolk and vanilla

My little assembly line...

My favorite part of making thumbprints: the thumbprint

Now into the oven for about 10 minutes

 My Mother used to make thumbprint cookies every year for Christmas. She would use red cherry jelly and green mint jelly for the center. This year I am using cherry filling. I've made these every year since I was 17 years old because it was part of her Christmas cookie tradition. I use the same recipe that she used from bettycrocker.com. Instead of almonds I use walnuts. Oh, they really are scrumptious cookies, not too sweet, just right. Great with a cup of coffee. ( but what isn't great with a cup of coffee though!)

Only 19 more days until Christmas!

Today, in our lovely little quaint village of Jefferson, Ohio, it was raining when I woke up this morning and it's still raining  14 hours later. Oh, how I wished that it would turn to snow. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
The topic today amongst all of the villagers that I came across was the weather and Christmas! So, of course I reminded people that we only have 19 more days left until Christmas eve! I think I reminded that gem so many times today that the pressure of my countdown started to get to me. But, then I took a deep breath and thought to myself that I have 19 more days to bake, bake, bake my behind off. Plenty of time! So, with that said, I will posting the start of my Christmas baking adventure in the next few days.

Chocolate, chocolate buttercream cupcake topped with a Malley's chocolate coffee bean and my first attempt at a faux bois chocolate disc.

My first attempt at making a faux bois chocolate disc. I didn't have dark chocolate for the base of it so I used what I had, yellow vanilla flavored coating discs. I also didn't have a wood grain tool to use for the base color so I improvised and used a icing tool used for texture in icing. I was online looking at cupcake decorating ideas and I stumbled upon the directions on how to do this on marthastewart.com and I just thought it was soo cool! I'm already thinking about the next time I try this I'm going to use green as my base color and cut out leaf shapes! Hmmm, that should be interesting.