Gosh, how much narrative need there be for this one? Just post photos of the cookies and be done with it!
Bradley and I have done this for a handful of years now - he's one of the few people (CG is another) whom I can work with in the kitchen. We get together on a Sunday before Christmas, mix and bake and frost and pack, get hopped up on far too much sugar for our own good, and end the day somewhere around 10ish.
This year we got smart. He and I each made a couple of batches of things on the Saturday separately. I also made up a bunch of dough that day and refrigerated it. Sunday morning it was up earlyish, a coffee from Starbucks, and then baking. By the time Bradley came over, we only had to roll out and bake the gingerbread and sugar cookies. Easy enough. Once the gingerbread was done, we ate lunch of sushi that Conrad had retrieved, and on to the sugar cookies. We kept the dough and icing eating to a mininum, and the happy result was that Bradley was gone and the kitchen was totally clean by 7. Conrad and I were at Yoshi's by 8.
We had a good mixture this year. Bradley brought over some brownies we cut into smaller bites and chocolate chip cookies (front and right front in the photo)
. On the Saturday I made some pistachio and dried apricot biscotti (tried a new recipe, and I'll do it again - lightly perfumed with saffron and clove)
and my Mum's ginger cookie recipe that I so love.
Before Bradley arrived on Sunday I also added white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies,
chocolate chip cookie bars,
and fig and orange biscotti to the bounty.
Frosting is time consuming, but it is a hoot. Neither of us will claim to be as good as, say, the NBF. Just a batch of royal icing and some Christmas songs in the background.
Conrad? He helped us organizationally but mostly stayed out of the way until it was time to pick out things for his office. Still, we'd be hard-pressed to do it so well without him, too.
Finally - and best of all - we are behaving. Nearly all the cookies are gone to co-workers and friends. We have enough dining to enjoy this week without some sugary stuff at home! Unlike our truly super dinner at Topolobampo last week where we just sat and ate and enjoyed the wines Jill was pairing with the food, we will take photos this time!
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