Holiday Baking Extravaganza

In yet another chapter of the exciting activities I've coerced Melissa into, we baked holiday goodies on Sunday from 10:30 am to 8:00 pm. And we went to Pilates beforehand! It was a long and exhausting day, but so much fun.

Melissa doesn't have much baking experience, but you could never tell.

She did a great job, but her perfectionistic tendencies did cause some delays. :) Although the real problem was that my spritz press is a piece of junk. That thing made its way to the trash before the day was over.

Precision is essential in baking, but perfectionism is impossible. You just have to go for it - even if it doesn't look great it will probably taste great!

That was definitely the case with our frosted cookies. The frosting recipe tasted delicious, but was a pain to use. I replaced my previous recipe, which spread like a dream but tasted not so good. Amber, you'll have to send me your recipe from work to try next time.

Ok, I'm having a hard time writing this because I keep thinking about all the delicious treats. Of course I have some in my desk drawer and I just can't resist taking a bite. Or several bites. If I don't stop writing about treats I will eat them all. And then what will I eat this afternoon??

The results of our long baking day may not look like much, but here's a list of what we made:
Frosted cut-out cookies
Spritz cookies (ended up being cut cookies)
Fudge with walnuts
Peanut butter/chocolate fudge
Mexican wedding cookies (aka snowballs or butterballs)
White chocolate covered pretzels

Chris also decorated a cookie (and enjoyed some treats), but somehow when he sent me the photos, the ones of him were not included. Hmmm...

For those who may be wondering, yes, I'm bringing treats to our upcoming Christmas gatherings!

I'm also bringing lefse. I completed Phase I last night (using real potatoes this time) and if Phase II goes well tonight, expect to try some this weekend! However, if it turns out anything like last time, I won't be sharing this batch. I don't think I can bear the look on peoples' faces when they bite into it and can't hide their distaste. Except Mom, who pretended to like it!