Cookie Time

Yesterday, I realised with a shock that this is my last free weekend before Christmas. On Tuesday my sister will be arriving in Charlottetown via Toronto. So, my husband and I will be heading to the Island next weekend for the first of our family dinners. The following weekend, Christmas weekend, we head off to Cape Breton to my in-laws. That meant that anything that required intense labour needed to be done immediately. And naturally that meant cookies!!

I have been appointed the chief gingerbread baker for both families. I don't want to brag, but I may have developed a bit of a knack for it over the years. I use a Martha Stewart recipe that was in her annual Holiday cookie magazine about 5 years ago. The first time I made them, I realised too late that I did not have the called for amount of cinnamon so I had to improvise. The result was amazing, good and spicy the way I like it. Sadly, I didn't write down the changes that I made. This year, I nailed it again, and have pencilled the substitutions onto the page for future use.

After all the gingerbread dough was rolled, cut and baked, I ended up with an army of 77 gingerbread men of varying sizes. A veritable army... we will be invading a small sugar cookie country at dawn! I have yet to decorate the troops though, that will wait until tomorrow.

I also tried a new recipe this year, one that conveniently arrived in my email inbox. It is for perfect little candy cane meringues. (click for the recipe!) I made them smaller than the recipe suggests and ended up with approximately 60 mini meringues - a superb pop-in-your-mouth size. I added a drop of peppermint extract to the recipe too, and the result is a pleasing minty tingle on the tongue.

Tomorrow is sugar cookie day. The dough is made and chilling in the fridge. I must resist nibbling away at it!

I'll share all the final results later in the week.