Candy Cane Cookies

I made these cookies on a day off and had high hopes.  They kinda sucked.  I know this because that is how my mom described them.  There are broken up candy canes in chocolate chip cookies.  I did not crush the candy canes fine enough and there were huge chunks.  Chunks that got gummy yet crunchy while baking.  Not my finest effort.  I would throw them to the birds but I am not really sure they would eat them. 

Ornage Item of the Week

Thanksgiving.  We all have to do it, whether we want to or not.  I often thing that really Thanksgiving is a form of revenge from Native Americans.  They knew land was going to get stolen, and why not force future generations to get together once a year, eat odd food and then visit relatives.  Who knows what the turkey population did to piss them off. 

For all my grousing, this year was not that bad.  I had to work on midnight on black friday, so my mom decided to keep it simple.  We had brunch instead of the whole turkey extravaganza thing.  It was nice, bread pudding from Ina Garten's Fool Proof.  Amazballs.  We also had a salad, ham and pumpkin squares.  It was nice.  Plus I also had Aunt Marcia there :)  So my Orange Item of the Week is the Mimosas we drank.  I hope we do brunch now every year. 

Peppermint Cookies

Since I was supposed to make more than one item for the cookie try, I made these peppermint cookies from the Tate Cookbook, also a New York staple.  I think I over baked them a little, but they are minty and kind of perky.  While I am still kind of pissed, these helped.  They have chocolate chips in them, and I am wondering about putting in either candy cane bit or minty chips for the holidays. 

Fat Witch Coconut Bars

 
Today is my last day off for over a week, so I thought I might finally get around to baking my own birthday cake (yes, i was cranky when I typed that.  Seriously, I did not get one last year and for all of the complaining I do you would think my mother would just go out and buy me a damn cake.  But NO....So when I finally get around to making it, it will in fact be BITTER flavored.)  My mother called and felt the need to ask me to bake an order for her (yup, still bitter.) for her damn Fall Fest Raffle.  So I cranked out these Coconut bars from the Fat Witch Cookbook.  Fat Witch Brownies is an amazing bakery located at the Chelsea Market.  They were ahead of the brownie trend a few years back, and have manged to stay in business though the following cupcake and macaroon trends.   So freaking good, and a taste of home, the even put a smile on this cranky face.  I also included one of my glass turkeys.  They get put out for a few hours between Halloween and Christmas. 

Orange Item of the Week

I picked this sweater out at Target.  It is cute and all, but I have got to learn not to wear stripes when getting my picture taken. 

Cardamon Cake

Every year on the first snow, I make a cardamom  cake.  This years offering came from the Tate's Bakery Cook Book.  It was a hit with my parents.  There is a layer of almonds on top and the cardimom was really warm and tasty.  Most Cardamom cakes have orange and this one did not.  Becase of this cake, Athena did not totally suck.  Just mostly. 

Athena

Here is my opinion of Athena.

My mother assures me that my chin is not this shape.  I am not sure. 

 

This is what it looked like outside when I left for work at 3:30 last night.  I was not impressed.  

Orange Item of the Week

Here it is, the best one yet (besides Stanley) My mother made this for me when I was 18, and have worn it every year since.  It is showing its age, but I love it.  I wore it to work on Halloween, and made a BIG impression.  The great thing about this picture, my mother caught me in mid eye roll. 

Hurricane Sandy, the aftermath

So, we lived through Sandy, we lost power for about two days.  It was not horrible, but not fun.  The plus side was that we had a gas stove.  I made Sweet Potato Soup, from Betty Rosebottom's book, Sunday Soups.  I changed it a little, she made it with ginger, I used curry.  Since most blackout foods are sweet or salty, the heat was a nice counterpoint.  I did not get a picture, things were a little crazy....