I am terrible about making gift lists. Birthday lists, Christmas lists, any-occasion-where-I-get-a-gift lists... you name it. Well, with the exception of the wedding registry. That I thoroughly enjoyed. Plus, I wanted to be sure there were enough things on there that no one would be tempted to go off-script. Because as we can all imagine, that almost never ends well. But for most any other occasion, I am the worst person in the world to ask for a gift list. I'm not sure why I

I've saved the best holiday cookies for last, guys. My childhood self would shriek "heresy!" if she heard me say that, but I tell you what... I can (and just did) binge on these cookies like no other. They are crisp, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, nutty, and just a smidge chewy from the dates. Also they're incredibly easy. Pretty much the ideal scenario for a holiday cookie, right? The easier the better with all the chaos of December looming around. As a child, I remember think

And now back to our usual programming. One of the tried and true recipes we made each year was this wonderful, crunchy combination of almond and mint. These candy cane cookies pack a full almond flavor, but without the dense crunch of other similar ones I've tried. These have a lightness that works perfectly with the minty candy cane sugar on top. I would get excited for these every year. I loved the process of sitting around the table, mom handing me a measured ball of dough

Christmas is coming This writer's getting fat It's time to put the candied pecans In someone else's hat Or something like that. Point being, I need to stop snacking on these leftover cinnamon spiced nuts, so I'm going to make them someone else's problem. And what better way to do that than to tidy them into a nice little package and wrap them up as a present? Perfection. I love making stocking stuffers for friends and family (sorry, siblings.. here be spoilers). I got into th

It's a quick post today, but an oh so delicious one. Yesterday I told you all about our traditional sugar cookies that we decorate each year. Well, in the course of making them this go around, I had a brain wave. What if.... what if I browned the butter before using it in the dough? I had just made Half Baked Harvest's brown butter and sage mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving (if you haven't tried those yet, do it!) and I made a cake for my dad's surprise birthday party the week

Growing up, we really only had two Christmas albums we listened to: Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker and a crackly old cassette tape, copied from a friend's record who knows how long ago. It was a darn brown cassette with a lined label over top on which my dad's spidery handwriting had scrawled "Living Strings Christmas." This was our favorite. We would listen to Living Strings pretty much on repeat all through December, flipping it from side to side and knowing every crackle and

The Christmas Baking Quest continues! Today's endeavour (<-- clearly my spelling has been watching too much PBS this week) is one of my go-to snacks for Christmas parties, gift boxes, party favors, and cheese plate accessories. These simple spiced nuts are incredibly easy to whip up and always a hit. In fact, these are what we used as favors for our wedding a couple years ago. I made several large batches of these and stuffed them into muslin bags, embellished with a custom s

Everyone! Everyone! It's here at last. It's the Most Wonderful Thyme of the Year! (Oh lord, even I hate myself a little for that one.) I'll blame the bad punning on remnants of tryptophan. Or something like that. Anyway, what I mean to say by all that is it's Christmas baking time! It's that glorious month where all the extra time is spent cranking out cookies and breads and spiced nuts and all the goodies that will make their way into boxes or baskets for our friends and rel