Christmas Baking

Every year, I bake goodies for my family, friends, and neighbors. This year I had some help from my sister and a friend. Here is what we made....

1. Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

2. M&M Christmas Cookies

3. White Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

4. Tate's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Click on the captions for recipes

Here are my notes and modifications...

1. I follow the recipe exactly. So simple and yummy!

2. I made the following modifications to the original recipe: I mixed in only 1 cup of chocolate chips and pressed Christmas colored M&Ms right when the cookies came out of the oven. 

3. I added 1 cup of Toll House's white chocolate chips instead of making the frosting to go with it. You might want to add 2 cups if you like it more chocolately. (I got the idea to make these from some cookies saw in the bakery at Ralph's Supermarket)

4. My friend had shown me this recipe that she found on Goop (Gwyneth Paltrow's Blog). She came over and helped me bake these. We used 60% cocao chocolate chips from Ghirardelli. 

Baking Jewelry

I LOVE ETSY!!!

You can find all sorts of cool things on Esty. While helping my sister find a Harry Potter necklace, I ran across some really cute baking jewelry. Here's what I found...

Cupcake Pan and Whisk Necklace

Tea/Coffee Cup Necklace

Cupcake Earrings

Pretzel Earrings

There are just some of the neat ones I found. They are all soooo cute!!! The pretzel earrings remind me of the ones I was suppose to get while I was at Oktoberfest in Germany. Having one to many steins prevented me from getting them and it would be just silly to get them here. 

Homemade Chai Tea

I LOVE TEA! One of my favs is Chai Tea.

I gathered all the ingredients, most of which I had on hand already or could find at any neighborhood supermarket. The only one that gave me trouble was cardamom. I eventually found it at Whole Foods Market but it came with only a few seeds and cost about $2.99. Luckily for me, there is an Indian Market nearby where I work. I went there and found a big bag of cardamom for $6.99, which is a much better deal. I used the English Breakfast tea I got from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which is a blend of Darjeeling and Ceylon black tea.

I used this recipe I found online. It turned out nice but I prefer my tea a little more stronger and spicier. The next time I made the tea, I let the spices simmer longer to get more flavor and steeped the tea a little bit longer and it came out much better! The recipe still needs some perfecting but it'll do for now!

Halloween Cupcakes (Organic Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes)

Sorry this post is way late but here it is....

This year, I decided to get make Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes. I got the recipe off allrecipes.com. It got 5 out of 5 stars and people could not stop saying wonderful things about this recipe in the reviews. Boy, they were not lying because these cupcakes were amazing! They were moist and perfect with cream cheese frosting.

I would describe them as a hybrid cross of cupcakes and muffins. They were hit during Halloween and Thanksgiving! I'm sorry I can't find the pictures I took of these cupcakes.

My Halloween was too much fun this year. I went up to SF with a couple of girlfriends. Three straight up crazy nights. One of them being the night the Giants won the World Series. The city went nuts, and it was awesome being part of the celebration!

Thanksgiving has traditionally been at my house every year. This year my sister made the pumpkin pies while I made the stuffing. Here is the recipe I used. The whole family came and we ate as usual. Luckily, leggings are in right now. You get to wear stretchy pants and look fashionable at the same time!

I love this time of the year because its the start of the holiday season!