Sorry to be such a sucky reporter of cookie season. It was so compressed this year. I feel like I missed everything from Nov. 30-Dec. 14 when the party was because all I did was stay home and bake. With a few exceptions: we did go to the Madison Symphony Christmas show on the 7th. Glad of it, because we liked the soloists, especially the woman, who seemed more like a broadway musical singer than an opera diva. Leotha Stanley’s Mount Zion church choir seemed really small this year, like only 9 or 10 people, but they still sang powerfully. And I had some extra Jasper days and we went to his holiday music class and gymnastics class.
And I’ve been offline so long there’s an error with the insta feed here on WordPress. It’s not updating. I started writing this on my phone on the train to Chicago, on Tuesday and thought I needed to fix it on a real computer & better WiFi. Now it’s Friday and after further investigation, it seems to be what I suspected from the beginning – I need to get a paid account or it’s not going to work. Sigh.
The party was packed early and it took me the first couple hours to catch up. I was trying to get the cookie platters made and divvy up the cookies between what I was keeping for back up and what I was putting out for people to select from to pack their boxes to take home. So my first party regret is I think I erred on the side of keeping too much back. Mark mostly stayed upstairs where the packing was and reported disgruntled would-be box packers who were not finding their faves. But the Monday after the party I packed a bunch of boxes to hand carry to people who missed the party, and to friends in Chicago, and to ship to my brother (who wanted his box later this year) and it was very nice to have a good selection. And in subsequent days I am packing up more boxes for people to pick up.
We had a brief bout of freezing rain and that kept a number of people away. I put out boxed leftover cookies on Sunday & Monday and I know some people who were kept away from party by the ice got some, so that’s good. I took a tray out to Chris’s tree sale Sunday and I’ll take a tray to UW library and one for food pantry volunteers on Thursday so the kept-back will all be shared eventually. And I just had a friend get in touch and ask if they could get a box to take to a party Saturday. The cookies always get eaten! I actually have a list of a couple other kinds I want to make. Hailee Catalano’s Sticky Toffee Pudding Cookies, and King Arthur Chocomallow. And something to use my new spritz cookie gun, maybe gingerbread spritz.
So what did we eat at the party …
- Mollie Katzen pesto peppercorn torta, time-hallowed, cream cheese and ricotta wrapped around some pesto, and I served it surrounded by homemade pickled bell peppers. I used to always make the torta at Thanksgiving because my dad liked it;
- I poured the jar of raspberry jalapeño jelly the Savory Accents folks gave me as a thank-you for helping to sell the farmers market cookbook last year over a block of cream cheese, and that was inhaled;
- And another warm cheesy thing – I nestled a log of goat cheese in pepperonta that I made from Tipi peppers and froze last summer. That’s always a hit. And any leftovers make good sauce for pasta which is what we had for dinner Sunday;
- Barbecued turkey and barbecued tempeh (in separate dishes) with focaccia to put it on. I only made two focaccias, coulda had more. The turkey disappeared with blinding speed, but there was tempeh leftover;
- Deviled eggs, and pickled beets and eggs – one of the only things I took a picture of. They’re so pretty – I had a couple of golden beets and 3-4 red, and I expected the red beets to color the golden but I didn’t know it’d be such a pretty rosy color.
- Cranberry cocktail meatballs, standard party fare, I had just the right amount of cranberry sauce frozen from Thanksgiving to go into the meatballs;
- Speaking of cocktail sauce, shrimp boiled in beer;
- Peanut dip and veggies;
- Kimchi corn dip, a new thing and a keeper, plus the leftovers made really good mac & cheese (replaced about a cup of the cheese with a generous cup of the kimchi corn dip, which is how much I had left) on Monday night;
- And another new fun thing that I am definitely making again next year – a warm, bready, pull-apart Christmas tree. With spanakopita filling for the stuffing. I used the dough I usually use to wrap the little wienies for the tree, and bought puff pastry for the wienies;
- Which were regular little smokies, and vegetarian Chicago style.
And there were baguette (purchased) slices and cheese and crackers and nuts. Another cookie party regret is I way overbought on nuts. I made tamari almonds and bought Costco salted peanuts and pistachios in the shell, and bought curry cashews at the co-op, too. Maybe I can freeze some for next year, though I’ve never been sure if you could actually freeze salted nuts. Maybe just fridge them. And, I tidied up the area where John & Megan were making the cheese platters and hid some of the cheese that could’ve been replenished from them in the fridge. So I have little bits of Roeli Red Rock, and Hook’s blue, and Farmer John’s provonello. That I think could go into a cheese focaccia.
And I also regret that it was just so rushed. But still fun. Next year I think the party is going to be on December 20th.
And I started reading Sally Rooney’s newest book, Intermezzo. We saw so many people reading it on the tube in London. It’s about two brothers and when she’s writing about the older one, she does a kind of stream of consciousness that really connects what he’s thinking about right now with past experiences, but succinctly. I always want to try to do that, but it always gets me to people saying, “too much context, Deb, you’re burying the lede”, or even worse, impatience and whoever listening doesn’t even hear what I’m saying. Like I always wanted to tell you that painting the meringue on the Zimtsterne always reminds me of a job I had painting the liquid crystal onto the back of glass stones to make mood stone rings, when I moved back to Pittsburgh in the fall of ’75. You had to flow the somewhat viscous liquid crystal onto the back of the stones with your brush, the same as flowing the meringue onto the little stars. And there’s a ton of context, like why I was back in Pittsburgh and why this chemical company decided to make the mood stones for Christmas 1975 and so on, but I think we’ll have to meet for a beer if you wanna know more.
All of which is to say 2024 cookie season is a wrap. And on to more holiday cooking and eating.