I guess, if last year was the cookie season with a broken thumb, this year was the cookie party of the blizzard. We had about 40 – 50 people, which is probably 1/3 to 1/2 the usual number. (100+ folks). I think I’ve been too buried under snow, or cookies, or both, to write.
On Thursday after work I shopped for the party, and shifted from making cookies to making party food. There was:
- Squash quesadillas: cubes of squash roasted in olive oil and smoked paprika, with a parsley & toasted pumpkin seed pesto, and pepper jack cheese;
- Antipasto: Marinated mushrooms, honey goat cheese with home made roasted tomatoes on top, lentil pate with onion confit and cornichons, 2 kinds of olives
- Spicey peanut dip and the veggies with it all came from my CSA box – orange carrots, cauliflower, giant yellow carrots that I cut into rounds for scooping dip, and beauty heart radishes
- Home made caramelized onion dip with store bought potato chips and sweet potato chips
- fancy schmancy pigs in blankets with 4505 meats hot dogs and my yeasted pastry dough
- devilled eggs
- pepperoni roll with pizza sauce to dip
- baked brie – wrapped in puff paste with cranberry chutney inside
- bacon dates
- Jacque Pepin’s sweet cheese spread — the ends of the fancy cheeses that we ate at Thankgiving mashed with toasted pumpkin seeds and raisons
- warm spinach dip
- cocktail meatballs
- Buffalo chicken dip
- artichoke pastries – a Martha that I don’t know if I’ll make again
- Leek quichettes that I definitely would make again, and in fact the artichoke pastry filling might be a lot better in quiche than in the pastries. I made the shells first, and then took them out of the little tart pans and arranged them in rows on another baking sheet, before putting in the filling of eggs and cheese and cream and leeks – that would have permanently welded the quichettes to the pans.
Also a bunch of different cheese and crackers, and little baguette slices.
I didn’t photograph a thing – John was going to, but all he shot was the beauty hearts. The kids didn’t go back to Milwaukee until Monday – the WI DoT and the state highway patrol were saying stay off the highway, and there were parts of I-94 closed most of Sunday.
On Sunday morning, while we were shoveling snow, my brother, in Seattle, was bailing water out of his basement.
Now I’m being the cookie fairy, hand delivering cartons & platters of cookies to friends in Madison who missed the party, and packing and shipping boxes. On Monday, I spent from 1:30 – 9:00 p.m. just getting all the cookies packed in plastic bags. Packing the boxes after the cookies are bagged is easier, but I don’t have the energy for it tonight. I shipped 4 boxes today, and I’ll do another 4 tomorrow. Monday I made 3 deliveries, today 4, and tomorrow a big platter to work, for our office holiday potluck.
