Queen For a Day

Incredibly, the calendar has rolled around to Christmas Cookie Bakeoff time again, which we enjoyed to the max yesterday. And this was a special one - it was our 25th anniversary edition of getting together to see how many different combinations of butter and sugar could be created in a single day!

The first get together was back in 1993 in the tiny kitchen of my first home with this little guy manning the gears on the KitchenAid (isn't he a doll?). He's 30 now and still my favourite nephew 😉. Over the years there has been a slight ebb and flow to who was able to join in the fun, but each one was a memorable beginning to our holiday season.

So, how to mark this milestone? Why, with commemorative aprons designed by my favourite niece. They were bundled up with packages of coffee and hot chocolate and a tiny Santa box of treats.

And what's a cookie baking apron without a Cookie Queen tattoo? I mean really, doesn't everyone deserve to be Queen for a day? Oh, the fun we had!

Group photo...

My friend Lori travels three hours to join us (amazing, I know) and was a little delayed this year as she made several stops to take pics of Mother Nature's contribution to the day.

As usual, things got off to an early start and in no time the table was filling in with tasty treats.

There are always a few cookies that everyone looks forward to in their tins - Social Tea Squares and Buttered Rum cookies, to name a couple - but this year we tried lots of new recipes too, like these Gingerbread Molasses Cookies with Eggnog Frosting. Sweet.

Stephanie always picks the best recipes to make and these Chocolate Thumbprints with Candy Cane Kisses were no exception.

She also made a fantastic chocolate peppermint cookie that I'm going to need to get the recipe for.

Anne's Chocolate Dipped Shortbread with Ginger and Sea Salt were divine (we had to sample a few that were broken as they were pulled off the cooling racks)!

I was feeling a little nostalgic after making mom's Christmas Cake a couple of weeks ago so I pulled out her recipe for Macaroons and made them too. A lovely walk down memory lane.

We are very strategic in placing our graphic designers Jane, Julia and Betty (not shown) on the decorating table...

...all under the watchful eye of Baylea, who was in charge of quality control.

Betty has perfected the art of cooling cookies on the front porch.

We did have a little unexpected excitement this year. When there is a lineup to get into the oven we set trays of cookies that are ready to bake out on the back porch to stay cool. Well, this year we had a little visitor who thought that we were kindly setting out treats for his enjoyment (first time this has ever happened). Note the gap on the cookie sheet. Little rascal.

Jen was kept busy in 'shipping & receiving', packaging up our tins just so. We missed her daughters Megan and Emily this year.

And of course, there's always a rotation at the kitchen sink throughout the day because when you make 160 dozen cookies there's going to be some cleanup required.

From our gang to yours, here's to a wonderful holiday season and may your cookie plate always be filled with lots of variety!....M