Chocoholic Anonymous

Welcome to the final TWD installment of 2008.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season; I know I am!  I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to participate this week since I am still out of town visiting family, but my mother graciously permitted me to take over her kitchen long enough to make Anne’s  (of AnneStrawberry) choice of Tall and Creamy Cheesecake (found on pages 235-237 of Dorie’s Baking: From My Home to Yours).

Since I’m sitting in my mother’s kitchen on a laptop essentially ignoring my family long enough to write this, I’m going to do my best to keep it short.

Cheesecake is definitely rated among my favorite desserts so I was excited to make this one.  For the most part I followed the recipe as it was written, but I couldn’t resist making a few changes…

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Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays if you prefer to be politically correct)! This Tuesday we are making (or at least presenting) Real Butterscotch Pudding found on page 386 of Dorie’s Baking: From My Home To Yours and our holiday week hostess is Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases.

This week’s TWD post is going to be pretty short for 2 reasons:

1) I made this recipe during a period of time when “Prince Charming”‘s camera was strictly off limits due to work requirements so I was only able to get pictures of the final product.

2) We are off on a plane to the other side of the country today to celebrate Christmas with my family.

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Here we are on Tuesday again; this time of year time compresses and I can’t explain where each week went.  This week’s TWD assignment is Buttery Jam Cookies selected by Heather of Randomosity and the Girl.  This is another one of those recipes that I wouldn’t have dreamed of picking myself – no chocolate and I despise apricots (I can’t explain it, but I have simply never liked them).  But there again, why did I join TWD – to continue making the same types of recipes I always choose for myself? I think not.

So I opened Dorie’s book to page 80, buckled down, and made these cookies with only a couple of modifications…

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Welcome to the latest installment of TWD!  I’m doing my very best to keep on track with my TWD commitment despite the continuing holiday insanity.  This week Ulrike of Küchenlatein‘s selection is Grandma’s All Occassion Sugar Cookies.  At first glance I wasn’t too terribly excited about this recipe; just your basic sugar cookie.  But, the more I thought about it, the more excited I got.  The very simplicity of this recipe lends itself to so many variations.  Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookie is the ultimate blank canvas of the cookie world!

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Welcome back!  It seems like I just did this, oh wait, I did – maybe relaxing the rules isn’t always such a good thing, I feel like I’ve lost time somewhere.  I’ll let you know if I find that time anywhere, but in the mean time let’s talk about the TWD pick-of-the-week chosen by Dennis from Living The Life: Linzer Sable Cookies.

This was another new one for me, and I have to admit to a mild twinge of disappointment at seeing another recipe without any chocolate.  There are standing jokes regarding the number of (and intensity of) chocolate recipes I make, I have a reputation to uphold here! Then I saw Dorie’s playing around section which set the wheels turning…

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I had every intention of posting this a little closer to Thanksgiving, I planned to post it on Friday, which then got postponed until Saturday and I’m not entirely sure where Sunday went.  I think we all know what they say about “good intentions” and “best laid plans” which is why I’m here on Monday writing a post that I should have shared on Friday.  But, moving on…

It has been said a time or two (or 3 or 4 or 20) that I tend to go every so slightly (read insanely) overboard with my holiday menus and preparation.  If that is true (and I’m not admitting that it is!) I’m sure I come by it quite honestly by way of my mother.  Every holiday meal I’ve ever made has fallen short of the abundance my mother spreads on the holiday table multiple times a year; of course I think the largest number I’ve ever had at my holiday table is 5 (this Thanksgiving it was only 2, and that included me), but that doesn’t stop me from striving for the Holiday feast perfection that my mother serves up at every major holiday.

So did I truly go over board this Thanksgiving?  I’ll let you be the judge, but I will say that the leftovers are going to be enjoyed in several forms for quite some time…

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