Give me a kiss

I think these cookies are a Christmas staple. And if you look online you can find, oh...about 157 different recipes. This is the one my mom has had for years and I have no idea where she got it. But...it works. These are not Jason's favorite cookies. He's not a fan of plain chocolate - like solid Hershey's Kisses or a Hershey's chocolate bar. Really, he's not a huge fan of chocolate, but he can be persuaded. So, being the nice wife I am I bought the Hershey's Hugs (white & milk chocolate Kisses) this year hoping he'd like them more.

They were definitely more favored, however the Hugs melt more than the Kisses did. In my opinion the cookies aren't quite as pretty, but they still taste the same.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

• 2/3 cup unsalted butter at room temp
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 T milk
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t baking soda
• granulated sugar
• Hershey's Kisses

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream the first 4 ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl. Beat in the milk and vanilla. Add the next three dry ingredients until well blended. Form the cookies into 1" balls and roll in granulated sugar before placing them on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are slightly brown. Remove from the oven and press in the unwrapped Hugs (or Kisses). Move to a cooling rack and let them cool completely.

I actually burned the first batch. I haven't burned cookies in...well, forever. I'm blaming it on Jason. He made me sit down on the sofa to get off of my feet and I wasn't sure how long to bake these. I usually just bake cookies until they look right. Well, I started to smell these in the living room and knew I'd just lost 1 dozen cookies. Still, I managed to get 37 good ones out of the batch. Plenty, if you ask me.

My new favorite cookie recipe

Who doesn't love some Paula Deen? Seriously - a woman who laughs as much as she does and has a show with a snowman shaped block of butter is someone to idolize. My mom gave me a magazine months ago that was a Paula Deen Holiday special - full of recipies overflowing with butter. I was in love.

Then I got busy and only managed to make one recipe - her Heavenly Sugar Cookies. These are great! I've made them twice and I think they'll be my go-to sugar cookie recipe. I think it is the almond extract.

Heavenly Sugar Cookies from Paula Deen

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 1 t almond extract
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt

Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in eggs and extracts. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating until combined. Cover and chill for at least an hour. Frost with your choice of icing - I used the standard Wilton recipe.

The inspiration for these came from Katie's blog...mine don't look quite as cute. Mostly because I decided that making the royal icing and filling them would be too much of a pain in the butt.

The hotel is open again.

Well, Lin & Casi moved out. Jason's friend stayed that Sunday and we thought we had our house back. Well, 4 days later Casi came back. She brought Hurricane Ike with her. Lindsey evacuated to College Station, but Casi stayed for the weekend.

Boy was that a wild ride! The wind Friday night was crazy. I know the three of us got very little sleep. We trekked to my mom's house on Saturday after it cleared up to get her generator. See, we were prepared...for a few days. Then we heard that power outages could take 3-4 weeks to completely restore. Ack! Our food would surely go bad by then.

We managed to get really lucky when we checked on Casi & Lin's apartment Sunday and they had power! After sweating our buns off Saturday night this was music to our ears. We packed up and headed inside the loop. Only to come back Tuesday when our power was back on. I won't lie, Jason and I were happy people. I am very grateful that we lucked out in getting our power back so soon. Today is day 9 (I think) and the people across the street from me are still out. I'm not sure who to thank for our power coming on so soon, but I'll write them a letter. We've been hosting our own little refugee though - Rachel is still without power! We let her "rent" out the guest bedroom. I'm only charging her pizza Sunday night and Chicken Curry this weekend.

Well, since we had Friday off to prepare, I baked cookies. Hey, they're non-perishable, right?

Mini M&M Cookies from the M&Ms website

• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/8 t salt
• 1 12oz pkg Mini M&Ms

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars, beat in egg and vanilla. In a medium bowl combine flour, soda and salt. Blend into the creamed mixture. Stir in the M&Ms. Chill the dough for 15-20 minutes. Scoop by heaping tablespoons full on to a baking sheet (I'm in love with my Pampered Chef stone!) and bake for about 10-12 minutes. Cool completely...if you can!!

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies!!

I love baking. Really. I don't get that there are people who don't like to bake. So that makes this my favorite time of year. I go on my baking extravaganza. Jason actually cut me a little short this year...I wanted to add a few more types of cookies, but with our holiday travels, that just wasn't possible. Plus, he said he can't eat all of them!

The first type turned out really well! I had three kinds of leftover chocolate chips from a few Cookies In A Jar mixes I made, so I just used all three. Plus, I baked them on my Pampered Chef stone - why would anyone buy anything else? I freaking love that thing!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 t vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter and sugars, beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375.

The next cookie is my absolute favorite. I love baking these and they are so easy. I've always called them Swedish Teacakes, but they are also called Russian Teacakes and (I think) Italian Wedding Cookies.

Swedish Teacakes

• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 325. Cream butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Blend in flour, salt and nuts. Shape into 1" balls and bake on an ungreased pan for 15-20 minutes. Cool to the touch, roll in powdered sugar (I usually add red and green sprinkles during the holiday season). Cool completely and roll in powdered sugar again.

Coffee's Perfect Mate

Yes - I'm a sucker for some flavored cream in my coffee. But I'm not talking about Coffeemate. I'm talking about biscotti. I love it with my coffee, especially if it's really crunchy.

This also marks the beginning of my holiday baking. Honestly, the season sort of got away from me and I'm going to have to cut back this year, but I was not cutting this out!

Holiday Biscotti (courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped

2/3 cup dried cranberries

12 ounces good-quality white chocolate, chopped

Red and green sugar crystals, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, lemon zest, and salt in a large bowl to blend. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Add the flour mixture and beat just until blended. Stir in the pistachios and cranberries.

Form the dough into a 13-inch long, 3-inch wide log on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until light golden, about 40 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes. Place the log on the cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the log on a diagonal into 1/2 to 3/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake the biscotti until they are pale golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer the biscotti to a rack and cool completely.

((I skipped this part this year. Last year Jason said the white chocolate just does not go well with coffee.)) Stir the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until the chocolate melts. Dip half of the biscotti into the melted chocolate. Gently shake off the excess chocolate. Place the biscotti on the baking sheet for the chocolate to set. Sprinkle with the sugar crystals. Refrigerate until the chocolate is firm, about 35 minutes.

The biscotti can be made ahead. Store them in an airtight container up to 4 days, or wrap them in foil and freeze in resealable plastic bags up to 3 weeks.