Cookie Exchange 2010 – The Cookies

For my exchange I ask everyone to package up their cookies in small batches.  This makes it much less time consuming to exchange and you also get some nice containers to pack up and give away cookies for gifts.  Plus I think it’s a little more sanitary. This year we presented the cookies one at a time for tasting.  Here is what we had…

Top row (L to R):  Grandma’s Ginger Cookies, Almond Cherry Bites, Mexican Chocolate Cookies, MoonBeam Cookies. Bottom row (L to R):  Chocolate Snowballs, Eggnog Frosted Nutmeg Sugar Cookies, Pumpkin Cookies, Peanut Butter Blossoms, Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies.

Grandma’s Ginger cookies were a crunchy cookie great for dipping in tea or coffee! A traditional favorite.

Almond Cherry Bites –almonds, dried cherries and melted chocolate.  A gourmet presentation!

Red pepper in the Mexican Chocolate cookies complimented the bittersweet chocolate and left you saying “mmm, there’s the heat” with a smile.

MoonBeam cookies won the favorite cookie award of the night!  A sugar cookie with coconut and lemon filling.  Yummy!

The Chocolate Snowballs were hiding a secret.  Kisses inside.  The peppermint kisses were definitely a good choice!

Eggnog Frosted Nutmeg Sugar cookies – A sweet cookie that really brought home the holiday flavor.  Runner up for favorite cookie!

Pumpkin cookies were a soft, cakey cookie with sweet icing.  These would be great at Thanksgiving too!

Peanut Butter Blossoms – How can you go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate?

Chocolate Candy Cane cookies – A soft chocolate cookie with melted chocolate and crushed candy canes.  It must be Christmas!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention…we had a flashing holiday sweater this year!

Thank you everyone who came and shared in some good food, good conversation and good cookies!  It was lots of fun! 

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year Everyone!

Cookie Exchange 2010 – The Menu

Another successful cookie exchange!

Here is the menu I planned…

Salami Crisps with Sour Cream and Basil

5 Layer Mediterranean Dip

Asiago Cheese Puffs

Cherry Tomatoes with Olive Tapenade

Louisiana Crab Dip with Crudites

Stuffed Mushrooms

Spiced Fig Marmalade & Blue Cheese

As always, I did my best to have a variety of flavors, colors, temperatures and textures.  The Salami Crisps are a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis.  These can be done ahead of time and they do take a little longer to cook than the recipe states.  Be sure to line your baking sheets with parchment or foil to make clean up easier.  Also be sure to get a quality salami.

This 5 layer dip is a much healthier alternative to traditional layered taco dips and is a nice change of pace.  I found this recipe at Athenos.com.  Basically it’s hummus, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives.  I used plain hummus but you could change it up and use a flavored version.  I used kalamata olives, but if you are not a fan any black olive will do.  And it keep it healthy I served it with multi grain chips.

I love tapenade and instead of doing a crostini with tapenade like I usually do I decided to use cherry tomatoes as the base.  I was short on time so I purchased already made olive tapenade from my local grocery store.  While these were tasty, I think you need to really like the kick that olive tapenade has because the tomatoes do not tone down the flavor like bread does. 

I found this crab dip recipe while I was researching menus for a Mardi Gras party.  I decided to try it again.  Typical cream cheese/sour cream dip recipe.  Honestly, this didn’t taste as well as I remembered it.  But I do think the presentation in the fancy glass bowl looked nice.

I also made some basic stuffed mushrooms but I forgot to take a photo.  Sorry.

 

The fig marmalade was from one of my cookbooks, The Menu by Davis Laris and Dean Brettschneider.  The book has 15 five-course menus.  This is the first recipe I have tried from the book and was quite pleased with it.  The blue cheese complimented the figs nicely and I think the whole grain crostini were a good choice.

While the fig crostini was good I think the hit of the night (besides the cookies of course!) was the Asiago Cheese Puffs.  A mixture of asiago cheese, mayo, onion, thyme and a dash of cayenne on lightly toasted white bread rounds.  I prefer these hot but they can also be served at room temperature.  Check out www.finedinings.com for some more easy gourmet recipes and menus.  The site is pretty ad heavy but the author includes photos of every recipe and you’ll be sure to find something to inspire you. 

And there you have it.  Next up…the cookies!

Chocolate Topiary!

Browsing the Betty Crocker website I found this cute idea for making a Chocolate Truffles Topiary.  I thought this would make an excellent prize for my cookie exchange party.  So off I went to Michael's looking for pots, styrofoam, dowel rods, and inspiration!  Looking through the containers I wasn't feeling inspired but when I looked at the styrofoam shapes the cone shape jumped out...of course, I should make a Christmas tree!  A gold cube pot was the perfect fit.  Simple and elegant!  Here's my version...

The tree shape did require more truffles but I thought it would be more appropriate for the holidays.  I used Ferrero Rocher Chocolates.  You MUST try these if you've never had one!  Chocolate and hazelnuts - YUM!  Shopping tip - unless you are giving these chocolates alone as a gift look for them in the regular candy aisle.  At Christmastime they package these in all kinds of fancy containers and of course those cost quite a bit more.  I added a little greenery and some red ribbon, next time I might use a red pot to add more color, but I think it turned out fine.  The recipient could also reuse the form and re-gift!

If you are going to try making one of these, poke a small hole in the truffle first then put the toothpick into the foam and place the truffle on the toothpick.  The foil on the truffles will still hold it firmly in place.  If you put the truffle on the toothpick then try to put it into the foam, the toothpick with poke through the truffle, or you will crush the truffle.

The Betty Crocker website suggests using these as centerpieces on wedding reception tables, but imagine the possibilities! You could use almost any kind of container, any shape foam, different candy (maybe the mini chocolate peanut putter cups) and colorful ribbons to make gifts for Christmas, birthdays, baby showers, teacher's gifts or thank you gifts. 

And because it's homemade it feels just a little more special.

Cookie Exchange Party!

Well, the cookie exchange was a hit and I want to say THANK YOU to all of my friends for making this cookie exchange such a great time! Everything went smoothly and of course it being the first one, we learned a few things in the process.

None of us are very festive dressers! A few holiday sweaters and Santa hats but that was really the extent of it. Not ONE pair of flashing earrings, how disappointing! We did however have a winner for the Most Festive Dress and she took home a chocolate topiary tree. Congratulations Linda!

Eight cookies don’t sound like a lot but when you are faced with a full plate of cookies it sure looks like a lot! Needless to say most of us didn’t have a problem at least tasting each of the cookies. Wow, what would happen if we had more people? The Best Cookie winner, Azita and her Orange Cranberry Walnut Biscotti, took home a cute snowman cookie jar to put all her delicious biscotti in! Congratulations Azita!

Most everyone packaged up their cookies in small containers for each person to take home. I think with a small group of 8 like we had, this actually worked out pretty well. We had holiday boxes, containers, and bags. Even if they don’t admit it, I know creating the presentation is half the fun! Each person also received a collection of all the cookie recipes to take home.

The menu turned out very tasty. We had a pretty good spread! My pre-planning worked out perfectly…finished plating the last appetizer at 5:59pm! (I’ll post the recipes separately.)

I will definitely try to have a cookie exchange every year! I enjoyed the time relaxing and socializing with friends and of course it was great to make one type of cookie and walk away with eight different kinds! I even heard talk of collecting cookie recipes to try for next year!

Cookie exchange in three days!

The Christmas decorations are up, my lists are made, and this weekend will be busy with grocery shopping, house cleaning, cooking, and of course…baking cookies! One last thing I do at least a few days before the party is prepare all of the non-food items that I can. I can make sure I have everything I need and that nothing is broken. This is a huge timesaver the day of the party, I can just cook and plate!

Platters/serving dishes - I have gone through all of my platters and decided which ones will work best for each menu item. They are all washed and ready.

Tablecloths/Napkins - I have ironed my tablecloths; I think I’ll use paper dinner napkins. People seem more comfortable with paper; whenever I put out fabric napkins its like no one wants to actually use them.

Glasses - I have my wine glasses out and polished, can’t have spots on my wine glasses. Charms for stemmed wine glasses are a great way for guest to keep track of their glasses. Luckily, I received some Christmas charms a few years ago as a gift! I also have mugs ready for hot apple cider.

Silverware – No silverware or serving utensils required for this menu as its all prepared finger foods. But if I was using them I’d make sure I had enough settings and that they were, of course, polished and shiny!

Centerpieces and table decorations are out. This is one area that I like to fuss with, so doing this in advance allows me enough time to get it just right.


I'm pretty comfortable with everything that needs to be done this weekend, but it WILL be a busy weekend!

Cookie Exchange Menu

I love decorating for the holidays! Still working on getting my Christmas decorations up for the party next week, but I do have my menu, grocery list and TO DO list done.

Here's the menu I've decided on:

Caesar Salad Spears - Caesar salad made into finger food by serving on endive spears. Easy, elegant and can be made quickly at the last minute.

Hummus Stuffed Portobello Caps - Hummus, cream cheese and bell pepper stuffing. Can be prepared ahead and baked right before the party.

Sausage Stuffed Peppadews - Sausage, rice, olive tapenade and cheese stuffing. Can be stuffed the day before, refrigerated overnight and baked right before the party.

Spinach Phyllo Triangles - A version of family recipe for Spinach Pie but made into little stuffed triangles of phyllo dough. Can be made a day ahead and served at room temperature.

Gorgonzola and Caramelized Onion Appetizer - Baguettes topped with caramelized onion and gorgonzola cheese. The onions can be made a day ahead and reheated before assembly.

Tomato Tartlet - Roasted cherry tomatoes and ricotta cheese spread on puff pastry. Puff pastry and tomatoes can be prepared ahead and kept at room temperature up to 8 hours.

Potato Cakes - Baked mini potato cakes with sour cream and chives. (These are last on my list. I always have one item that can be left out if I take on too much, but these are simple so they probably make it.)

I think this will be a good mix of flavors, temperatures, colors, shapes and textures. It's all finger foods, so no silverware required. These are a little more time consuming as they are all pre-assembled bites (I think that looks more fancy) but with time to prepare on Sunday, I should have enough time to assemble on Monday. I'm adjusting the recipes to allow for 2-3 pieces of each recipe per person. Plus we'll have cookies for tasting.

The only thing I haven't decided on is drinks. Hot cider or milk seems like an obvious choice, but I'll probably also have some wine and coffee/tea.

Don't worry, I'll be sure to post recipes, photos and comments!

My first cookie exchange!

I’ve decided to organize a cookie exchange this year!

I've never been to one but I’ve seen some great ideas especially on http://robinsweb.com/cookies/index.html and the photos look like a lot of fun, so why not?! I sent out an email to some good friends to see if they were even interested, the responses came back so positive that I can’t wait! We’ve picked the date of Monday December 7. It should be easier for everyone to bake their cookies over the weekend. I’ll keep you posted with all of my ideas along the way.

I have already sent out a "Save the Date" email to everyone. Working on the complete invite. There are lots of different types of exchanges. I've decided to have everyone bring 7 dozen cookies and the goal will be to have 12 people attend. We'll taste one dozen of the cookies and everyone will be able to take home 1/2 dozen each of 12 different types of cookies! If we don't have 12 people attend, each person will just get more of fewer types of cookies.

Now, which rules should I include? Some rules I DO know I want to do is no duplicate recipes, and no basic chocolate chip cookies. One rule I've seen is no bar cookies, but I seen nothing wrong with that. I think that rule would be for all serious bakers attending. But as far as I'm concerned, this is for fun and shouldn't be stressful for people to attend. I even have a complete non-baker who has agreed to take on the task! (I'll have to keep an eye out for an easy recipe to share with her.)

Planning to have a few prizes. One for the best cookie and one for the most festive holiday outfit. I'll have to think of something creative for these.

Next will be to decide on a menu for snacks to have while we socialize and taste the delicious cookies! And decide what I am going to bake myself!

Oh my, I almost forgot I'll have to have all my holiday decorations up too!

Looks like I'll be busy for the next few weeks but this should be fun!