Baking Days

My friend Kimberly and I thought we'd try out a day where we get together and do all of the baking for our friends/neighbors/teacher Christmas gifts together. So we doubled or quadrupled our recipes, did our shopping, and planned a day at the beginning of the month (which luckily was nice and cold - perfect for baking). Neither of us expected the project to last quite as long as it did - but we had a lot of fun, and were very productive. Landon and Aiden (Kim's little one) had fun playing, and when the big kids got home from school, they were all too happy to help "clean" up extra caramel, batter spoons, etc. The day before, my friend Kendra and I had done a baking morning for the women we visit teach. We cranked out a couple recipes while my kids sledded in the back yard with her little dog. And, yes, I admit that I'm a glutton for punishment (or really good Christmas food), so I made a new cookie recipe every couple of days or so.



Landon's head in the box, or Liza's face in front of the packaged products, may just well show how we felt by the end of it all. Not really - it was a lot of fun. Only because yummy food and awesome friends were involved every step of the way. We should always work like that!



The end result: 30 quarts of caramel corn, 5 pounds of peppermint bark, 20+ loaves of cranberry orange bread, 2 batches of Swedish nuts, 2 batches of 7-story cookies and 3 varieties of refrigerator cookies: chocolate toffee, coconut lime, and cranberry orange. Recipes (and plenty more pictures) to come :)