Julia Child’s 100th would be birthday, Tuesday August 15!

Wednesday August 15 would have been Julia Child‘s 100th birthday. My friend Betsy over at Bits and Breadcrumbs made a wonderful suggestion and I’m ALL OVER IT! I strongly recommend you pop over to see her and find out how we can all participate and celebrate Julia Child’s birthday.

Looking forward to seeing how you celebrate Julia’s day.

An after thought: please be aware of copyrights on recipes; I’ve noticed that Dorie Greenspan recipes ate not reproduced on line! Just sayin’.

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Christmas Baking 2011: Recap and Gift Box Photos

Hello everyone! Christmas Baking is over for the time being and I am quite happy with the results; there is a lovely variety of old and new favourites and I am excited about putting my gift boxes together for our friends and family. I still have a dessert to bake for Christmas Eve which we usually enjoy at my brother’s house (it will likely be a bûche de noël because that is what my family has done for years, and I just saw Charles’ at Five Euro Food which made me very excited to make it again!).

Here is a little synopsis of my Christmas baking over the years (not that I only started in 2007, but that is when I started to blog!).

In 2007 we had our Renovation party so I didn’t specifically do the cookie gift boxes because we hosted about 50 friends and family at our renovation unveiling party and I catered the entire event (I had serving help which was great!).

I designed these invitations for our Renovation Unveiling Party in 2007

In 2008 I made 11 items but I didn’t take a photo of them 😦

In 2009 I made only 9 items but I bought lovely ceramic casserole dishes to package the cookies in as gifts.

In 2010 JT had a health setback and I just didn’t do much baking at all (he’s ALL GOOD now).

And here we are in 2011 and my list of cookies with links are:

• Mexican Spiced Macaroons
• Chocolate Crinkle Kisses
• Butterscotchy Almond Bars
• Anzac Biscuits
• Bargain Basement Barb’s Amazing Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Chewy Peanut Butter Bars
• Ginger Snaps
• Sugar Free Peanut Butter Cookies (I am going to bake these for JTs brother-in-law and his dad who are hypoglycemic and diabetic; it’s not required until Christmas Day, so I have a bit more time to do the baking!)

I was able to find these really cute cookie boxes at the dollar store! I line them with parchment paper.

Holy Bat Man, that's a lot of cookies!

I package each cookie box in a zip-lock bag and freeze it until we see the people that I prepared it for!

Your cookie box is ready, when can you come over to pick them up?

I wanted to mention some of my blogging friends cookie recipes which I am certain are equally, if not better tasting then my own.

Katherine at Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide has mastered the perfect Macaroon. And check out Ann’s Cooking Healthy for Me Coconut Macaroons that she baked from her well loved Better Home New Cook Book. And then of course, there is Barb’s Coconut Pyramids at Profiteroles and Ponytails which are just so darn adorable. And pop by Jessica’s site Kitchenbelleicious for a truly lovely Espresso Crinkle Cookie that just looks like it would melt in your mouth. And then there is fellow Torontonian Divya at Flavour Fiesta’s healthier Choc Coco Truffles with Cherries. There are so many great cookie recipes out there and so little time to try them all — that’s why I love reading all the wonderful blogs, I can try ALL of your cookies in a virtual sense and not gain an ounce! The beauty of technology.

How many cookies did you bake this year, and did you bake any special needs cookies?

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