(The premise is this: sign up. Receive the addresses of three other food bloggers. Send each of them one dozen delicious homemade cookies. Receive three different boxes of scrumptious cookies from other bloggers. Eat them all yourself (or, you know, share. If you want. No judgment either way.) Post your cookie recipe on your blog. See everyone else’s cookie recipes. Salivate. Get lots of great ideas for next years’ cookie swap. Rinse and repeat.)

I have to say:  by the time I got started on these cookies I was super "cookied" out.  Originally I had planned to send my tri-color cookies for this swap, but there ended up not being enough of them.  The problem was, after slaving over the tri-color cookies and then hosting a cookie party, I really didn’t want to bake anymore!  If I had been able to wait until the following weekend I would have been up for it, but goodness I was busy. 

So I found an eggnog cookie recipe that I had been meaning to try for a couple of years, and since I had eggnog in the fridge, it seemed appropriate.  It also seemed easy enough…

I decided to add a little extra eggnog and use less nutmeg since the reviewers seemed to recommend that.  The dough was very sticky and tough to work with, and the cookies are NOT pretty.  I also didn’t package them pretty, sorry guys.  I just stuck them in freezer bags.  I had originally thought I’d get little holidays tins to put the cookies in…nope.  None of that happened.  I forgot to take a picture too(that’s how you can tell I’m not really a food blogger!) but I posted one that looked pretty similar to my cookies.  (Forgive me, I’m planning a wedding!)

Even with the crappy presentation, I hope my swap buddies enjoy them.  My fiance thought they were quite tasty, very mild flavor, but unique.  (He is a huge eggnog lover, but I think even if you don’t care for eggnog you’ll enjoy these!)  I don’t have a single cookie left at home, which makes me sad and also makes me want to make another batch!

Eggnog Cookies, originally from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup eggnog (I used 2/3 cup)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I used 1/2 teaspoon)
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. Cream sugar and butter until light. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks; beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.
4. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Sprinkle lightly with nutmeg. Bake 20 to 23 minutes until bottoms turn light brown.

Again, not my picture—the powdered sugar would probably be a nice touch too!  I didn’t do that.

Who did I send these to?

Loy at Grandma Loy’s Kitchen

Brandy at Nutmeg Nanny

Amber at Bluebonnets and Brownies

Go check out their blogs, they have fantastic photography and recipes!  I will stop beating myself up over my lousy cookie presentation ;) 

Here’s what I got in return:

Chocolate cherry chip cookies from Kristin at Meringue Bake Shop.

Candy Cane Kisses Cookies from Amber at Bluebonnets & Brownies.

Snickers Cookies from Brandy at Nutmeg Nanny.

All were delicious!

Want to participate next year?  Go here to sign up for an email reminder.

Remember to go vote for my blog for best personal blog in St Louis!! I don’t think I’ll win or anything, but a girl can dream right?  If you vote for me, tell me in the comments (and you can do this more than once) and I’ll love you forever.

Remember to go vote for my blog!  I don’t think I’ll win or anything, but a girl can dream right?  If you vote for me, tell me in the comments (and you can do this more than once) and I’ll love you forever.

I stole this from @slso on twitter.  The irony is someone took the picture, posted it, @slso retweeted…but note the screen!  This is the inside of Powell Hall, before the symphony is about to play for Michael W. Smith.

I had a long day with lots of gigs, but now I’m relaxing at home.  After the symphony concert my friend is hosting a party at her house.  I am baking cookies to bring.  I just burnt the first batch though…oops!  Two cookies were salvageable.   (maybe I shouldn’t be blogging whilst baking?  Meh.)  This is why I should do a test cookie, like my grandmother taught me…the second batch was perfect, and honestly we don’t need that many cookies anyway, right?  It’s fine to bring only a dozen to someone’s house, correct?  I would take a picture, but I’m recharging my camera battery.  Basically they look like 1 dozen cookies arranged on one of the last of the plates from my bridal shower.

My goodness, I have an odd craving for cheese grits..

Tomorrow we are running the Taco Bell Fitness Course again, then Chris and I are getting a tree, then another party to attend, and a concert to play.

Anyway, here’s the recipe for the cookies I made.  I bought a bag of Andes Baking Chips…um…last December.  I thought tonight it was time! (I hope they don’t kill me…the bag was unopened.)

Andes Crème de Menthe Cookies:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup salted butter – softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 package (10 oz.) Andes® Crème de Menthe Baking Chips
2-2/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Blend butter, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla and eggs until mixed.

Stir in Andes Baking Chips and then flour. Chill approximately one hour in the refrigerator.

Measure out approximately 1 oz. of dough. Form a ball and slightly flatten.

Raise oven rack one level above the middle and bake on non-stick baking pans.

Bake at 350° F for approximately 8 – 10 minutes.

Cool on pans for two minutes before removing.

Yield:

4 dozen cookies.

Notes:  This made just about 2 1/2 dozen cookies for me.  Also, just over 7 minutes seemed to do the trick if you prefer a soft cookie.  However, I didn’t raise the oven rack, maybe that was the problem?  Just be careful, don’t set the timer and leave the room to start a blog post.  These are like a minty chocolate chip cookie, quite tasty!

Note to readers:  I just learned that today I was featured on healthylivingblogs.com as the Friday featured blog.  Welcome if you are new!  And welcome back if you aren’t!! 

Oh, and if you want to vote for me for “best personal blog” at the Riverfront Times (local paper here—you don’t need to be local to vote though, I do!) poll, I will be your best blog friend!  I’d love your support!

I haven’t been blogging quite as regularly recently.  I’ve been much busier, and I’ve also been concerned that I blog too much about the mundane minutiae of my life.

Haha!

I’m just kidding about that.

I’ve simply been busier with work.  But I’ve got some time now—let me catch you up on what I’ve been doing!

I’ve been busy with a few blog related activities.  I’m participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011, the Great Blog Sweet Swap, a couple of blog Christmas Card Exchanges, a Secret Santa, and December’s Foodie Pen Pals.  It sounds like a lot, but it’s been fun.  Plus it’s easier as my family is not exchanging Christmas gifts this year due to somebody’s wedding…(oh yes, that would be me!).

Gooey Butter Cookies!  I made these last night.  There are a ton of similar for recipes for them.  Here’s what I used–

Gooey Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter/Margarine

1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Egg

1 8 oz. Cream Cheese (1 bar)

1 Box Yellow Cake Mix

Powdered Sugar for dipping

Non-stick cooking spray

1. Beat butter, vanilla, egg and cream cheese until light and fluffy

2. Mix in dry cake mix.

3. Chill for at least 30 minutes.  Dough remains very sticky.

4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5.  Lightly coat cookie sheet with cooking spray.

6.  Drop down teaspoonfuls of dough in a bowl of powdered sugar and roll into balls.  Place on cookie sheet.

7.  Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Yields four dozen.

That wasn’t all I made, but that’s all I’ll mention right now.  Be sure to read all of step 6:  originally I didn’t read the “roll into balls” part of the sentence.

You can see the difference.  And yes, I need to clean my oven!

We’ve been getting a bunch of boxes!  The cat loves them.  This one seems too big though…

What general things have I been up to?  Well, it’s been cold, so I decided running outside twice a week was enough.  This means hill repeats and sprints on the treadmill, which is probably great for me!  I’ve been playing a couple choral concerts, teaching (of course!  one more week), and (naturally) wedding planning like crazy.  It’s getting down to the wire here…three weeks from Monday!!!

Week in review:

I was videorecorded playing cowbell for an upcoming youtube video with the ocarina trio.  (Oh yes, this really happened!!)

I opened a ton of boxes of cookies and wedding presents!

I played a variety of rehearsals for concerts.

I taught a ton of violin students.

I was disappointed by Albert Pujols and was yet again reminded that most people in the world make all their decisions in life based on money first and everything else second, and was saddened by this.

I ate too many cookies.

I had another facial.

I wrote some thank you notes.

I started putting together our wedding program.

I stalked our wedding registry.

I ate more cookies.

I ran, hoping to counteract the cookies.

I went to Frazer’s and Franco with friends.   I’m in love with Franco’s Caesar salad with white anchovies.  So worth the extra $3 for the white anchovies.

I booked a shore excursion for our cruise.  Hard to believe that is coming up soon also!

I emailed/messaged several people trying to track down the remaining RSVP’s.

I panicked.  I freaked out.  I had a few mini-breakdowns due to stress.

I didn’t eat enough vegetables.

I ate some delicious trout.

I had several glasses of red wine.

I bought new workout capris.

I bought chocolate to give to my students next week.

I froze a bunch of cookies to have later.

I think that sums it up!  In a nutshell, cookies, stress, fish, wedding.

cookies

stress

fish

wedding

Happy Friday night, readers!  (Or whenever you are reading this…might be another day—)

How is your weekend going so far?