Okay, so the end of the month has totally snuck up on me.  I didn’t realize until this morning after I’d already posted that I was supposed to post my foodie pen pal post today…so I’m doing it late!  Or early, if you consider that technically I could also put it up tomorrow.

What am I talking about?  I’ll give you all the details at the end!

This month I was paired to send food to Abby of Abz ‘n’ Oats.  You can follow that link to her blog post about what I sent!

I received a box of goodies from Molly from Hungry Hungry Runner.

I must not have been in a huge picture taking mood when I got this!  Let me tell you about what she sent:  Trader Joe’s Chocolate Covered Cranberries (delicious!! I served them at the Cookie Party), Pumpkin Butter (yum!), and Cocoa and a mug—I haven’t actually made the cocoa yet but I keep meaning to…now that it’s gotten cold here I’ll probably be more tempted.  I’m also tempted to get some cottage cheese and try mixing the pumpkin butter with that—we used to mix apple butter in cottage cheese as children and it was pretty tasty.  (Then again, cottage cheese is good on its own as well.) I love the mug too, it’s not edible but very practical and seasonal.  Thanks so much Molly!!

Want to participate next month?  Here’s how:

Foodie Penpals
1. On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact each other and get mailing addresses and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
2. You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. This will ensure everyone receives their goodies in time to post about them.
3. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! Feel free to write your post as soon as your get your goodies if you want, just don’t publish it until the last day of the month. Please also include the basic information about Foodie Penpals and provide my email (theleangreenbean@gmail.com) in case people are interested in joining for the next month. 
4. The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15.
5. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
6. You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
7.  If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for the blogger to feature on their blog to show off what they sent you.
8. If two readers get paired together, no one has to worry about writing a post 🙂

Sunday night’s cookie party was an unequivocal success.

Yes, those are little penguins made with olives, cream cheese, and carrots.

This isn’t even all of the cookies—there was a side table with more!

I invited about 20 women, probably a dozen showed up.  I told everybody to bring 4 dozen cookies and copies of the recipe.  Some people brought a few more, some probably brought a few less, all in all there were TONS of cookies.  I provided some ziplock bags and wax paper, some people brought empty containers (I think I forgot to remind people to do this, but most did anyway.)

Since everybody knew ME but not everybody knew each other (most did, but not all) we went around the room, introduced ourselves, everybody told how they knew me, and also about their cookie recipe, or recipes.  After that, it was time to swap!  Basically everybody just took a few of each recipe until all the cookies were gone.  I had to chastise a few people to take more cookies.  It was a cookie swap, not a cookie dump!

I’ve read stuff online (on how to throw a cookie swap party) that suggests some people are a lot less generous—swaps that say to bring 10 dozen, all parceled out so nobody takes too many (or too few?).  Or that some people are less creative—I read something that suggested you want to make sure everybody doesn’t just bring chocolate chip.  Um, as far as my friends are concerned, getting together is an excuse to show off our culinary talents!  NO worries about five chocolate chip recipes.

I guess my friends are just more awesome than most!  The variety of cookies (and bars, and biscotti, and whatnot) was amazing.  I was so happy that so many women came out on a Sunday evening to support me, and I am especially honored that so many of my friends are fantastic bakers!  I always forget just how lucky I am, to have so many wonderful people in my life. There are times when I wish I remembered that instead of thinking about how I don’t think things are up to par or good enough.  I was also amazed by how many people complimented my house, its decor, its cleanliness, its size (someone said it was huge!), and that sort of thing.  I need to stop being so hard on myself and just appreciate what I have.  (I needed to stop that several months ago, but too late!  But it’s never too late going forward, right?)

The one thing most of us failed at was bringing the recipe.  I told everybody to but I myself forgot to print it out.  I did blog about it though 😉  I sent a follow up asking for some recipes.  I have sampled so many of the cookies and they are just all fantastic!

I also had a vegetable/hummus platter, cheese/crackers, pumpkin bread, chocolate covered cranberries (courtesy of my foodie penpal!), fruit pizza, and some super addictive sesame sticks from Pepperidge farm.  For drinks Laura made hot apple cider and I served Poinsettias, a cranberry champagne cocktail.

I failed to take any pictures of people!  I was so busy hosting and I just didn’t want to interrupt people’s conversations.  Oh well.  Most important is the cookies, right?

I really need to curb my sugar eating though.  This is getting out of hand.  I made an extra trip to the gym last night for cardio, but I worry it just pushed me to have a couple more cookies rather than, you know, burning off some extra calories.  Oh well.  Today is a new day for healthy eating, right?

(Is that me being hard on myself, or just being practical, I do have a wedding dress to look awesome in!?)

I just have a few more cookies to make for some blogger cookie swaps.  I have some excellent ideas now!!

My big project over the weekend was making Tri-Color Cookies.  I didn’t know what these were until I visited Chris’s relatives at Christmastime.  He seemed to really love them, so finally last Christmas I felt I had the baking skills necessary to ask for the recipe.  His Aunt Pat sent it to me, and I hope she won’t mind that I share it with you.

In her words:

— For Best Results cook separately

 — Red on top

— Yellow in middle

— Green on bottom

Ingredients:

2 cans 12½ oz. Solo Almond Filling

4 sticks butter (1 lb.) room temperature

2 cups sugar

9 egg yolks

9 egg whites (3 each in separate bowls)

4 cups sifted flour

Red food coloring

Green food coloring

Yellow food coloring

¼ cup raspberry jam (optional)

12 oz. apricot preserves

melted chocolate (add a teaspoon of Crisco to prevent chocolate from cracking)

Mix almond filling, butter, and yolks until light and fluffy.

Add sugar, then add flour. Mix

In 3 separate bowls beat 3 egg whites until a peak forms. Add one food coloring to each bowl. Mix 1/3 of the almond mixture to each of the colored egg white.

Place mixture in a Pam sprayed pan (15¼ x 10½ x 1) and spread it evenly. Cook individually at 350o for 12 minutes each. Cook green first and let it cool in the pan. Add jam. Loosen edges before turning the yellow onto the green. Add remaining preserves. Place the red layer on top. Cool. Cover with wax paper and place one of the empty pans on top. Add weight and refrigerate. Trim edges. Cut into 1½ inch strip widthwise (about 8 strips). [Strips may be frozen and covered with chocolate at a later date.] Use a long metal spatula to remove from pan. Cover with melted chocolate on both sides. Cut into ½ inch cookie when ready to serve. Freezes Beautifully.

I usually cut them into long strips and wrap them in saran wrap and freeze them until I use them and at that time while they are defrosting, I ice them with the chocolate.  This way you can use as needed.

Hannah’s commentary:  I didn’t use the raspberry jam, I need to ask her what that was for!  Turning the layers onto one another was the hardest part, in my opinion.  I cut them into strips before adding the chocolate, but next time I might just leave it as one big piece because it was hard to see where I had cut. 

For the chocolate I used Baker’s Chocolate Squares, and added some chocolate chips when I ran out.  All were semi-sweet. 

In any case, the recipe, though challenging, tasted great!  I also love the way the little cakes look—so bright and colorful!

Today I’m hosting a cookie exchange party.  This is my third annual party!  The idea is: you make several dozen (this year I said 4) of one kind of cookie.  At the party you go around and help yourself to other people’s cookies.  You come with one kind and go home with lots of different kinds of cookies (or bars, or candy, or whatever.)  It’s a lot of fun, in my opinion.  (That would be the opinion of someone who both enjoys making and eating cookies!)

Here’s what I made last year.

And here are some pictures from the first party!

The cookies I chose to make this year were QUITE a challenge.  I’ll tell you more about them later, but they turned out well (finally!) after hours of work.

We’ve been frantically cleaning the past two days and I’ve been preparing food.  Now I’m hoping to go to the gym to get a quick run in (or outside, it’s been raining off and on and I’m not sure what I’m in the mood for.)  Then it’ll be cookie time!

Tomorrow:  Five weeks until our wedding!  Where did the time go??  Three (or so) more weeks of work until Christmas, New Year’s, Wedding, and then the honeymoon.  I’d be more excited if I weren’t so stressed…

Don’t get me wrong, I AM excited.  There’s just a ton to do.  I have a list I’m following but I keep worrying, what if we forget something really important?  I guess, then we get over it.  Oh well?!