Cookie Exchange 2012 Winning Recipes

Cookie Exchange 2012 was awesome. I was totally blown away by the creativity of the cookies and also the displays and presentations.

 

The invitations I sent out this year were surprise balls filled with candy, trinkets and, of course, confetti - because I LOVE a really big mess and nothing is messier than confetti.

The favors I gave out this year were all super random treasures picked up in my travels, packaged in a craft box embellished with vintage finds - linens from and estate sale, old flash cards, game cards from an old Clue board game. I loved putting them together.

So without further delay here are the 3 winning cookies and the recipes.

The Whole Package - Jillian Hopkinson - Pacheco 

Worth Defending 

 Jill sent these cookies to her husband Vinney while he was in boot camp. Her display, recipe card, story and military apron and hat made her hard to beat for the whole package. And they were delicious too.

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter (softened)
1 teaspoon salt
 2 eggs
1 teaspon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups oats
As much as you want of the following - Macadamia Nuts White Chocolate Chips Coconut Raisins
In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in egg one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. Add nuts, chocolate chips, coconut and raisins. Drop cookies onto a greased cookie sheet. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Best Tasting - Tecia Brinkerhoff 

Toasted Coconut Truffle Cookies

 

What You Need:
1-8oz package Cream Cheese,
softened 32-Golden Oreo Cookies, finely crushed (abut 3 cups)
1-1/2 cups Flaked Coconut, toasted, (Heat oven to 350 and place coconut on cookie sheet or metal baking pan for 3 to 5 minutes. Watch closely so they don't burn.) Separate 1 cup out.
White Chocolate, melted
Mix cream cheese, cookie crumbs and 1 cup coconut until well blended. Shape into 42 inch balls. Dip in melted chocolate; place in single layer in shallow waxed paper-lined pan. Sprinkle with remaining coconut. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. Store them in tightly covered container in refrigerator.

Creative Ingredient - Abby Ollerton 

White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies with Lime and Toasted Coconut 

 2 cups flour, spooned lightly into measuring cups and leveled with knife
12 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled until lukewarm.
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
1 cup chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips
1 cup toasted macadamia nuts
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup coconut (toasted or untoasted)
1 tablespoon grated lime zest (1 - 2 limes)
 If you haven't melted your butter yet, do that so it has time to cool off. Heat oven to 325 degrees.Mix flour, salt and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside. Either by hand or with an electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients, mix until combined. Add white chocolate chips, coconut, macadamia nuts and lime zest. Mix to distribute. Scoop cookie dough into balls and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies are set around outer edges, yet centers are still soft and puffy, and appear slightly under baked, about 9 - 10 minutes. Cool cookies on cookie sheets for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Thank you all so much for the time and effort you put into making fantastic cookies every year. You are fabulous!

 Please save the date for next year -

 the second Saturday of December -the 14th- at 2:00. 

Here is a preview of prize catagories for 2013 

 1-The whole package (display, taste of cookie, recipe card etc) 

2-It's Whats on the Outside That Really Matters (decoration/appearance) 

3-Thinking Outside the Cookie Box - Non Cookie Item -cupcakes, candy, chocolate, divinity etc 

4-Once Upon a Time - Christmas Cookie that has a story/history behind it - family tradition, unique origin - . 5-Audrey Hepburn Award - Timeless Classic Beautiful Cookie. If you win this in 2013 you get to pick the Audrey Hepburn Award winner in 2014.

Enough Already!

 Ruby and I made yet another visit to the Animal ER at 12:30 on a Monday Night - no big deal the hospital is only a 60 min drive from my house - so we got home around 4:30 am.  This episode had nothing to do with her "soft pallet" issue from a month ago and was not a result of me picking the purchase of something similar to the photo below - instead of a "soft pallet" surgery - 

 Turns out Ruby Foo also has back/spine problems - they gave her a shot for pain and a series of steroids and muscle relaxers. She spent 10 days mostly resting in her kennel and being carried up and down the stairs to go outside.  She seems much better and I am hoping we have avoided back surgery for awhile...because I have so many other handbags on my wish list.

Medicated Version of Ruby Foo - Awesome!

And in other news.....

We made a return visit to the animal ER on Sunday morning when sweet Ruby Foo had another vomiting passing out, eyes rolling to the back of her head and foaming at the mouth episodes. She aspurated vomit into her lungs and was treated for phenomia. It was a super fun Sunday! She will need to have a surgery to remove part of the soft pallet in her mouth. During this visit they took an xray of her chest to look at her lungs and they noticed that 2 of the disks in her spine are fused together - so it looks like she will need back surgery down the road........she is really the million dollar dog. Good thing for her I like her so much.

Remember when I got to the airport at 3 am?.... .

and I was the only person there- My last work trip was a long one 9 days in Toronto, Boston and NYC. The first time I flew to Toronto I arrived at the airport 60 min before my flight and they were not going to let me on the flight because it was an international flight and I should have been there 2 hours before the flight. So that only added to my complete nurotic getting the the airport issues. So the flight left at 6:00 am so I decided to get to the airprt at 3:30 am - this is what the airport looks like at 3:30 am - I was the only person there - it was so strange. So for future travel I need to remember the Delta ticketing gate does not evn open until 4:30.

On my desk

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...... on my desk. Everywhere I look I see Christmas - candy, packaging, graphics. I am already over Christmas and it is only June!

Another crazy cab ride

I have such strange experiences taking cabs to and from the airport in almost every city but esp. New York. On my latest trip to NYC I was so relieved when I got into my cab on a bright and early Friday morning and the driver was an older Russian woman. It was awesome, quiet ride into the city with no idle chit cat I was even able to take a quick nap. When we got into the city and the quiet Russian was hit by a black car. She rolled down her window and the driver of the other car rolled down her window and they proceeded to scream at each other for about 5 minutes- there were lots of f- words, b- words and an occasional c- word. "you get out of that cab you mother f *-ing b -word and I will show you who has an f*ing problem" - all of this before 8 am - Good Morning New York City I Love You!

Sent from my iPhone

I love the Design Seeds web site and I loved this bee image they posted a few days ago. I love the color pallet - so nice to see natural colors instead of the bright yellow and black usually associated with bees. It makes me super excited to get back to beekeeping in a couple of weeks! I have ordered 2 new packages of bees and pick them up later this month. So far it looks like I have lost 2 hives - one I was really surprised by but the other one I really didn't think would make it through the winter.

Photo Credit Design Seeds