2001 - Un-pumpkin Bread

I'm home again! It's been great to see Mom and Lisa and her girls again. Soon I'll be seeing my brothers and their kids too. I love my family and miss them so much. And shopping in familiar territory! I bought a cake decorating kit - they're expensive in England - and vanilla - PURE! And lots of sprinkles, dragees and colored sugars. I also got two more bags of chocolate chips - I'm still not finished making Toll House cookies. And I'll make Sugar Cookies when I go back too. I need an offset spatula too (for icing cookies). Since pecans are cheaper here, I picked up a big bag of them for Chocolate Chip Cookies and Pumpkin Bread.

Pumpkin Bread tastes best
with Pumpkin.

That reminds me - Lisa made Pumpkin Bread - or should I say "Un-pumpkin Bread" - this year! She didn't realize till her loaves were already baking away in the oven that she'd left out the pumpkin! She made some regular pumpkin-flavored loaves later but she didn't toss out the first batch. They were deemed edible and even delicious and they were gobbled up despite missing their key ingredient (see photo).
She also spent time at Mom's this year and they made loads of cookies together. She'll have to tell me which kinds and what her yields were. I need Danielle, Lisa, Mom and Rachel to tell me more for this year's "home front" entry.
I managed to bake about six dozen Moravian Spice Cookies before I had to call it quits in Blighty. I still have half the dough in the freezer because there simply wasn't enough time to finish and get my bags packed.

1998 - Avon Cookies?

We started on Wednesday, Dec. 2, by going shopping at Meijer's. And Winn-Dixie. And Kroger. And Walgreen's. "It started out slow, then it started to grow!" We shopped from noon to 2 p.m. and started baking around 3:30 - probably our latest start in the day ever. But there were things we needed. Like our new Santa timers! We also bought 20 pounds of flour, 15 pounds of sugar, 8 pounds of brown sugar and $12 worth of pecan halves, among many other things.

Is that an Avon apple?

We took a break when our brother, Michael, brought us pizza for lunch. He used a Christmas salt and pepper shaker and commented on how cute it was and asked Lisa where she got it. "Avon," she said. Later, he spotted a decoration that played Christmas music and thought it was pretty cool. Again, he asked where she got it. "Avon." Well, that was enough for him. He launched into a routine inspired by Forrest Gump. "Avon is the fruit of the housewife. There's Avon salt and pepper shakers, Avon ornaments, Avon decorations, Avon pizza, Avon cookies, Avon shrimp ..."  He cracked us up!

Sisters.

After Michael left, we hauled out our aprons, mitts and towels that we got last year. We posed for a photo using the timer on my camera - three times! It was another holiday hoot! And what did we start with? Chocolate Chip Cookies, of course. We finished at 7:30. Two double batches yielded 28 dozen, plus about a dozen we ate with our little brother.

We used margarine this year because butter is about $3 a pound. It was a balmy 70 degrees outside, so the two cookie sheets we had weren't cooling quickly enough. Lisa only knocked over two cookies this time. I vacuum-packed them in plastic freezer bags using a straw to suck the air out. It made them easier to pack in the freezer and should keep them from getting freezer burn (as if they'll be in there long enough for that!).