coconut macaroons

Coconut macaroons are SO easy. And... with my experience... really impress people. It's kind of funny. I can spend hours (literally.) on a recipe and people won't really comment on it... and then I spend like 10 minutes whipping up (haha!) coconut macaroons and people swoon. WHAT?!

This is the recipe I used:

Mix all of the dry ingredients together... I just used a spoon. Don't maul it. 

Then you stir in the wet ingredients... again, just stir. Don't mix it like a crazy lady.

And everything is so happy together!

Grab a tablespoon and scoop onto a greased cookie sheet. They can be close together, because they really don't spread at all.

Bake for 18-20 minutes in a 325 degree oven... until the bottoms of the cookies are getting golden!

And then...if you want to get really fancy, melt some chocolate and drizzle!

Yes, I ate one right after drizzling. Judge not.

They are SO easy and SO good.

cookie party!

We've got the sweetest neighbors ever that live across the street... and they just happen to have four of the sweetest little girls I've ever met. We had them over for a cookie party right before Christmas, and it was super fun.

We made hot cocoa and ate LOTS of cookies.

Spritz!

I made the first batch of Christmas cookies the other day... and they were SPRITZ. They freeze very well, so they're put away now... These are my mama's favorite, so I'm trying to save them for her!

Mainly because they freeze well... and because I love my cookie press.

I have a Williams-Sonoma press I got as a wedding present, and I LOVE it. The recipe inside the box is very easy to follow and I haven't had any problems with the press working when I've used this recipe. The dough does need to be room temperature... I usually set out my butter and eggs a few hours before starting.

pretty little snowflakes.

Christmas trees :)

Recipe:

• 16 tbsp. butter (2 sticks!)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 cups sifted AP flour

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make sure everything's at room temperature!
2. In your mixer, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed for about two minutes, until light and fluffy. 
3. Add egg, vanilla, and salt. Continue beating until well mixed, about one minute. 
4. Reduce speed to low. Add the flour. Beat ONLY one minute, just until blended. 
5. Fill your cookie press with the dough. Follow the instructions in the box to press them onto an ungreased sheet.
6. Bake 11-12 minutes until light golden brown. Put the entire baking sheet on a cooling rack for five minutes. Then transfer your cookies to another cooling rack. Decorate as you wish :)

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Here are the cookies I CAN NOT wait to bake this Christmas (in no specific order):

1. homemade Oreos!
2. Real Simple's basic sugar cookie dough (you can transform this into SO many different things)
3. Spritz cookies: my mama's FAVORITE
4. Peppermint bark
5. Andes mints cookies: HELLO!!! I think my daddy will love these!

and obviously, there will be more :)

Happy weekend! The hubs and I are relaxing and watching Madagascar 2. I'm about to make some popcorn!

more pumpkin love. ♥

so... after freezing some for pies at Thanksgiving, the rest of the pumpkin puree went to a few good causes:

1. I mixed some with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves and put in the fridge to mix in with my usual oatmeal for breakfast.
2. I gave a spoonful to each of my cats, if we're going to be honest. Did you know that pumpkin is really good for kitties? They really like it, too.
3. I made these DELICIOUS pumpkin cookies. They're very soft and go amazing with a hot cup of coffee... trust me, I know. I tried it. Multiple times.

I used this recipe. I tweaked it a little bit... more vanilla and more nutmeg just because I love both of those things.

Anyways... the cookies were amazing. AJ and I have different tastes, so the things I love are often things he thinks are good, but not outstanding. It goes the other way as well. Point is: we both really liked them, so they must be to-die-for. ;)

He had a meeting with his staff at work today and took some for everyone. I was thankful for that, because I can eat a lot of cookies... especially if I have a lot of coffee :)


Hope you all had wonderful days! Today was an up-and-down day, all day long... those days make me so thankful that my God is stable, unmoving, and faithful.