Country Girl's Dorm Room

Christmas Baking!

Tis the season to expand those waist lines, and tomorrow will always be the day to start the proverbial diet. It's no different in our house! This year represents three years accumulated into one. Every time Christmas came round, so did about 4 essays and a couple projects on top. Therefore leaving no room for baking cookies, decorating a tree, sending cards, or anything remotely festive. Yes, I managed to put lights up but it wasn't enough for me. So this year I'm making up for it! Mum and I started planning our Christmas and Boxing Day meals while watching Nigella's Christmas on TV I gathered ideas of what I wanted to make as gifts packets. Mum and I have named this year's Christmas Holiday season our "Shmam Christmas," in honour of Nigella. I should explain this comes from an article Ed was reading, where a photo of her showed off her heaving bosom. The author of the article described these as "Nigella with her shmams out" therefore, our "Shmam Christmas". I started off baking some old classics: my Chocolate chop cookies, and whipped shortbread (which were always present in the hundred in our front porch growing up), and decorated gingerbread. I then added some new discoveries from Nigella's Christmas Cookbook: Peanut Butter Cups with Art and Soul, Christmas Rocky Road, and her extremely cute Christmas Pudini Bonbons. Mum got some edible gold luster spray for her birthday, so how could I resist using this on some of my calorific creations?? Now the rocky road is piled high, the peanut butter cups are lined up in their millions (the recipe said it yielded 48....so how did I end up with 115?!), and the tins are overflowing with cookies in their many varieties. These will mostly be used as gifts for friends, and for offering guests but the problem is I know how to make them...so what's to stop me making another batch of everything? By the way, did I mention I did all this in a day and a half? Happy Eating!!