December KTC event: Cookie Bake at Anne and Rick's!

For heaven’s sake, folks – it has been nearly two full months since our cookie bake, and I’m just getting a chance to write about it! The good news is that I’ve found a chunk of time, and the photos weren’t lost in the delay. The bad news is that after such a long time, my recall has grown fuzzy – eeek! So I’m going to soldier ahead, and if you see any glaring mistakes—or if you remember something I seem to have flat-out forgotten about—please let me know by commenting the blog post or emailing me and I will fix it. Apologies in advance!

I feel pretty sure that the morning began grey and rainy (pretty safe bet for December in Seattle, right?). We assembled at Rick and Anne’s place, where nearly all the gang was in attendance, with the exception of William, who as I recall (and not very well) had a prior commitment and was participating in some other function. We were also graced by the company of Damian’s niece, Clare, who enthusiastically jumped right into our crazy mix of folks, jokes, and pokes.

Anne and Rick put coffee on, and we got down to business. Anne had made chocolate crinkle cookies, and Rick had completed the first steps for his world-famous chocolate-dipped peanut butter cookie sandwiches the night before. A mountain of beautiful peanut-butter cookies awaited their requisite warm bath in melted chocolate. Come to think of it, I might enjoy one of those myself…
Meg volunteered to take on this task, which she carried out with great aplomb as Rick supervised:

Since, from the face in that photo, I could easily see that Rick was actually only fake-supervising, I requested that he actually pose for the picture in an attempt to save his authoritative image. Better!

Meanwhile, Joyce and Jessica arrived. While Joyce hung up their coats with care…

Jessica tied on her apron and immediately got to work on her own famous holiday ginger cookies:

Meg finished the peanut butter cookies and jumped right into her Kourambethes – a Greek version of what I always knew as Mexican Wedding Cookies. She even got all professional-like with her fancy measured cookie dough scoop!

Here’s the first batch, baked and powdered:

After the coffee was cleared away, Shawn found a clean corner of countertop and began rolling out the dough for her cardamom-sugar palmiers.

Over at the kitchen table, Damian, Clare, and Frank concentrated on making a small holiday assembly line for holiday oatmeal and M&M cookies.

And here’s the first batch awaiting its oven slot:

Next up, one of what was surely one of the most fun moments of the afternoon, although I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if I can remember what the heck was going on. Do you remember? If so, DO be a dear and email me or comment below to remind me, and I’ll update accordingly.

All I know is that Joyce has some serious SWING.

Shortly after that dazzling display of dance, Joyce got to work making pizzelles—chocolate mint flavor (I think?). 

As sometimes happens when using an appliance that is only hauled out into use a time or two a year, the first few pizzelles were less lovely than Joyce’s fancy footwork, since it always takes a bit of time to re-learn how much batter to put on the iron, how long to cook the cookies for, etc. 

Soon enough, however, Joyce worked out the bugs, and called upon our favorite Colombian cook, Fernando, to loan her his impressively-developed bicep to sustain her plate:

…And said final product, up close:

Once everyone’s batters were finished and cookies were in the oven, there wasn’t much else to do except to cut up a bit. Here’s Damian and Clare mugging for the camera:

And this was possible the funniest photo of the day:

About this time, the ginger cookies started coming out of the oven. Can’t you just smell them?

Shawn decided she’d try her hand at pralines, even though every good Southern cook knows that trying to make candy on a rainy day is not a very smart idea. Fearlessly, she dumped in the sugars, cream, and butter anyway, confident that things would turn out rosily—after all, humidity in Houston is 98% with 102 degree temperatures…Surely less humidity and lower temps couldn’t hurt the candy, could it?

Looks pretty good to start:

And things seemed to work out well – we folded in the pecans. Looks yummy, no?

In an impressive feat of group effort, we poured out the cooked candy onto wax paper, and Anne and Shawn carried the pralines down to the basement to set up. 

Last up were the cardamom palmiers. Shawn had rolled out the dough and carried out the intricate 8-layer folding technique earlier—after an hour in the fridge, it was ready to slice. Here’s the first batch, sliced and awaiting a sprinkle of cardamom sugar:

Close-up, post-sugar:

Palmiers in the oven, it was time to prepare for lunch! On the menu was the infamous Mama Priore’s Spaghetti. According to Anne, “Mama Priore’s sauce is tomato-based and has meat (meatballs and Italian (chicken) sausage), but we would be pleased to make a veg-only red sauce as well.”
And so it was. 

Sauces a-burbled on the stove…

Bread and salad were also on the menu. Hazelnuts were chopped…

Veggies were chopped…

Whoops! Time to pull the palmiers out of the oven! 

The leftover cardamom sugar went home with Meg, who reportedly added it to her morning coffee until it ran out. UPDATE 17/FEB: Meg actually used this cardamom sugar in the topping for an apple crisp! She swears she'll never not use cardamom for apple crisp - it's very grown-up! Back to lunch…

We assembled the salad, which even now looks just as gorgeous as it did then. Anyone else getting hungry?

Drawn by the delectable aromas wafting from the kitchen, folks began to assemble at the table.

Anne readied the spaghetti…

Et voilà!

Of course, we stuffed ourselves silly. Even Clare, who follows a gluten-free diet, joined in with gusto with plate of rice noodles. This would be a spaghetti luncheon to end all luncheons. We ate our first plate full, and then most of us (present company included!) ate a second plate. Mama Priore, we have one word to say: “Yum!”

 

And then…a moment of delight, quickly followed by a moment of dread. Delight, because we were presented with this:

Dread, because we were STUFFED. I didn’t have any other fasteners on my pants I could unbutton, and when Fernando quietly reminded me of our dinner plans with our old-school butcher friend, Jack, a scant two hours from “cookie-time,” I wondered if it would be possible for us to feign a medical emergency of some kind, just to postpone having to put anything else in our mouths.

But, the force was with us, as evidenced here:

You will be better able to appreciate how such a feat was possible if you see our collection of oh-so-decadent goodies up close:

Closer, you say? Here you go!

 

 

So, there you have it. Several extra holiday-related pounds later, we finally revisit our December cookie bake. Next up, an update about Shawn and Joyce’s ingredient trio event in January. Till then, you will be able to find me (and my five new pounds!) at the gym! Toodle-loo!