Cookiepalooza 2011 + A Holiday Goodies Giveaway!

Happy Monday everyone! I am seriously struggling this morning! I had a fantastic weekend, starting with an 8 hour baking session at my parents' house on Saturday. I spent the day with my mom, sister Kimberly and cousin Veronica making a big ol' mess in my mom's kitchen and whipping up a quick 10 batches of holiday cookies (all different kinds, I might add).

Needless to say, I'm still a bit exhausted today but I can't wait to share all the gorgeous photos with you! And to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year, I'm giving away a whole box of homemade holiday goodies, made by yours truly :) I hope you will all enter!! Head to the bottom of this post for entry details. Meanwhile....feast your eyes on some serious cookie porn!

We always have our favorite holiday staples in the baking mix, but this year, we added a whole bunch of new ones as well. One of my favorites is the chocolate cherry kisses. I think they are so gorgeously pink and delicious to boot.

Other classics on the list included raspberry-filled thumbprints (my favorite...they scream Christmas time to me!) and eggnog snickerdoodles...

We also added a lot of new ones, like cherry cheesecake cookies...

...and black and white cookies (wowza!)

...and peanut butter blossoms, filled with a chocolatey Hershey's Kiss...

We also whipped up these gorgeous cocoa thumbprints (which I think turned out to be the prettiest of the bunch!

The versions not pictured include salted chocolate caramel shortbread, seven layer Italian rainbow cookies and our classic butter cookie cutouts! It was such a fun day and by the end, my mom's kitchen looked like this:

...and even this little lady was all tuckered out...

And now to the good part.

****The giveaway!****

How it Works:

What:

A box of homemade holiday goodies (and some other surprises), including a batch of the cocoa thumbprints, homemade marshmallows and more!

When:

The giveaway opens... right now! It will close on Wednesday 12/14 @ Midnight, Eastern Standard Time.

How to Win:

Simply leave me a comment below and tell me what your favorite cookie is! This giveaway is open to readers, bloggers, family and friends. Don't be shy! Even if you don't celebrate Christmas...who doesn't love cookies?!

The winner will be announced on Thursday 12/15 and the goodies will ship out to you via Priority Mail on Monday 12/19, so that you will have them in time for Christmas!

*Sorry, but this giveaway is only open to US residents.

So tell me...what's your favorite kind of cookie?!

My Holiday To-Make List + November Foodie Penpals

One of my favorite things about the impending holiday is the copious amount of baking that I get to partake in.

Last year, I spent an entire day in December baking with my mom. We set up both of our stand mixers and went to town until her beautiful kitchen looked like this:

To me, it's simply not Christmas without cookies. For as long as I can remember, I've baked holiday cookies with my mom before Christmas and this year will be no exception. Next weekend, the baking shall commence! Of course, we have a list of our 'regulars' that must grace our Christmas party every year, but I also have a few things that I want to add to the mix this year, if not on our baking day, but at some point during the season.

Our 'Regulars':

Thumbprints (filled with raspberry jam)

Chocolate Cherry Kisses

Chocolate Crinkles/Snowflakes

Butter Cookie Cutouts

Eggnog Snickerdoodles

Seven Layer Italian Rainbow Cookies (a first for us last year, but one that is now in the permanent collection!)

We also add a few new ones in the mix to try. Last year it was Mama Pea's peanut butter dough balls, malted sandwich cookies, and red velvet sandwich cookies with white chocolate buttercream!

our cookie tray from Christmas '10

On My 'To Add' List (so far):

Marshmallows (perhaps of the peppermint persuasion)

Salted Caramels (I have a recipe I've been eyeing!)

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Something with eggnog

I'm sure I'll have more as I start scouring magazines, cookbooks and Pinterest! I can't wait to start on some baking this weekend! With so many holiday parties and gatherings coming up this month, I have no doubt that the goodies will be put to good use :)

On another fun note, today is the November Foodie Pen Pal Reveal Day! This is my first time participating and it was incredibly fun! Thanks so much to Lindsay @ The Lean Green Bean for putting this together...what a fantastic idea. For my first pen pal, I received a box of goodies from Emily @ As Dreams Become Reality. I am so happy to have found Emily and her blog because she is simply adorable and we clearly have similar tastes, based on her care package :) I opened the box to find her sweet note...

So incredibly thoughtful to not only send me lots of pumpkin & peanut butter goodies but to also include Shaun! Very sweet :) Let's take a peek at the goods, shall we?

In the mix: Trader Joe's pumpkin butter, pumpkin spice granola & tempting trail mix, Clif MoJo bars in mountain mix & pb pretzel, some Tazo tea bags in calm and cinnamon spice and some pb packets, including Justin's & PB & Co.

Wow! Isn't that a great mix of goods? You know I dug right into all of it, especially that pumpkin butter! How perfect for the season. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Clif bars post workout this past weekend :) Thanks so much to Emily for such a great box of goodies!!

If you want to learn more about Foodie Penpals, or to join up, check out Lindsay's blog today for info, and also for a whole lotta links to other Penpal write ups!

So there you have it! Lots of fun and yummy things happening this week in the Humiston house :)

Questions of the Day:

What's on your baking list this season? Anything I should be including on my list?

Have you ever had a pen pal? I had a French pen pal in middle school via my French class. It was so cool to get letters from a girl my age in another country!

Butter Lane Cupcake Class

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I know...usually I do Five Things Friday, but I'm skipping it this week because a) I have had a week that has been B-A-N-A-N-A-S and thus haven't been doing much Internet window shopping and b) I just need to tell you about the sweet class asap. I hope you're down with hearing about cupcakes on this Friday...you don't mind, do you? ;)

As I mentioned, Kimberly had gotten a cupcake class at NYC's Butter Lane for me as a gift for Christmas last year. Due to scheduling, and Butter Lane's extreme busyness (they are always booked up! now I know why...), we only just got around to it this week.

First of all...Butter Lane is one of my favorite bakeries in New York City. It's so cute and charming, and the cupcakes are buttery, fluffy and heavenly to boot. They use high quality ingredients in all of their cupcakes, and it shows! In fact, I did a whole write up about these last year when we got them for my mom's birthday.

The class started in a little bakery studio next to the bakery itself and kicked off with...what else...a platter of cupcakes for the group!

this is after we all got at 'em!

The class was set up with stations featuring KitchenAid mixers, {lots of} butter, sugar, tasting sticks, and recipes.

Kim and I joined 3 other sweet women at the chocolate station, where we were in charge of the chocolate on chocolate cupcakes!

I have to say, I have made and written about many a cupcake here on TAA, so to be honest, I had a good idea of the ingredients that would go into the cupcakes. However, what I really learned was how long and at what speed to mix specific parts of the process (like letting the butter get uber duber fluffy for many minutes on high speed when making frosting). I thought this was so helpful, and I can't wait to try out my new found skills! I also came to the realization that I'm never making cupcakes again without an ice cream scooper (for quick and clean batter transfer) or a cake frosting spatula (for a perfect frost).

sistaaas

After our cupcakes were in the oven (and a lot of batter tasting had commenced), we made a variety of frostings, including vanilla bean, pumpkin (swoon), chocolate peanut butter, basic cream cheese and more. Once the cupcakes were done, we learned the proper way to frost a Butter Lane cupcake...

...and a certain someone won for best frosting job!

How cute is that little tote bag? I'm jeals. But at least I got my own frost on...

After frosting time, we loaded up our bakery boxes and headed back to Kimberly's place...

...where I got my cupcake eat on like it was my job.

chocolate cupcake with pb frosting...heaven!The only thing missing from our girls night? Our sister Christine! Christine Bean is at school at Penn State (and dealing with all the scrutiny going on there right now) and we cannot wait until she comes home for Thanksgiving so we can finally celebrate her 21st birthday in style!

So there you have it. Our fun girls night out, making cupcakes, and eating lots of frosting. I think this was such a great gift and would be perfect for any girls night or even a group of people or a party! Thanks to Butter Lane!

Questions of the Day:

Have you ever taken a cooking or baking class? This was my first one and I loved it!

What are your weekend plans? I'm hosting a Thanksgiving pot luck tomorrow...yay! Hope you all have a great one!

psst...it's The Peach & The Pit Friday! We're rounding up our highs and lows of the week!