Tag: Cookies

The 100 Acre Wood of Holiday Cookies

~ Sarah Joyce ~ Leave a comment

My mom and I have a tradition. Every year we take a long weekend in December and we bake. When I say we bake I don’t mean we do a couple cookies and then hunker down with Hallmark movies and hot coco. 

No.

I mean we BAKE. We turn my mom’s large kitchen into an assembly line. We come prepared with recipes, ideas, and a list of people we want to give cookies too. This year my list exceeded 25 people. I came with a dozen recipes. We managed to make 15 different kinds of cookies, the popcorn I highlighted last weekend, banana bread, and soft pretzels (from a mix. No shame in a quick, carby snack!)

I look forward to Holiday Baking Weekend (which I wish I could trademark) for months. For the second year in a row my brother’s fiance has joined us. This year all of the men came to make cookies as well. Well, they came to make a cookie, each. My boyfriend is afraid of ovens. My brother was deeply unfocused. Sunday wasn’t as productive as it could have been. 

The spoils were still delicious.

I love the way traditions like this expand, but I also love that no matter how many bakers we add or how many strange cookies we attempt the more things feel the same. I still get to spend time with my mom, who I love and who I miss most during the business of the holidays. It gives us a chance to reminisce about so much, old friends, grandparents. 

This year also involved a lot of Disney talk. My soon to be sister in law is going to Disney World for her honeymoon. We all have lots of feelings about Disney+. 

I told my mom the first thing I looked for in the immense streaming catalog was The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I have very few memories of my parents reading to me, though I am sure they did. I do, however, remember vividly singing along to Pooh’s theme song and watching him learn lessons and go on adventures with all of his friends. 

Winnie the Pooh has always been one of my favorite children’s books. I love the movies, and still found love the familiarity of the characters that featured prominently in my childhood. 

My mom has similar memories. She loves Eeyore and Piglet. She has an old sweater with Pooh and his honey pot. 

Winnie the Pooh and his adventures are kind of like a tradition for us too. 

He is full of good lessons that are especially important around the holidays. Lessons of kindness, about how important it is to show up for your loved ones. He is full of adventures of bravery and friendship. 

I strive to be as kind and compassionate as pooh. Until then I will just make cookies and love my friends and family as hard as I can.

I think that’s another one of Pooh’s lessons – Effort, not perfection, is what matters.

The cookies I featured today are Brown Butter Almond Crinkle and Red Velvet Chocolate Chip. As much as I love recipe testing I do too much baking this time of year for trial and error. Both of these gems turned out delicious. All that I changed was the size, using the smallest cookie scoop I could find to ensure I had enough cookies for all of the people in my life. 

The History of Love and a Get Well Treat

~ Sarah Joyce ~ 2 Comments

One of my best friends is going through a hard time. Her boyfriend has a new injury that has left him with a walker and little mobility. She is in the process of moving in with said boyfriend. They live in a city with no family support. 

I feel bad for her. Moving is awful under good circumstances. I can’t imagine combining two households while caring for a hurt partner. 

It made me think of the crazy amazing things we all do for love. The things no one could imagine doing before having that person in their life, the new adventures, the hard talks, and the growing that takes place.

It made me reflect on how last fall my boyfriend drove across the state to attend the funeral of my roommates fiance. He had been sick far longer than my boyfriend and I had been dating. They had never met. He still wanted to be there for me and my roommate. When they needed another pallbearer he didn’t think twice. I knew I loved him before that moment, and we had started to joke about marriage, but after that day I knew he would be my forever person. 

 It reminded me of what it means to show up for the people I love. 

It also reminded me of one of my favorite books, A History of Love by Nicole Krauss. It is about love in all of its kinds. It is a book about how it is hard to go on when that love is gone, and how time never stops moving. It is a book about how stories are important, and about how love stories transcend. 

A History of Love is 15 years old and I still recommend it to people. It is a comfort read that takes me back to being a young, naive teenager. 
A History of Love is a comfort to me, just like baking. Baking makes me happy. Food is definitely one of my love languages. There is something great about taking a set of ingredients and turning them into something tasty.  Not all of my recipes are unique. I spend a lot of time following food blogs and reading cookbooks. It combines my love of reading and food. It isn’t the best thing for my waistline. But it did bring me these Chia Snickerdoodles from Jessica at How Sweet Eats. They are soft, sweet, and like biting into a cup of Chia tea without the possibility of burning yourself with just out of the kettle water. Check them out. They’re totally worth it.