Christmas Layoff: Week Before Travel

As promised on Monday morning, I made a batch of caramels right after breakfast.

At this point it's quite easy for me, which is great.
I remember the first few times I made these, it was hugely stressful.
Now I don't even dip the thermometer in until I can "see" that it's at 240F.

The clear sugar bubbling away.


Once the sugar starts to turn amber, I wait for it to become the color I want, then dump the heavy cream in.
Lots of spluttering and bubbling.
If you like a pale milky caramel, you should add cream when the syrup is the color of honey.
If you prefer darker caramel, wait until it looks like a weak iced tea.


From there it's a waiting game, and turning the burner back up slowly to prevent burning the caramel.
When it starts looking thick like this, I know it's getting close to 240F.


Once it reaches 264 it's ready. I pour it into a big ceramic bowl, then quickly add salted butter, vanilla, and sea salt.
Stir vigorously until everything is combined, then pour it into a tray to cool.


While that was cooling I started baking the chocolate snappers.
As suspected, the batch did not make enough; I ended up with 33 cookies and I needed 38.
But I'm certainly not making five additional cookies! So someone will just have to get gyped.
They'll get extra of something else instead.

Also, they didn't look right.
Maybe it's because they're shortening-based and shouldn't have been refrigerated overnight?
I know I followed the recipe exactly, so unsure what went wrong. They look crumbly and weird. Oh well.


The molasses ginger cookies turned out great, though.
I have waaaay too many of them, probably close to 50.
The candied ginger is a nice touch, and reducing the sugar was the right idea.
They are chewy and good. I prefer my ginger cookies with more heat, though, so next time I'd add a little black or red pepper.


Baking the ginger cookies took FOR-EVER because there were just so many of them!
When they were finally done it was 3pm.
Jameson went to the gym, and while he was gone his last two Christmas presents arrived in the mail.
One is from Japan and the other is from England. I hope he will like them :)

I was tired of cookies, but recognized that the more I do today the less I'll have to do tomorrow.
So I pulled together the eggnog snickerdoodle dough and the peanut butter blossom dough.

The snickerdoodle dough calls for real, freshly-grated nutmeg, and I was shocked at the wave of nostalgia that the scent brought me.
My mom must have used real nutmeg in some of her bakes as well.
It smells very different from the pre-ground stuff...more bitter, but also more, I don't know, floral maybe? Creamy?
It was great.

When the doughs were finally done I was relieved to clean up and sit down for a hot minute.

We had a relaxing night. Jameson got another request for song arrangement from Darren Hayes, which is great because it's a little extra $$ in his pocket and a feather in his cap too.

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Tuesday, time for more cookies!

After breakfast I started in on the eggnog snickerdoodles, which are rolled in sugar and fresh nutmeg before baking.
They turned out very nice, fluffy and delicious (though the notes say they'll taste better a day or two after baking).


Then was peanut butter blossoms.
I decided to roll half of them in red sugar just because, and didn't roll the others.

The trick(s) to getting the Hershey Kisses to stick to the cookie:

1. Freeze the kisses. They will stick to the cookie better.
2. Don't put the Kisses on straight down. Press them into the cookie at a slight angle before straightening them out. This helps them attach UNDER the outer crust.
3. Once the Kisses are in do not touch the cookies for at least five minutes. After that you can use both hands to pick them up and gently press the cracked parts together without changing the shape of the cookie. This will help keep the cookie from falling apart around the Kiss.

I only broke one cookie because I was moving too fast and whacked it on the edge of the tray.
Did not break any others or lose any Kisses.
That's how I know my little tricks work :)


While the blossoms cooled I got to work wrapping the caramels, which is The Biggest Pain.
One tray of caramels takes almost two hours to wrap.
I have to work quickly as the caramel softens quickly and gets sticky.
It's a lot of cutting parchment paper and rolling and twisting each little gooey chunk of caramel.
Once they were wrapped I bagged 'em, then put trays together for the neighbors.

I managed to catch both neighbors today, which is great!
I was glad to give the treats away while they're super fresh.
Chatted and caught up with both sets of neighbors, they're doing well, nothing new to report.

Once again it was close to 3 by the time I finished everything, so I took a little break.
Jameson made dinner for us! It's the first time he's cooked for me in at least two years.
He acted like it was no big deal, but I was very touched. Part of his depression has been not wanting to cook, not having the energy for it, which is very sad because he used to cook nearly as much as I do.

Anyway, this was a HelloFresh meal but cooking is cooking, and it was VERY good.
It's "Lemony Spaghetti with Shaved Brussels Sprouts". Comes with panko crunch topping and parm sprinkles.


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Wednesday. After breakfast I packed up the cookies for Jameson's parents and my sister's family out in Colorado, and went to UPS to ship them out. Hopefully they'll get there by Christmas, but if not, what can ya do. It's the thought that counts.

After that I cleaned up the guest bedroom a bit and started packing for the trip to PA.
It's only a few days but I'm leaving super early in the morning and want to have everything ready to grab-and-go.

Trip to the grocery store for some cheap Wonder Bread to help preserve the cookies for the next several days, then a walk because I felt like I needed one. It's so sunny and hot. In PA right now, it's highs in the low 30s and lows in the teens.

Back home, I started prep work on our next HelloFresh box because Jameson was in a work meeting.
I chopped some carrots and set them to roasting in the oven, and had just finished prepping the other veggies when his meeting finished. He said he wanted to finish the process so I stepped away.

Beef bulgogi meatballs with roasted carrots and ginger rice. Very tasty.
Starting to wish I could have these on tour.


Jameson's mom didn't make us cookies, but today we received a BIG box from her full of non-cookie treats: some carrot cake granola, almond and peppermint bark, savory(!) rice krispie treats, chocolate chip shortbread, and some big Toblerone bars. Goodness! And I know that Raven has made us cookies as well. Treats for days.

It's going to be hard to stick to my macros this month, but I'll stick to my calorie count.
And there's no way I'll be able to keep sugar below 45g, but I can do below 100g so who really cares.

Later on we watched the season finale of LEGO Masters while munching on our new treats.
The savory rice krispie was made with browned butter, sea salt, white chocolate, and rosemary.
They were REALLY good. Carrot cake granola was fantastic too.
I didn't care for the bark (dipping/melting chocolate grosses me out because it's mostly just oil) but Jameson will love it.
I also had an eggnog cookie, and they DO taste better the next day.

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Thursday, and it is supposed to be rainy and dreary all day.
I'm glad. It's an excuse to be somewhat lazy.

But Jameson has a lot to do. He's got to drive an hour out to his physical work location to pick up our passes for the company party tomorrow, plus he's getting a little award for being with the company for five years! He also has his usual work, and some meetings.

For the first day since I got home, I truly have nothing to do.
I did all the cleaning. The cookies are done, the presents are wrapped, the data entry job has no work for me.
My foodie group is up to date. I can't do yard work. I did laundry yesterday.

So I might try to go for a walk if there's a break in the rain.
I'll probably go to Target and Five Below to gather stocking stuffers for Jameson.
And I'll make our last HelloFresh box tonight since I suspect he'll be too tired to deal with it.
It's "steakhouse pork chops" with broccoli and some potatoes I think. Only 520 calories, so I can actually eat the whole thing this time instead of cutting it in half to save room for cookies :p

Tomorrow (Friday) will be the company party at Universal, which runs until midnight.
The next day I get up at 6am or so and start driving to PA, weather be damned.
I'll be stopping halfway at my aunt's house in Cary NC. Wish me luck!