Bark and Bite

So I made good on my threat to make the butter cookies this morning, and it went pretty well!

I worked on a small scale, dividing the chilled dough into quarters and rolling them out that way. I must have used the right amount of flour on the counter, because the stickage wasn't too bad. The cookie cutters actually worked too!

I am forever overbaking cookies, so I was a little paranoid about burning these guys. They're so thin and delicate that I just knew that I would put them in the oven and then forget about them and then finally pull them out when they were crispy critters.

But I didn't!! If anything, they might a teeny tiny bit underdone, which just makes them a little soft and chewy in the middle. That's never bad for a cookie!

So after that wee success, I got bold. At the grocery store this afternoon I picked up two bars of bittersweet chocolate, two bars of white chocolate, and a bag of Starlight mints. I had to get the Starlight mints because the store was completely OUT OF CANDY CANES. How is that possible, a week before Christmas?? But be that as it may, the Starlight mints worked just fine.

Yes, friends; I made peppermint bark. This is pretty much the easiest thing in the world. I did almost cover the living room in peppermint dust as a result of overly enthusiastic hammering of the mints. (I was watching "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" and couldn't look away... sue me.)

It turned out great, as you can see.

My shopping is almost done -- only one more gift to buy (heh, heh). The rest are on their way. The decorations are up. The wrapping will probably get done at the very last minute. We will figure out the actual logistics of when and where as schedules are revealed.

It's beginning to look a lot like... well, you know!