Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Secret Santa Score and a Baking Spree



Holiday time is in full swing. A few days ago I received my lovely Secret Santa gift. There was a name on the Amazon receipt, but no name in the gift message and no blog URL so I'm assuming Miss Santa would like to be anonymous. If this isn't the case, let me know and I'll give you a shout out.

Miss Santa gave me a wonderful owl book mark and a beautiful bamboo-patterned journal. My spirits were greatly lifted after finding these lovely gifts.

Sunday I made a huge pot of of spiced tea in the slow cooker:

Then I settled down to work on a secret project; secret project will be revealed in January.



Yesterday, I continued my holiday joviality by baking some gifts:

Toll House Squares:

Ginger Cookies:

Fudge:


One of my favorite aspects of Christmas is making people happy and letting them know that underneath all of my bite and snark I really am a lovable dork.

Here is my gift to you! I'm participating in The Farm Chicks' virtual cookie exchange; here is the recipe for the Toll House Squares:

Ingredients

1 C. plus 2 T. sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 C. soft butter

6 T. sugar

6 T. brown sugar

1/2 t. vanilla

1/4 C. water

1 egg

1/2 C. chopped pecans

1 C. chocolate chips


~ Preheat oven to 350.
~ Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
~ Blend together in a mixing bowl: butter, sugars, vanilla, and water.

~ Beat in egg.

~ Add flour mixture to wet mixture; mix well.

~ Stir in nuts and spread in greased 13x9 inch pan.

~ Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of dough. Place in oven for 1 minute and then swirl chocolate chips.

~ Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.

~ Cool and slice.


Enjoy!

16 comments:

Giggly said...

YuuummmOOOOO

Drea said...

So I totally forgot to add my name to the tag and by the the time I realized it it was too late! I'm so glad you liked it!

Drea

Amanda Roper said...

Drea -- I adored it! Owls and writing are two of my most favorite things. Thanks for being downright awesome!

Ana S. said...

Aw - LOVE that bookmark!

Aarti said...

That is an AWESOME bookmark!

Anonymous said...

hey man i have the journal that goes with that book mark, therefore i love that book mark! it was my bali journal, cool beans.

Drea said...

Amanda- Oh yay! I'm so happy to that! Makes me smile to know that I picked the right things, lol

Catherine said...

seeing all your lovelies made me want to make my own. so i'm munching on chocolate chip cookies thanks to you. you enabler.

* said...

yummy is right!!

Anonymous said...

OMG what a gorgeous gift! Santa has great taste :)

Amanda Roper said...

Santa does, indeed, have wonderful taste!

Andi said...

Yum yum yum yum! I love hearing about secret projects, too, so I'm waiting patiently for that. Love your Secret Santa gift.

Mary (Bookfan) said...

Wow, now I'm hungry! Nice gifts from your Secret Santa too.

Unknown said...

Yum! I love Toll House squares! My package arrived today, and it is wonderful! I love the book of retro ladies; it's something great to have out on the coffee table.

Amanda Roper said...

Elizabeth! I'm so pleased you got it; I'm paranoid and was afraid it would be lost. Hope you enjoy!

Heath said...

I love the owls mucking about above the cider/tea/what-have-you. What a good design.