Big Bertha's Been Busy

Yes, I named my stand mixer Big Bertha. And let me tell you, she's the best sous chef anyone could ask for. I don't know how I ever cooked without her. And she's bright red, just like in the picture. She's beautiful!

Yesterday Violet and I made chocolate spritz cookies. The kind you make with a cookie press. I think it was the third time ever either one of us had used the cookie press. Big Bertha helped us make the dough. The cookies came out pretty good.

Today was the second in our Christmas cookie trilogy, we made oatmeal raisin. I don't think there will be any of those left to take with us to our last family Christmas gathering on Saturday. Violet set some aside for Santa. Good thing, or he wouldn't get any either. The recipe is really good, but it didn't make many. Again, I have to sing Bertha's praises. She did a great job mixing in the oats. What an exhausting job and she never complains.

Tomorrow we will wrap up our trilogy with a new cookie, chocolate snowballs. Chocolate cookie balls rolled in powdered sugar. How can that possibly be bad. We found the recipe in Food Network Magazine.

This afternoon we were getting a heavy snow that has since turned to an ice storm. What can you do but cook more? We got Big Bertha back out (I put the old gal away less than 30 minutes before we decided we weren't done). This time we made homemade bread. It was the first time we'd used her to do some of the bread kneading. The bread turned out great. I made our family's new favorite potato soup recipe to go with it. Yum. Too bad Bertha can't peel potatoes and stir soup.

Back to that winter storm I mentioned, it is quickly becoming a frozen icy mess out there. A good night not to go anywhere (like I was thinking of going out!). It is supposed to continue through the night. I hope all our snow doesn't melt. It would be much nicer to have a white Christmas than a mud brown Christmas!