The weather outside has been frightful in NJ and combined with the loss of daylight hours, it’s making my children a little grinchy. There are some holiday traditions I know will always pull them out of the funk and get them smiling. Celebrations are important and help mark the passage of time, something that is always in short supply.

This weekend my youngest is going through all his college acceptances, of which there are many and praying to the gods of finances that he can manage to attend one of them. The offers thus far have been lackluster and even with financial aid, make most of them an improbability. So far it he has gotten accepted to six of twenty fantastic schools he applied to in the tristate area and one up in Massachusetts. We are waiting anxiously on the rest.

For a valedictorian, he’s probably gotten accepted to the most colleges & universities of anyone in his school, and with the brilliant minds at work, that says a lot. I’m hoping he is accepted to all of the schools he applied and then one of them will give him an offer he can’t refuse. He is like me with a wanderlust, making him eager to be away and explore new settings. He’s also a tireless geek like his mom and you can find him at his computer researching information for papers and reports until dawn and then going to school to apply his research.

I don’t often talk about my children on social media because I feel like everyone has a right to their privacy, but I’m so proud of him that I had to share it. That being said, he’s a tad grumpy during this stressful time and I know the activity that cheers him up the most-making cookies. He has a sweet tooth that store bought treats can’t satisfy and I encourage his initiative in the kitchen.

Like me he uses fresh fruit, real vanilla, and a little alcohol(the adult beverage kind) as flavoring agents since it’s more economically practical than the little expensive bottles of artificial fruit flavors. Since his grandmother sent us a crate of oranges, I saved one for sugar cookies. I use the rind and all, so I’ll leave you my recipe for drop sugar cookies below.

I am in the process of finishing a book (quick read) and it’s absolute bedlam here, but our Christmas tree is up (it’s black this year), decorated with lights and shiny balls, and we’re having a spooky creepmas for the kids since that’s what they decided. I have creepy paper and bows and am ready to cook a roast beast in full on grinch mode, after our night of the seven fishes because traditions are important(at least a few of them).

The dogs are getting a treat for the holidays, too, but I have to be careful with what I am feeding to Mooshu since he is willing to try anything but changes to his diet often have disastrous consequences. If you have doggies remember not everything on the holiday table is safe for doggies and it is better to make special foods for them in advance-like boiled chicken and fresh veggies or sweet potato, something that doesn’t contain any salt, garlic, onion, or sugar. We got some lovely purple sweet potatoes, full of anthocyanins to help keep them youthful, and we have a metal garbage can that is dog proof to keep them from any tempting cooked bones.

While you wait for my quick read, I’ll pop the recipe below. As with any sugar cookie, add a little more flour, refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight, and you can roll them out and use your favorite cookie cutters. Add a little natural food coloring for fun swirl cookies.

Drop Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup butter or butter substitute

1 1/2 cup sugar (granulated or 10x)

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla sugar or 1/2 vanilla bean caviar

1 tsp. orange liqueur

grated orange rind/zest (about 1/2 an orange)

(optional) 1 Tablespoon orange juice

What to do:

1. Cream butter and sugar together
2. Add liqueur, zest, vanilla sugar, and fruit juice (1 tablespoon if you choose to add it)
3. Beat eggs and add in slowly
4. Sift all your dry ingredients (salt, flour, baking powder) together and slowly add to your wet ingredient mixture until thoroughly combined and without lumps. We don’t want to overwork the cookie dough and make them touch, but we don’t want to chomp down on a lump of flour either.
5. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes or overnight. If you are making cookie cutter cookies add at least 2 Tablespoons extra flour.
6. When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drop cookie mixture by the teaspoon or roll out 1/8 inch thick and use cookie cutters. You can add sugar sprinkles before you bake or decorate after. Bake 6-10 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool before decorating with royal icing. If you have small children or big artsy ones this activity can take hours 🙂
8. Serve and enjoy

Tip: I like to sandwich some rose jam or orange marmalade between two cookies-so good with a cup of tea or coffee.

Have a happy holiday. If you are looking for holiday cocktail mixers-check the Liquid Friday blog for lots of great recipes, some from your favorite authors.