Holiday Baking

I like to bake.  And I like to cook, although I'm not overly skilled at it.  I certainly can't do *fancy* dishes, but I can make a good dinner.  But I really like to bake, and make goodies during the holidays.  For about the last 10 years or so, I made home-made caramels at Christmas time.  Everyone really enjoyed these as they were "melt-in-your-mouth" good.  But I found over the last few years, that I really didn't enjoy making these, and it became more of a chore.  Mostly because they were expected.  Not that they weren't appreciated, because they were.  But folks liked them so much, that they just knew they were going to get some each year.  Yet each year, I wanted to do them less and less.  

I almost didn't do them last year, but was too worried about the fallout to not do them.  This year, I just decided not to do them.  I decided to try some new things instead.

One of the things I decided to try this year was Chocolate Covered Cherries.  The first test batch is done and they are very SWEET.  Yummy, but sweet.  I'm not sure if these will make the final cut or not.  We'll see.  On the list to try this year also, is home-made peanut butter cups.  

We were smart, and made batches of cookie dough that we can just pull out and bake cookies as we need them or want them.  I think that will help.  

Also on the list this year is:

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Chocolate Covered Ritz Peanut-Butter Sandwiches

Vanilla Covered Pretzels (for DAD!)

Oatmeal Cinnamon Raison Cookies

Chocolate Chip M&M's Cookies

Rum Balls

Truffles

Whew, that's a lot.  We'll see what we have to skip....  Especially since Christmas is only 2 WEEKS AWAY!  UGH!

AMW