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Greetings...
Welcome to my little space in the world-wide web. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, sit down and enjoy your trek. I am not sure what brought you here, but I am glad you came. I hope you find something you like and come back often to visit. Be sure to sign up on the right to recieve all updates via your email.

Just a Pinch

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Cookies Anonymous





I think I should rename my blog to Cookies Anonymous! Ha, ha, ha.

Hello, my name is Loraine and I have a cookie problem.

I just can't help myself. Those darn people online just keep posting photo after photo of their delicious cookies. I have tried recipe after recipe. What good is a recipe if you don't taste the results? Bite after bite of first one kind and then the other. Each one more delicious than the next. Just when I am about to call it quits, up pops another post with yet a different twist. Who can refuse the temptation of a recipe that includes a photo of every delicious baked good ever imagined. It takes a stronger person then I to resist all that butter, sugar, chocolate, and nuts. Oh my!

I have joined several groups on the web and facebook. All to feed my need for that one just right cookie to add to my Christmas cookie tray. One group decorates cut out cookies, another that swaps recipes for candy and cookies, still another that makes special age old Springerle cookies, the list goes on and on.

I have even cheated on my own Italian family and joined a group of only Italian Christmas Cookies. This sight takes it to a whole other level of cookies and baking. These people post the recipe, the photo, the how too, where the recipe comes from, who the recipe comes from and the after photo of trays and tables laden with bins of cookies, and what naughts. Who am I to argue that they are giving away their Nana's age old recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation. Who am I to argue that Nana like to put some Anisette or wine in the cookies. Not I. Those Nana's, Nono's, aunts and Uncles knew what they were doing. Making something delectable from little ordinary ingredients to feed the masses. These people are the reason for the saying Grandma never runs out of hugs or cookies, and I for one will not argue that.

I stay awake nights mixing and baking and the next day with my morning coffee I sneak one off the plate and the question to start off the day is: To dunk or not to dunk? I go about my daily chores and before you know it is tea time and with that along comes another cookie. This time one more tender and delicate to the tooth with nary a thought to dunk it. To my surprise it happens again at lunch and again at dinner, both followed by the small concoction we call a cookie. I mean really, what is one to do?

I cannot lie, I have become one of them, I have added my own twist to the recipe, I have baked it up and taken that photo to post on line. I just can't help myself. I seriously have a problem.

5 days left until Christmas and I am still baking cookies, thinking I still have time for one more recipe before I have to get busy and put them all on trays to give away.








Hello, my name is Loraine and I have a problem...............................



from Cookies Anonymous, all are welcome.  We do not judge or discriminate.
You too can share your cookie addiction and all the problems affiliated with it.  









Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Cookies for Christmas

At Christmas time I get together with family and friends and we bake cookies and make candy treats to load onto cookie trays to give as gifts or use at family gatherings.  Lots and lots of treats and cookies.   We have been doing it for years.   It is a fun, tiring, messy, and delicious day.  Sometimes it is a couple of us other times it is a group.   We make several of the old stand byes and often try out a new recipe or two.  By the end of the day we have made dozens and dozens of delicious, delectable tasting cookies and other goodies.

One of my favorites to make is a called the Italian Fudge Roll.   It was a recipe I received from my mother in law over 33 years ago and who knows how long she had it.  




The recipe is very simple and easy to follow.  It uses ingredients that you can get at your local grocery store, if they aren't in your pantry and fridge already.    

The dough comes together nicely and is easy to work with. The fudge center is simple to make and after making it you well learn that you can use it to make many different kinds of fudge.  

If you have never had the chance to taste it, yes, it tastes like a rich creamy chocolate fudge wrapped in a delicate pastry making it easy to eat.     Once you have tried it you will be seeking it out on the next tray of cookies.   

Click on photo to open photo. Once open right click to save to your computer for printing later.