The First Annual Holiday Baking Day

I just wrote this post. I was re-arranging the pictures and the computer froze. And I lost the whole, entire post. Somehow, it's just not as fun to write the second time around...BUT...

Yesterday was a great day. My friend Melanie and I got together and baked. All day. We made baby mounds bars, bourbon balls, fondant mints, peanut brittle, sugar cookies and scotcharoos. We had a blast. The hardest parts were finding the raw peanuts to use for the brittle, which Melanie's husband found in the North End and finding parrafin wax to use in the baby mounds bar's chocolate covering. It was hard work and we had a lot of fun. Caroline was even nice enough to help us out by taking out all the tupperwear and driving it around the kitchen floor as we worked (she helped us out more by taking a two and a half our afternoon nap, but we didn't tell her that). We learned some new and valuable lessons yesterday, too...

1-It always confused me why peanuts weren't really considered nuts, but legumes. After tasting raw peanuts it makes sense. Raw peanuts taste just like raw peas and green beans. Strange, but true. They're really pea-nuts. I get it!!!
2- If the bourbon balls don't stick together, drink (ummmm, I mean add) more bourbon.
3-fondant mints are a real pain in the butt to make
4- Klems is the best place in Central Massachusetts to buy tractors, clothes, animal feed, toys and (oh, yeah) parrafin wax / canning supplies.

Anyways - I took much of what we made to a gathering of work friends last night. Everything ended up being a hit - especially the scotcharoos. I can feel my hips getting bigger just thinking about them.

We decided that the day was so great that it needed to be an annual tradition. Like I need an excuse to spend time with Melanie and chocolate!!!