Years ago, in holidays past, I enjoyed cooking. Now, four kids and a two decades later, it’s not my thing. In fact, I go to great lengths to avoid actually making food. My family survives on grocery pre-made goodies, a host of frozen main dishes from Trader Joe’s, and their wits. So, when the AAR staff decided to share their favorite holiday cookie recipes, I was sure I’d have nothing to contribute. But, as Blythe pointed out, I’m probably not the only non-cooker in our readership. And, upon occasion, even those of us who avoid the kitchen do have to produce “home made” baked goods.
So, for those whom home-made treats are something other people do, here are few easy short cuts.
1) Buy slice and bake gingerbread cookies, roll them into little balls and dunk them into colored sugar. Cook them for 2/3 the time on the label. They’ll be soft, sweet, and mildly festive.
2) Make boxed brownies but add a bag of chocolate fudge pudding, a cup of chocolate chips, and a teaspoon of vanilla to the mixture. Bake according to what it says on the box. Let cool completely before cutting. You’ll have deeply fudgy brownies the chocoholics in your life will love.
3) Dump a bag of frozen berries into a rectangular baking pan. Add in a package of vanilla pudding and a teaspoon of vanilla. Mix thoroughly. In another bowl, melt a stick of butter. Add a cup of granola, a cup of quick oats, and a cup of brown sugar. Mix together and put on top of berry mixture. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice-cream and tell your kids it’s a “healthy” dessert because it has fruit and fiber.
4) Get to know the best frozen desserts at your grocery store. I–and my family–will vouch for almost anything in the Trader Joe’s cake and pie section. In fact, it’s hard to beat TJ’s frozen New York Cheesecake (the one in the blue box) or their Chocolate Ganache Torte. Both vanish the minute I put them on our kitchen counter.
5) Instead of bringing baked goods to the party, show up with a good but inexpensive bottle of bubbly. Your hosts won’t mind a bit!
Happy holidays!
Dabney AAR
There’s nothing like trying to take a family photo to convince me that Plato was right: we can only conceive of perfection and never actually attain it. Year after year, trip after trip, my family has tried to take that perfect photo where each of us looks happy, natural, and–and this is key–at the camera. We’ve come close, but never actually succeeded. My comparatively small family of six, however, is more successful than my extended family (parents, siblings and their families) of 24. That group tries each year to take one picture of all 24 of us, together, on the same set of lobby steps in Western North Carolina where we’ve been vacationing since I was a child. We’ve never once had a photo where even 75% of us managed to look happy, natural, and at the camera.
Women in America spend a lot of money on their hair. And whether they go to a salon or do it at home, a whopping 75% color their locks. For years, I went to a salon and paid someone else to cut, color, and highlight my hair. I’d go every ten to twelve weeks and each time, it would cost over $100. And each time, when I’d return home, my husband would mutter about paying so much for something so easy to do. (He’s cut his own hair for years.)
I love customized license plates. What’s not to like? They’re fairly cheap–in my state it’s $30 a year, all of which goes to improve the roads–and are so often amusing. My family and I always try and decode them and feel a fun sense of accomplishment when we do. I live in a town small enough to see many of the same plates over and over again. Today I thought I’d share some of my favorites.
Recently my family and I were fortunate to be involved in the creation of a Habitat House. We watched the house being built–we were on the sponsoring side rather than the building side–and, every week, seeing the house take form was a wonderful thing. It got me thinking about giving and what people give–time, money, ideas, energy–to.
