day 14: sharing the wealth

today i dropped off all of my christmas cookie gifts =). getting to this point, however, was intense. let me take you on a little trip.

it started with biscotti -- double-dark chocolate biscotti with dried cherries, using the dark chocolate cocoa powder i bought at hershey park over thanksgiving. i relied on trusty david leibovitz for this one.

and then we had the great cookie debate...

followed by fantastic gingerbread (click here for a pdf of my recipe. it's divine.) in 3 shapes (the reindeer were not feeling photogenic):

(how much do you love my pink christmas tree?)

and then there was assembly...3 types of cookies (well, 4, if you count the two batches of chocolate chips), little cardboard boxes, a lot of parchment, tiffany's blue ribbon, handmade labels, and the greatest christmas mix ever blasting from my mac.

and tada! the final product, all ready to go to the professor that I've TA'd for the past 2 semesters (and will be again in the spring). lovely, dontcha think?

mm. i like to give a variety of flavors, textures, and sophistication. the biscotti was rich, crisp, and decadent; the gingerbread was spicy and elegant with frosting and silver pearls; chocolate chip cookies remind everyone of their childhood. i also stepped one of my boxes (my room might be a bit messy), so i had to eat the broken cookies (remember, broken cookies have no calories). i think they were all quite a success!

(oh right... and that thing called a final that i had in econometrics today was a piece of cake, i'm pleased to announce. two more to go, plus a paper! wooohooo.)