Weekend Baking

Please disregard the unbrushed hair...mommy was baking, what can I say?!?

We are doing some major holiday baking this weekend. Mostly for teachers at school since the kids get out next Friday for break. And then some for us to have at home for Christmas. I let the kids each pick a cookie they are dying to have, and then I ad a few 100 to that. ;) These marshmallows were a must this year. Found the receipe at Good Eats. Going to bag up these bad boys to go with the Starbucks giftcards and mugs we are giving to some of the teachers. First time I have made them (can you tell from the peppermint candy cane explosion!), and used my candy thermometer that has been sitting in the cupboard for almost a year. Go me! And I'd like to add not as hard as I thought. Homemade marshmallows have always kind of freaked me out with all the steps involved. I will for sure be making these again!

And the whoopie pies. Ohhhh....the whoopie pies. I get a monthly magazine called Cuisine at Home, and if you don't get it, you need to. It has the best receipes, and they are not over the top gourmet. These are the regular chocolate and chocolate with peppermint whoopie pies. Today we are making gingerbread with eggnog filling. I tried to find the link to the whoopie pie receipe I used and can't find it. I'll type it up, but frankly at the moment...I'm feeling lazy and saying NO! ;) We also made Peppermint Bark for Caleb, and M&M Christmas sugar cookies "as big as your face" for Madeline. I found the best chocolate chip cookie receipe in the NY Times and highly recommend it. I just substituted M&M's for the regular chips, and it came out great. We have a few left to do today. And, there will be large amounts of coconut involved.......yum.