'Tis the season...

The holiday season always makes me want to bake. Pies, breads, cookies, cakes... Our home is toasty warm and smelling of sugar and spices from November through January! While everyone else is excited preparing their famous mac n cheese or award winning turkey for Thanksgiving, I get charged up slicing up fresh fruit and rolling out pie crusts. That is going to be my contribution for Thanksgiving dinner at my parents this year. I plan on making an apple pie, a strawberry rhubarb pie, pumpkin bread (from pumpkins, not from the can) and a pound cake.

We usually spend the holidays out of town with my inlaws and I don't get to contribute much. My mil is one of those who has her holiday menu perfectly timed from start to finish. Another cook in the kitchen throws the whole plan off! This year we moved our visit up to this past summer so that we could avoid traveling so close to the due date. Not that people don't travel at 7 months pregnant, I'd just rather be close to the comfort of my own home at this stage. We've done the airport traveling with two small children when I'm NOT pregnant, and it's just not fun.

Anyway, yesterday I tried out a new cookie recipe. A friend gave me the recipe but I made a few changes. After the regular base for many cookies (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, creamed butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla), it called for lots of coconut, pecans, old fashioned rolled oats and chocolate chips. I decreased the amount of pecans by a fourth because Hubby has convinced himself he's allergic to them. He's SO not, it's just that the first time he had a fresh pecan, he happened to eat the very bitter red part in between the meat. I also decreased the amount of chocolate chips by a third because I'm trying to cut down on my chocolate intake. And then I added fresh cranberries to half of the batch. They turned out great. However, this morning, they were pretty crunchy. I think next time I'll also decrease the amount of rolled oats.

I guess the crunchiness didn't bother everyone. I sent some to work with my husband and he said everyone liked them. I'll bring some to church with me this evening and over to my parents. For Christmas I'll be baking cookies and making chocolate covered pecans to give along with my handmade gifts. What are you baking this holiday season?