Week of December 8

As part of the celebration of Christmas, I have made HAND-PAINTED CHRISTMAS COOKIES for the last 20 or so years.  I still use the same Almond Cookie recipe which uses almond paste and extract, along with sugar, butter, and an egg.    With cooling, it makes up a nice stiff dough on which I can use individual cookie presses to create a relief that I can hand paint, using edible food coloring as my paint and a fine-tipped brush.  Over these 20+ years, I have collected quite an array of presses now numbering 56, initially from cooking stores or online, with traditional holiday/winter themes.  A few years ago, I met Karen, then the baker at Bluegill restaurant, who is also a ceramics artist.  She has been custom making presses for me ever since, with unique images such as Gator heads, tropical things like palm trees, birds, bugs, etc., farm animals, and monogrammed letters for Nonny, PopPop, and the grandchildren.  My new presses this year included one for granddaughter Maisie who wasn’t born yet for the previous batch of presses, a pig, chicken, pear, tractor, and TAProots.  We share these tasty pieces of edible art with friends and family and few are still around by the New Year.