Holiday yummies and a special birthday

Whether or not it is a pregnancy craving, I don’t know.  But I have been salivating over anything chocolate.  I read a lot of blogs, and many people have spotlighted their holiday baking accomplishments lately.  It put me in the mood to do some baking myself.

At the beginning of December we had a Christmas cookie exchange among the ladies at our church.  I made my all-time holiday favorite – Gingerbread Cookies.  I made a double batch so there some to enjoy at home!

I had purchased some pecans a while back and never used them.  Last week I made Pecan Sandies using my mom’s recipe.  Here it is:

1 c. butter or margarine
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. water
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 c. chopped pecans

Directions:  Cream butter and sugar. Add 2 tsp. water and vanilla; mix well. Blend in flour and nuts. Chill 4 hours. Shape in balls or fingers and bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 325° about 20 minutes. Remove from pan; cool slightly. Roll in confectioner’s sugar. Makes about 3 dozen.

Last night I came across an absolutely scrumptious recipe for Oreo Covered Brownies.  Though it would have been cheaper to purchase the ingredients at the super market, I rushed to the corner store today so I could make these this afternoon (it’s Ben’s day to have the car).  You can find the recipe here.  They’re still in the oven, so I don’t know how they turned out yet!

Of course this made me think of making Oreo Balls.  (The fact that Erika Meader posted on facebook about enjoying Oreo Balls didn’t help to stave off this craving!)  This college favorite recipe came from my best friend, Danielle DeVane.  I’m going to make these on Wednesday!

1 pk. Oreos
8 oz. cream cheese
White chocolate (melting chocolate – Almond Bark, candy melts, etc.)

Directions:  Crush Oreos, soften cream cheese and mix with Oreos in a bowl. Roll into balls. Flash freeze. Melt chocolate and dip Oreo balls in it. Refrigerate.

And while I’m overdoing it on the calories, I decided to make these Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast on Christmas Day.

This is really off the subject, but thinking about college made me remember that today is my friend Shannon Trull’s birthday.  I think she’s over the age where it’s acceptable to ask a female how old they are, so we’ll just leave it at Happy Birthday!  Shannon was my roomie and companion in trouble on many adventures!

Yes..that’s me with the curly hair (for my new friends in the last two years)