The Twelve (Food) Days of Christmas: Day One

OK, so I let my absolute favorite food holiday go by with nary a post on this blog. I do have some Thanksgiving-related posts and photos lined up, however, so I will get them up soon. I have been very busy with a writing class I am taking so it feels the time I spend writing is best spent on writing for the class I paid money for instead of this blog. But the class ends soon, and I miss writing about food, so I will be back. In the meantime I bring you twelve days of food-related dispatches from my second favorite food holiday.

The Twelve (Food) Days of Christmas
Day One: Make a Plan, Stan

The plan is for two days of food-related family fun. Christmas Eve we do a dinnertime family gathering at a cousin's house, and on Christmas Day we do a big dinner at my parents' house. in between are stops at one or two other homes to which I plan to bring some food.

This year I am mainly in charge of cookies. I took on the mantle of Official Family Cookie Baker two years ago, when our elderly cousin who had been in charge of cookies longer than I have been alive passed away. Into my hands fell her giant stack of pencil-written cookie recipes (I have plans to turn them into a Christmas cookie recipe scrapbook) and her square Tupperware container with her name written on a piece of tape stuck to the lid. I also think this container, which she used to ferry cookies from her home to wherever our gatherings were, is older than I am.

Anyway ... last year I got myself involved in a cookie swap for which I made something like 12 dozen cookies. I had offered to host it this year, but didn't get around to it, so it didn't happen at all. But it was fantastic to have so many cookies. They lasted clear through Martin Luther King Day. At least. So this year I am planning to make a ton of cookies just so I have plenty at the ready.

In addition to cookies I plan to make some sort of candy-related thing. I was thinking maybe chocolate bark, and when I saw this easy recipe for marbled winter bark in the December issue of Martha Stewart Living I was positive. I already bought chocolate melty things on sale last week.

Probably the main thing I am doing is taking the pressure off. For Thanksgiving I like to make sure I have plenty of side dishes that I enjoy in addition to tasty after-dinner treats (and usually some kind of fun beverage, such as "cranberry spritzers," but I think that if you stick to all desserts or all side dishes, etc. you can be much more relaxed. So I am not making any side dishes. I think. I am much more a turkey girl than a ham girl so I don't actually have any favorite ham-friendly side dishes other than pineapple slices that you cook on top of the ham for a while. (mmmm ... pork-flavored fruit ...)

Anyway, tomorrow I will report more thoroughly on my cookie plans. I am worried that I put the sacred cookie recipes in a "safe place" that is so safe I won't remember where it is.