I love this time of year. It's absolutely my favorite season. The smell of warm cookies, cheery smiles, more versions of Santa than I ever thought possible and of course the SNOW! Well, I guess not so much anymore. See, I'm from Cleveland, OH and as you might imagine, there was a lot of snow! I loved to shovel the drive way, throw salt on ice and watch it melt and sit next to the fire place.
I hope this season I can bring some of the classic Christmas spirit to tropical Florida.
One of the best traditions we had in my family was making the Anise cookies. My grandmother always made the dough and then my sister and I would cut out different holiday shapes. After we baked them, she would make the frosting and carefully using a butter knife, she spread the frosting on each cookie. My sister and I would then pile on as much sugar as we could. I remember the mess we would create with sugar all over the floor and food coloring staining our fingers. It was always a good time. Even though I personally don't care much for the taste of the cookies, I eat them anyway just to remember the good times with my family.
We also made Grandma's Rolls. The original name was "Refrigerator Rolls", but since my grandma was the only one in the family who could put them together properly, we started calling them Grandma's Rolls. The dough is a sweet yeast dough that spends most of its rising time in the refrigerator. It's then rolled out and cut in triangles for crescent shaped rolls. They can be made just plain or with jams and fillings. My favorite is poppyseed filling. When my grandma would make the rolls I was always by her side...sticking my fingers in the poppy seeds and stealing pieces of raw dough. This would always upset my grandma, but she always saved me one last piece at the end of the dough.
I'm so excited for everyone to be able to enjoy all the sweet treats we are serving up this season.
- Anise Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Harvest Cookies
- Cinnamon Buns
- Pumpkin Bread
- Yule Logs
- Gingerbread Men
- Thumbprint Cookies
- Grandma's Rolls
- Clevie's Pumpkin Bars
- Apple Snickerdoodles
- Peppermint Pinwheels
That's just a small sampling of what we are making just for you!
