thankful to get a post out, the big 50, and some meaningful giveaways

Although I love the holidays, I’m a zombie for a good part of the end of the year probably getting five hours of sleep a day.  Once Thanksgiving hits, it is a blur for me with end of year work projects, Christmas shopping, sending out Christmas cards, two (yes count them two) December birthdays (the hubby pie king and my ai son), Christmas parties, and then Christmas baking for gifts.

With all of that said, no wonder it’s been over a month since my last post!  I must admit I have another reason for the delay.  This is my 50th blog post!  I can’t believe I am able to continue with sustaining work, life, and blogging.  But as I may have shared with many of you, it is your interest and support that I continue to do so.  Another reason for the delay was that I wanted to do a giveaway, but I made this promise at 10,000 hits!  I wanted my 50th post to be special . . .

Consequently, I’ve been down about not posting for a while and wracking my brain of what to giveaway.  Then of course the spirit of the holidays inspired me.  So my giveaway?  Some survival tips for the holidays (more on that later).  Also, I am donating the funds I would have used for a giveaway to Project PEARLS.  I have been donating to this cause for years, which was co-founded by my dear friend Melissa Villa.  This holiday season my donation will fund the Noche Buena Gift Pack for the children in Ulingan in the Philippines.  This gift pack contains spaghetti noodles and sauce, jar of sandwich spread, bread, powdered juice, and a Healthy Kid Gift Pack for one child containing shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, vitamins, healthy treats, and a small toy.  You can help out too.  Visit their website at www.projectpearls.org.  Currently, they are assisting with the relief efforts to help typhoon survivors in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City. Funds will be used to buy relief goods and Christmas gifts for children at evacuation centers.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve managed to make 120 macarons, 200+ mini oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, 60 pistachio cream cheese cookies, 50 mini cranberry orange olive oil muffins, 50 ginger bread pizzelles, 2 dozen stain-glass cookies, 1 double layer sponge cake filled with orange/lemon mascarpone cheese topped with fresh blueberries and peaches, and a partridge in a pear tree–just checking if you are still with me!

So how do you survive all of this baking and not go out of your mind.  Here are some survival baking tips:

1. Scope out your holiday baking wish list early.  I usually start looking at recipes at the beginning of November and devise a long list of what I want to bake for the holiday season.  Sometimes, this list gets overwhelming since I want to make them all!  However, select about 3-4 different types of cookies, cakes, etc.
2. During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, starting making some cookie dough.  Select recipes that you can make, freeze, and bake later.  This will be a HUGE time saver.
3. Buy butter in bulk.  Sorry but the reality is that cookies are made with butter.  There is no way around that.  And make sure to leave the butter out to soften.  Creaming butter and sugar is the usual method for cookie dough.
4. Buy pre-cut parchment paper or do what I did and buy parchment paper in bulk.  Cut to fit your baking sheets ahead of time.
5. If you are giving baked gifts, holiday tins are a nice festive way to present your baked goods.  It also will keep your goodies nice and fresh.  Look for holiday 50% off sales from your local craft store for tins.  To jazz them up, find a complementary colored ribbon to tie around the tin.
6. Packaging your baked goods in ziplock or cellophane bags will extend the “shelf life” of your baked goods.  The less your goodies are exposed to air the better.
7. If you’ve made several types of cookies, muffins, cakes, etc. a tag or card indicating what is in the package or tin will not only give them an idea of what they are eating, but will also make for an impressive presentation.
8. Bake in batches over a course of a couple of days.  Unless you have the luxury of  a whole day to do so.  This is most ideal, but not likely for working Moms.
9. Use good quality ingredients.  This will make all the difference in the world.  It will shine through in your baked goods.  Use good quality chocolates, flour, vanilla, butter, etc.
10. Accept defeat when you can’t get it done.  I was sooo disappointed that I was not able to make my son’s birthday cake this year.  But in hindsight, there was no way I could have made his cake and 15 holiday gift tins!  I accepted what I could and couldn’t do and he surely wasn’t disappointed with the store-bought ice cream cake!
11. I was going to leave you with 10 tips, but this is probably the most important–DON’T FORGET TO MAKE TIME FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

Here’s a quick look at some of the goodies I made over the last few weeks.

The gorgeous Peppermint Mocha Macarons are my featured goody.  These festive holiday macarons are also my entry to Mac Attack #25 Seasons & Holidays Macarons over at Mactweets.  Deeba and Jamie had such great foresight and gave us busy food bloggers the gift of time–6 weeks for this challenge!  And these macs are inspired by my favorite holiday Starbucks’ drink.  Wait, I guess I have another tip–coffee will be your friend on those mornings when it’s just a little hard to get out of bed.

The crushed candy cane pieces added a nice crunch contrast to the creamy mocha ganache, but be careful when filling and twisting the shells together.  Large candy cane pieces can cause the shell to crack.

At first I was disappointed with the dark pinkish macaron shells since I was hoping for a more deep reddish color.  However, I think these were closer to a candy cane color.  Also, I used some white powdered food coloring to get the shells a cleaner whitish hue, rather than the darker ivory of uncolored macaron shells.

Want to see more amazing holiday macarons?  Head on over to the Mactweets site.

I know my tips are a bit late, but I hope you can use this for any large baking project or for next year.

Finally, to the children of Ulingan, Maligayang Pasko! Sending our love and peace to you.

Tags: children of ulingan, christmas gift baking, holiday baking tips, mactweets, peppermint mocha macaron, project pearls