Christmas Baking 101

I scoured my mother's recipes, sorted through some of my own, scrolled through Pinterest and came up with the winning list of tasty treats that  were going to grace my holiday baking list.

It was an ambitious list.  My sister Peggy's chocolate chip cookies (with pudding in the mix), cinnamon candied pecans, caramel puff corn, peanut butter blossoms, double chewy bars (new), salted chocolate pretzel bark (new), and peanut butter delight bars (new), praline Chex mix (new).

Rules to successful Christmas Baking

1.  don't be ambitious with the list.
2. when trying new recipes for the first time, do not multitask and make two at the same time.  Invariably you'll forget an ingredient one recipe or double up on an ingredient in the other.
3. remember to set the timer and make sure the temperature on the oven matches the one listed in the recipe.  
4. measure the ingredients correctly.  Don't mistake 1 tsp for 1 tablespoon, or vice versa.
5. Baking powder is not  the same as baking soda
6. referring back to #3, remember to take baking item out of the oven when the timer goes off, not 15 minutes later
7. open windows to let the smoke out of the kitchen
8. open wine bottle, pour a glass.
9. scrape charred remnants of recipe in to garbage, set pan to soak.
10. pour another glass of wine
11. remember that caramel is hot and can burn fingers
12. find Band-Aid in medicine cabinet for blister on finger
13. pour another glass of wine
14. assure yourself that even though the final product looks nothing like the pictures, it will still be edible (hopefully).
15. finish off wine