Here's to a New Year Even Nuttier than the Last

Happy New Year everyone! Please forgive the long absence. I was on vacation for a while and then I was doing little besides watching Disney movies on my couch. Yeah, the blog posts won't reflect it for a while but I am actually on film number 26 of 51 even though this post will be talking about number 13. Anyway, Christmas and the new year brought much happiness to my life, particularly in the form of new baking books! Yay! So for all of you sick of the same three books I was baking out of (as I was), I now have enough material to keep me busy for a very very very long time.

The first book we'll be delving into is the Pillsbury Best Cookies cookbook. I just love making cookies. They're so easy to share with people. Anyway, I let my sister and mom pick what cookies I should make because I'm still at home and they chose the Chocolate Macadamia Cookies with White Chocolate Chunks. Or as I generally abbreviated them, "White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies".  By the way, this cookbook has pictures. Yay! So we went to the store for the ingredients. I actually made a list of what I needed and then left it on the kitchen table so as a result, we bought way too many macadamia nuts. Oh well. Now, the macadamias are supposed to be coarsely chopped. I was completely dreading this task because macadamias are small and rolly and are probably annoying to chop. Then my sister duh-ed me and said we should just put them in the Cuisinart. Oh. Yeah. Good call there.

While my sister took care of the macadamias, I got the rest of the batter going. I did the standard creaming of butter, sugar, and brown sugar with no problem (other than kinda making a mess but that's what sponges are for) and moved on to the almond extract and the egg. Also no problem there, though it always surprises me that almond extract is clear. It seems like it should be brown or something. Whatever, I'm crazy, moving on. Then we added in the dry ingredients and the white chocolate chips and the nuts and bada bing bada boom, we're done.

These cookies were so easy to make that my sister even commented that I would have nothing to write about. She was pretty much right about that. Here's the pretty cookies!

Upon tasting, I proclaimed them delightful but nothing to really write home about. My mom and sister really liked them a lot though and ate several. My sister also mused that there was probably too much almond extract. So, like any good budding chef (bakestress?), I made a note in the margin of the recipe so that if I ever make these cookies again, I'll reduce the amount of almond extract by about 25%. I feel like I'm getting so advanced, talking about modifying recipes like that.

Critical Reception:
I already talked about the Martha cookie ornament place settings and how they were received (to recap: people thought they were adorable and yummy). I'm still toying with eliminating this section. Hmmmm....

A Disney Moment: Alice in Wonderland
I really hate ranking movies in this group of five. All of the movies (except Mr. Toad) are truly classic films. So let me preface by saying that I love Alice. I have always found the movie charming and delightful and whimsical and it is one that I have seen several times over the past few years. So, rewatching Alice didn't bring any surprises for me.

That said, Alice is only ranking a 4/5 in this grouping. Not for any negative reason, mind you. It's just that the other three movies were better. One thing that I did notice was that Alice almost seems like short vignettes that don't tie together very well. Especially the section in the Tulgey wood. The whole movie is obviously pretty tripped out and that scene was really wacky. Same with the scene with the deck of cards marching around. By the way, who noticed that the soldier cards are all either aces, ones, twos, or threes? Anyway, not much to say about Alice because most people are already familiar and I still love it. That is all.