Christmas Baking

Today was baking day at our house. I've never really made more than one thing at a time before, but this was fun.

Here is my little helper. When he saw me put on my apron, he wanted one too.

Once it was on, he motioned for me to come with him to the hallway. I thought he was on his way to the play kitchen to get some pots and pans. What he actually wanted was for me to open the hall closet door so that he could look at himself in the mirror. I should have known - this isn't the first time.

I used two of my mom's recipes to bake cookies. These were favorites of mine from childhood which I just adapted to make vegan.

First came peanut butter blossoms. They normally have a Hershey kiss in the middle but I used dark chocolate earth balls cut in half.

I ran out of earth balls so I tried a couple of other candies we had (too big) and then used chocolate chips to make the initials of Eryn, Ely and my nieces.

And then there are the peanut butter balls. They may not look pretty but they taste wonderful. I gave my sister some and she said when she took a bite they "brought back a flood of childhood memories."

Finally, comes my specialty, party mix. This is the one thing I make every year. We really could eat only party mix for a couple of days.