These adorable mice in our kitchen

Just a few more days before Christmas, and here I am still baking in our kitchen. I'm not complaining, really. After all, it's one of my happy places. I just wish I have someone who does all the washing for me while I bake. You know those cooking shows in TV where celebrity chefs cook stuff and the kitchen remains spotlessly clean? I want that hahaha. A girl can dream, right?

These cute little mice are this year's new addition to my Christmas goodies. These ones don't require baking. Gather some Kisses, maraschino cherries, and some red and green round candies and assemble them. Voila!

I'm planning to serve this on new year's eve right beside the cheese tray.

Last week, almost everyday after work, I made some French macarons. I did 4 batches with Swiss meringue buttercream fillings and added the following flavours: pistachio, coconut-pineapple, strawberry, and chocolate with walnuts and sea salt.

I'm taking my sweet time working in the kitchen this season. I didn't have to worry about the decorations as I started way early, second weekend of November, believe it or not. I spent three days putting them up, taking them down, putting them up again. I didn't want my decors to look overly done so I did a lot of "editing" hahaha.

Here's a 25-cent tour of my heavily edited Christmas decorations btw -

Main hallway

This is MDH's fave corner when he does serious thinking :)

Corner of MDH's office/study

Traditional red and green on the display in our kitchen cabs. The Christmas balls on the windows are new additions this year.

From the kitchen overlooking the Christmas tree in our living room. I've used burlap instead of the standard wired ribbon around the tree. All LED lights, of course.

My fave kitchen in the whole wide world -

Sugar and spice

... makes Christmas nice.

Well, not exactly true. But I ran out of ideas for this post's title so that will do for now.

We have an on-going bake-athon at the office. Every morning, freshly baked goods are brought and sold. It's a fundraising event. I was this Monday's volunteer baker and I brought one of my all-time favourite cookies - cranberry-cream cheese cookies. Well, the original recipe didn't have cranberries. I just added them to make the cookies look festive.

I've had some nice feedback and some of my colleagues had asked for the recipe. So I thought of posting it here in case you my lovelies, are interested. It's a very simple recipe I think anyone can do it. Here goes ...

 ½ cup butter or margarine
 ½ cup sugar
¼ lb (125 g) cream cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 cups flour
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

1.) Cream together butter or margarine and sugar. Add the cream cheese and the egg.
2.) Add sifted dry ingredients.
3.) Shape into rolls and wrap in waxed paper. Chill and then slice thinly and place on a greased cookie sheet.
4.) Bake in a 350 F (180 C) oven for 10 minutes.


Like I mentioned earlier, I added the dried cranberries (about half a cup) to make the cookies look Christmas-y. I guess you can add any dried fruit that you like.

Enjoy!