If You Need Me I'll be in the Kitchen

Seriously. For the next week and a half, if I'm not at work or sleeping, I'll probably be in the kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays, and I love me some baking... But we'll see how this next week goes. I've done some preliminary calculations, and I'm anticipating needing something like sixteen cups of flour and ten cups of sugar between now and November 27th. And that doesn't even take into consideration the baking I've got coming up in December. Phew.

Here's the rundown:

Tomorrow my mom has a jewelry party and I'm going to be making a few snacks for her guests. So for her "morning" session I'm going to be making a double batch of my doughnut muffins and for the afternoon I'm going to try out an "fancy" snickerdoodle recipe. It's got cream cheese and almond (although I'll probably use peanut) butter in it--got my fingers crossed that it'll be tasty! (Probably should have pulled some cream cheese out of the freezer this morning... Guess I won't be making these right away after work!)

Sunday our church has it's yearly meeting or something. All I really know is that church is thirty minutes earlier than normal and there is a brunch afterwards. And my dad is on the committee that is providing muffins--which means I've been asked to provide the muffins (twist my arm). So, I've decided on a blueberry muffin recipe (which I can't believe I haven't posted, it's delicious!) and I'm going to try out a chocolate muffin recipe (because lets be honest, these are really my favorite kind of muffin).

Naturally I have a few items on my plate for the Thanksgiving holiday. I'll be making homemade dinner rolls (also a shame that I haven't posted these!), broccoli salad, and trying a dessert recipe that supposedly imitates Applebees Walnut Blondie with Maple Butter sauce. So we'll see how that goes (don't worry--my sister is in charge of providing a more "traditional" pumpkin dessert. We're not total Thanksgiving rebels!).

Then, I decided that since I have a few days off over Thanksgiving I should use that time to provide treats during coffee hour at church. I'm requested to bring eight to twelve dozen items, and I go back and forth on if I should hit the high or the low end of that range. On one hand, attendance might be low because it's right after Thanksgiving and people will be out of town, but on the other hand, lots of "extra" people might be in church because they are home for the holiday. Sigh. I do know that I am going to make a couple batches of my doughnut muffins (Darrell is really excited to have some with his coffee that morning), and probably some peanut butter blossoms since it'll technically be the first Sunday of the "Christmas" season (you best believe I bust my Christmas music out the day after Thanksgiving). I'm not sure what else though--maybe some fudgy crinkles? Those are super easy. And maybe a spice cookie/gingersnap? So many decisions.

We have another Thanksgiving celebration that Sunday afternoon with my mom's family in Mitchell, so for that I'm going to be making a buffalo chicken dip and my puppy chow bars. (Yes, the bars are that good that I'm going to make them a second time in the same month. Make them NOW.)

Already on the plate for December (no pun intended) are cookies for a women's luncheon at my church (which my mom was asked to make, who in turn asked me to make them) and bars for a "treat day" that Darrell's office does every year. And he's already requested that I make my cherry bing bars because apparently last year someone brought bars that looked like mine so he excitedly tried one and was sorely disappointed. So he's insisted that I make my recipe so he can take them and show his office how the bars are "supposed" to taste. I think it's super cute. And naturally it just wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't make some peanut butter balls and sugar cookies, plus I'll probably do more baking than usual this year because my dad's whole family is coming to Sioux Falls to celebrate Christmas. Looks like I'm going to be super grateful for my fancy-schmancy mixer (and apron!) over the course of the next month!

Wish me luck friends! My blog will probably be overrun with recipes in the coming weeks because I know I have some good ones planned that I haven't blogged yet, and I'm hoping some of my new finds turn out equally delicious!