{"id":2770,"date":"2013-12-04T21:13:47","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T02:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=2770"},"modified":"2013-12-04T21:16:41","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T02:16:41","slug":"holiday-cookie-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/12\/holiday-cookie-roundup.html","title":{"rendered":"Major Mom’s Favorite Holiday Cookie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"No<\/a>

No matter what cookies we make, there’s always some for Santa! What cookies are you making this year?<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m a one-trick pony: I make the same cookies every year. I’ve written pretty elaborate posts about them in 2008 and 2011, so this year I just want to round them up for you.<\/p>\n

Today is the day I plan to address all of my Christmas cards once and for all. This year’s card list has over 70 families’ names! I’ve had more in the past, such as when Dave was a squadron commander and I sent cards to many of the squadron families.<\/p>\n

But after the cards, I’m free to start COOKIES! This year has been unusual in that I didn’t do the early cookie batches to send to Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s a bittersweet thing: I’m sad that I don’t have troops to which we can send cookies, but I think that also means that our presence in the war zones is winding down.<\/p>\n

These five cookie recipes linked below are our family’s favorites. We might do others (such as these Ande’s mint pillows<\/a>), but these get done every year!<\/p>\n

Feel free to drop links to your family’s favorite recipes in the comments section! I love trying new recipes! High altitude recipes will give you a double-bonus-word score!<\/em><\/p>\n

I made a batch of cranberry-almond biscotti<\/a> a couple weeks ago ahead of our Thanksgiving week trip to Estes Park (a forthcoming post), but those are almost gone. It’s time for more!<\/p>\n

Tonight we’re making the Holiday Surprise cookies<\/a>, which are always a big hit with friends, but is by far the most labor intensive of all our family favorite cookies. The kids don’t mind helping, which makes this a wonderful family activity.<\/p>\n

The Neiman Marcus Cookies<\/a> have received some internet-love at the end of last year, being featured in GeekMom’s “Eat Like a Geek” series<\/a>, since the recipe was taken off an Internet chain-letter meme.<\/p>\n

\"Classic<\/a>

Classic sugar cookies are good for Santa too! These are iced with the Betty Crocker “cookie icing”<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

We also enjoy classic sugar cookies here<\/a>. I use the Betty Crocker sugar cookie recipe, which includes almond extract. The taste of these cookies takes me back to my girlhood: my mom used the same recipe when I was growing up.<\/p>\n

Finally, we will make spritz cookies. I haven’t done these in a couple years but I think this holiday season we will break out my Pampered Chef cookie press (earned by having a party!) and have a good time! My mother’s spritz cookie recipe included orange zest…but I don’t have that recipe. I rely on the Betty Crocker Buttery Spritz recipe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Spritz<\/a>

Spritz cookies are fun and easy. A little colored sugar will make them holiday-esque.<\/p><\/div>\n

Share your family’s favorite holiday cookie recipes in the comments or on my Facebook post<\/a>\u00a0about this post. Happy Baking!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a one-trick pony: I make the same cookies every year. I’ve written pretty elaborate posts about them in 2008 and 2011, so this year I just want to round them up for you. Today is the day I plan to address all of my Christmas cards once and for all. This year’s card list […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-IG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":264,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/11\/let-the-cookie-extravaganza-begin.html","url_meta":{"origin":2770,"position":0},"title":"Let the Cookie Extravaganza Begin!","date":"03 November 08","format":false,"excerpt":"It's that time of year.\"Election Season?\"Well, yeah, but that's not what I'm talking about...\"Autumn? Leaves falling? Raking? I didn't know there were leaves to rake in Nebraska...\"Yes, that too...but keep with me here...It's COOKIE TIME!\"So soon?\"In the Vollmer house, yes. Actually, this year is going to be extra early because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"christmas\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":271,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/11\/the-neiman-marcus-cookie.html","url_meta":{"origin":2770,"position":1},"title":"The Neiman Marcus Cookie","date":"26 November 08","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my last cookie posting for the time being. I'm going to the Florida Panhandle on Monday for some AF Training and will be back the weekend before Christmas. Yes, I could think of better times to be away from the family, and I will do what I can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"christmas\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":690,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/holiday-surprise-cookies-revisit-of-2008-post.html","url_meta":{"origin":2770,"position":2},"title":"Holiday Surprise Cookies: Revisit of 2008 Post","date":"30 November 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Instead of recreating a blog post about one of our favorite cookie recipes, I've \"repurposed\" my November 2008 post. \u00a0Many of the commercial links from 2008 had to be changed, so I've updated the links to the recipe, some of the ingredients I like and the cookie-making equipment I recommend.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"baking\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":71,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/02\/boot-tracks.html","url_meta":{"origin":2770,"position":3},"title":"Boot Tracks","date":"13 February 08","format":false,"excerpt":"From 2008 02 12 Bo...Tonight I made \"Boot Track\" cookies for dessert for the family. I saw the recipe in Eating Well magazine a few months ago and told myself, \"I need to make that for the family.\"The recipe called for whole wheat pastry flour, which is an unusual find,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"cooking\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":691,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/12\/the-neiman-marcus-cookie-legend-turned-family-tradition-from-2008-post.html","url_meta":{"origin":2770,"position":4},"title":"The Neiman Marcus Cookie: Legend Turned Family Tradition — from 2008 Post","date":"03 December 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Another post from 2008, and the next cookie recipe headed into in my stand mixer this afternoon. \u00a0This isn't really a Christmas cookie, but it's among my most popular (after the Holiday Surprises).****************************I'm not going to waste time going into the legend of the Neiman Marcus cookie. \u00a0I will\u00a0simply \u00a0refer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"baking\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2675,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/10\/peanut-butter-cookies.html","url_meta":{"origin":2770,"position":5},"title":"The Best Peanut Butter Cookies Ever!","date":"21 October 13","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 This past weekend I made peanut butter cookies. In part because I had a jar of peanut butter that needed to be finished off ASAP. It was \"natural\" peanut butter that had separated during our move to Colorado and didn't look so hot. I figured mixed into the cookie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"baking\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/PeanutButterCookies.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2770"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2778,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770\/revisions\/2778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}