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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Thursday Morning Open Thread

Thursday Morning Open Thread

by Betty Cracker|  December 18, 20146:42 am| 25 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads

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Here’s a picture of some cookies from the Cracker Sisters’ Annual Drunken Christmas Cookie Bake-a-Thon last weekend:

IMG_3466.JPG

The coconut macaroons are my favorite, though the kids insist the buckeyes (top left) are the best. Sis and I had to impose rules on buckeye size because the rugrats kept rolling ever larger spheres of the peanut butter mixture, creeping up past marble size toward golf ball girth. They would have been dipping bowling ball-sized buckeyes in chocolate if we hadn’t put a stop to it.

The sugar cookies turned out pretty well this year. They’re mostly a canvas for decorating, but it’s important to have a tasty canvas. I’m reasonably proud of my dragonfly. I’m not sure who decorated the dinosaur.

I’ve got roofers coming today, so my home office will be a cacophonous hell. I’m hoping the dogs bark themselves hoarse early.

Please feel free to discuss whatever.

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25Comments

  1. 1.

    Cervantes

    December 18, 2014 at 6:48 am

    Very pretty.

  2. 2.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 18, 2014 at 6:57 am

    I can hear the sugar all the way down here in Miami.

    Today is our office’s annual holiday luncheon which will be catered by a local pasta joint. It’s scheduled right up against my monthly training session so I’ll have to eat and run. To make things more interesting, it will be done as a live webinar, so I have to tone it down from my usual Vegas-style banter and in-jokes. Yip-fucking-yah.

  3. 3.

    Maxwel

    December 18, 2014 at 7:01 am

    Oooh! Buckeyes.

  4. 4.

    Kropadope

    December 18, 2014 at 7:15 am

    The Cracker sisters baking cookies?!? What would your parents think?

  5. 5.

    kindness

    December 18, 2014 at 7:17 am

    Is that one of the dinosaurs Jesus rode?

  6. 6.

    ThresherK

    December 18, 2014 at 7:22 am

    Okay, the Buckeye Rule should be self-evident, as if it gets too large the balance between peanut butter and chocolate becomes lost.

    As someone who can bake like crazy but can’t ice worth a damn, I admire the presentation skills shown.

    And if anyone wants a bit more on holiday music: Has there been a renaissance in popularity for “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve”, a couple of Frank Loesser classics, or am I just imagining it?

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    December 18, 2014 at 7:24 am

    Where are the Noel Cockroach cookies?

    You could have some Burmese pythons too.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    December 18, 2014 at 8:01 am

    Heard a piece on the car radio reporting that there is such a shortage/price spike of butter in Japan that bakeries are switching to (gasp) margarine or other substitutes for their New Year season baked treats.

    No pics of the last few trays from after the “drunken” part really kicks in and all that emerges from the oven are amoeba cookies? ;)

  9. 9.

    Juju

    December 18, 2014 at 8:02 am

    I just finished my Christmas cookies as well.

    If the dogs bark too much try Benadryl. My vet recommended Benadryl for one if my dogs who didn’t like a part of highway 12. We discovered that was a nice way to calm a dog down when they get antsy. Benadryl makes them drowsy and they tend to sleep.

  10. 10.

    Althea

    December 18, 2014 at 8:03 am

    Hard to top sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles. It screams “Christmas”

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    December 18, 2014 at 8:30 am

    Looks good. Bet they taste good too.

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    December 18, 2014 at 8:34 am

    @NotMax:
    I didn’t know about a butter shortage, but I did hear the potato shortage in Japan is so bad now that you can’t get a large fries at Mickey D’s any more.

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    December 18, 2014 at 8:54 am

    @Amir Khlaid

    Terribly un-PC of me, I know, yet can’t help smiling just a bit imagining stereotyped Japanese-accented English pronouncing “large fries.”

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    December 18, 2014 at 8:57 am

    @Amir Khalid

    Here’s the butter story.

    The traditional Japanese Christmas dish is served with strawberries and cream, and it is rich, thanks to lots and lots of butter. But the Japanese have been using even more butter for their Christmas cakes this year, exacerbating what was already a national butter shortage.
     
    Elaine Kurtenbach, a reporter for the Associated Press in Tokyo, says climate change and an aging farming industry have led to the butter crisis. Source

  15. 15.

    Manyakitty

    December 18, 2014 at 8:59 am

    Looks great! I didn’t know buckeyes made it out of Ohio.

    I had two cookie exchanges last Saturday. This weekend, I’m knocking out the rest of my gift cookies. Then I can spend the next six months trying to undo the damage to my waistline.

  16. 16.

    Jim

    December 18, 2014 at 9:01 am

    Yours may be “a canvas for decorating.” Mine usually wind up tasting like canvas, and as chewy as canvas. :-)

  17. 17.

    Felonius Monk

    December 18, 2014 at 9:38 am

    They would have been dipping bowling ball-sized buckeyes in chocolate if we hadn’t put a stop to it.

    Scrooge is alive and well in Florida.

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    December 18, 2014 at 9:42 am

    @NotMax:

    Thank you for that link. Enjoyed learning about Japanese Christmas cakes.

    Here’s a link about their history and how to make one.

    NPR’s “The Salt” feature is doing 12 days on Christmas traditions. Will be fun to learn more.

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    December 18, 2014 at 9:53 am

    @Manyakitty: Come to think of it, sis and I first became aware of buckeyes via an ex-stepmother from Ohio.

    @Jim: It took us more than 10 years to hit upon a formulation that was both suitable for decorating and not cardboard-flavored. But it’s still hit or miss, to be honest.

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    December 18, 2014 at 10:30 am

    Today is the monthly birthday celebration at our office (one of the events of which I am in charge). We were debating what kind of treats to get when the cupcakes, cookies, and Danishes arrived from a couple of vendors. So we decide to go the opposite direction and get potato balls, empanadas, and feta/cheese Danishes from the Cuban bakery.

  21. 21.

    Butch

    December 18, 2014 at 10:56 am

    I thought ours was the only household that made dinosaur cookies for Christmas. The stegosaurus, in particular, is a tradition.

  22. 22.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    December 18, 2014 at 11:24 am

    Interesting thought my spouse had about the Sony thing — if it is, in fact, a North Korean operation, it probably has a lot more to do with Sony being a Japanese company than any indignation about Sony Pictures USA. Apparently Amy Pascal was quoted saying that in her 20 years working for Sony, this was the first film that she was getting calls about from the higher-ups in Japan.

    IOW, contrary to what the media has been saying, it may NOT actually be all about the United States but may instead be about Japan/North Korea’s relations. Crazy talk, I know.

  23. 23.

    Elizabelle

    December 18, 2014 at 12:38 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):

    Yup. And I’m not sure Japan is laughing as much as we are.

  24. 24.

    Chris T.

    December 18, 2014 at 12:53 pm

    Of course they’re best, they look kinda like boobs. :-)

  25. 25.

    SWMBO

    December 18, 2014 at 1:28 pm

    @NotMax: medium.com/@averob/he-covers-a-toilet-paper-roll-with-tin-foil-the-results-brilliant-1790d38098a9

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