Peppermint Pinwheels~Lollipop Cookies {#fbcookieswap}

For this years Food Blogger Cookie Swap (2012) I wanted to make a very special cookie. There is nothing that excites me more than baking and sharing my sweets with special friends, than baking and sharing with new friends. Food Blogger Cookie Swap gives you the opportunity to do just that.

Peppermint Pinwheels Lollipop Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups Flour

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 cup Butter (softened)

1 Egg

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/4 teaspoon Peppermint Extract

1 tablespoon Red Food Coloring

Coarse Sugar for rolling out dough

Directions

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder; set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Add egg, then add vanilla and peppermint extracts.

Gradually add the dry mixture. Once well incorporated (don’t over mix), remove half the mixture.

Add red food coloring to half of the batter.

Cut out wax paper and roll out each dough separately into large rectangles, about 1/4 inch thick.

Refrigerate for about 2 hours. Or freeze for shorter time.

Preheat oven at 375 degrees.

Place the red rectangle over the uncolored dough. Roll dough into a log, creating a swirl effect. Place back in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes.

Slice the dough into 1/2 inch slices and place on a baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Place lollipop stick on each slice of dough (about half way).

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire rack and repeat until all the lollipops are baked.

Now, this is how the cookie swap works, we bake three dozens of the same cookie and share with three different food bloggers around the USA. Awesome, right? Well, it gets better, you get three different boxes of cookies from three different bloggers that you may or may not have met yet. I’m so excited for this post!

Here are my three dozens ready to be individually wrapped and delivered to their special recipients.

The Great Food Blogger partnered with OXO to be a blessing and donate to Cookies for Kids Cancer, they are a nonprofit organization that helps fight pediatric cancer one cookie sale at a time. Read more about it in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012 post I wrote last month. It’s a real blessing for this family to be participants of a cookie swap that has a special purpose.

The first box that came by mail was from Yankee Kitchen Ninja and it was Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti with an interesting ingredient, crystallized ginger. My daughter took a couple to school for her snack time. She loves pistachios. Thank you, Julianne.

My second cookie box came from Home Cooking Memories, they where delicious. I just couldn’t stop eating them. She sent me some Oatmeal Toffee Cookies. Sounds simple, but they where really good. Thank you Brandie!

My third and final cookie box, sadly to say, it was my last box of cookies. I wish they kept on coming in. This last box of cookies were sent by The Stirring Place, she made Molasses Spice Cookies. I couldn’t believe that it was her first time making this cookies, they were outstanding. My daughters favorite cookies from the batch. Plus, the package was completely ME, it’s like you knew how much I love glitter. Thank you Faith!

One of the things that I enjoy the most about the FB Cookie Swap is not only the delicious cookies that arrive at my door, but the opportunity of making new friends. Friends that otherwise you have not thought about looking up and reading their blogs. May I say, that the three senders I got have beautiful blogs with different styles and I just have to follow them all. They are very talented food bloggers with great voices and unique presentations!

Thank you Lindsay and Julie for taking out of your time to organize this cookie swap for all of us to enjoy.

If you are reading this post and have no idea what we are talking about or missed the deadline to register for the cookie swap, I have good news for you there is a way you can get an update for next years cookie swap. Here is where you can go for next years FB Cookie Swap Notifications. That was easy, right?

I really enjoyed baking my Peppermint Pinwheels Lollipop Cookies, sending them to three food bloggers and getting cookies from three other food bloggers that I had not met before. That’s a lot of sweet new friends! Be a good cookie and bake for your existing friends and for new friends too!

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Season Greetings wishes for you! {from My Sweet Zepol}

Winter is my favorite season of them all. The chilled weather, all the sparkle and lights in the neighborhood makes this time of the year so special. I just love the Holidays! We celebrate the birth of Jesus and give thanks everyday for our Lord!

Right before Thanksgiving we go out and search for the perfect Christmas Tree to place in the middle of the living room. It’s a family affair. This year we made some strawberry, mango and vanilla ice cream smoothie instead of hot cocoa and got everything ready to decorate the tree. It was my oldest daughter’s idea to make the smoothie and we all liked it. It was a good change. We live in Florida anyways!

While getting our tree we spotted a shopping cart full of branches. My daughter asked the employees if they were going to trash them. They were, and we got the opportunity to bring some home for a couple of DIY projects.

Take a look at what we made with this branches.

Door Wreath – a couple of branches tied to a square frame I normally use to decorate our door and a big sparkly red bow. Simple and beautiful!

Kitchen Centerpiece – this is my favorite of all my DIY projects. Some branches made this small Christmas Tree perfect for the kitchen.

Dinning Table Centerpiece – This ceramic vase is one I normally use to display my wooden spoons in the kitchen. I thought it was the perfect piece to use for this DIY project. This branches are more free form, but still perfect decorated with silver ornaments. A simple, very inexpensive and still elegant centerpiece for our dinning room table. Now, all I need is to change the runner. I’m working on that!

All three projects were done with the branches shown previously and still had some branches left over. My daughter made a small tree for her bedroom.

Go over where they are selling Christmas trees and ask if you can take some branches home, I’m sure you can make some amazing DIY projects with items you already have in your own house.

Now, a sneak pick at our Christmas Tree, it’s almost 9 feet tall. We love it!

What family traditions do you have? Do you decorate a natural tree or use one from a box? No judgement here! Anything goes. The most important part of the Holidays is remembering Jesus birth and the memories you share amongst your loved ones!

Happy Holidays!

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It’s a seasonal thing…

My apologies for being MIA for some time now. Our house has been in hospital duty for a couple of weeks now. First my oldest daughter had a virus that had her with high fever from one Tuesday to the other Tuesday of the following week. Her fever was so high and her cold so bad that she kept on having a bloody nose. It was painful for her and sad for me to witness. Finally she got better just in the nick of time for Thanksgiving day. We celebrated with family and ate a lot of good food! Hope you had your share of good food and better company.

Last week my husband came home from work with fever, a bad cold and body ache. He was in bed for about three days. There is just something about seeing a man sick, they get so weak and dependent. He had an “I’m dying attitude”, and it was not good! Poor hubby!

The very next day, my baby girl was also sick. Her case was even worst than my husband. She vomited about 6 times in one day (I stopped counting after #6), and a couple of more times the very next day. She was almost dehydrated. Today, as I write this post, my baby girl is still sick with fever, vomiting, and with a stuffy nose. I was on the clock taking temperatures, giving them their medications, doing laundry, keeping the fever down and making lots of soup and chocolate chip cookies. There is nothing that a good chocolate chip cookie won’t fix.

Can you see the pattern?, now you get why I have been MIA for so long? This past few weeks have been busy with sick family members. Lots of food (during Thanksgiving) and medications going around this household.

This is definitely the season for colds, fever and sick kids. While I’m still attending my sick baby girl, I do want to wish you and your family a Happy Holiday Season and keep safe (in good health). Stay tuned for my Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012 #fbcookiewap post on the 12th of December, with the cookie I baked this year for my new food blogger friends!

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