Cookie love

I am absolutely stoked about participating in my first ever Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap this year!    I will be making my cousin's secret recipe fabulous gingerbread cookies, but until then - here are a few other cookie recipes I intend to make before Christmas:

Soft & Chewy Vanilla-Orange Cranberry Cookies

Cookies & Cream Brownies

And the ultimate ambition, I'll be finally tackling the Snickers Bar from Bon Appetit... I've had my eye on this one for a few months now, and finally with winter break upon me - we're going to make it happen! 

Is it too ambitious...

to sign up to make apple grape pie from scratch for Thanksgiving dinner? I've never made a pie before but I was smitten by this gorgeous pie from Bon Appetit:

It's just so beautiful! I am going to try to pull off the leaf look too.. Going to practice this week, but first I need to pick up a rolling pin.. Sad that I don't have one yet, huh? Shows how much I bake! :) 

UPDATE: I made the pie and it was delicious!! So glad I tried, and now I have a rolling pin so their is no baking obstacles to stop me now.. I have an endless list of cookies and baked goodness I want to make.  Sigh :) 

View from my kitchen window...a poem

view from my kitchen window

2011 - the world is a place of pain, brokenness, suffering, greed, confusion

But I wake up to the sunrise peeking through my window

The man of my dreams holding me tight

The colors of autumn leaves flying around outside

And all is right for a minute.

The cover of Time magazine reveals world problems

Uncertainty of what tomorrow brings

The kitchen may not be in one piece 

But I am warmed by a cup of hot cocoa 

And my feet are not cold

And all is right for an hour. 

Children without love

Parents without a means to provide

Families without homes

Seems like all has fallen apart

But a smile from a child who has lost everything

Makes the world right for a day. 

Darkness fills the street

Sirens rush to help

People shouting

But I hear a sound - singing

A song of love, a song of Christ

A choir of voices singing proudly

And I know that all is still alright.