The 11th Annual Bake-a-Thon!!

 The 11th Annual Bake-a-thon!!  This is the time when my sister and I get together to make all sorts of horribly decadent holiday treats.  The day starts with a large glass of water, the ceremonial donning of aprons, the ceremonial preheating of the oven, and the ceremonial setting up of the mixers.  After all that crap comes the decadence...and the tasting.  Of course the tasting!

And with that tasting (and the extra sugar to the blood) comes the DANCING!!!

 

And only after all that mess comes the good stuff..

Oreo cookie bark, peppermint and white chocolate pretzels, chocolate peppermint cookies, gingerbread biscotti....

And as with every Bake-a-thon...there are those recipes that do not meet our expectations or standards.

The chocolate drizzle that wasn't.  This took two tries to get right.  The second time was turning into the first time until Erin started yelling out stuff to add to it..."Add Milk, Add powdered sugar, QUICK ADD FLOUR!!"  It finally drizzled appropriately.  But there were more....

Erin's butterscotch magic bars turned into tasting like old people feet.  This was definitely a low point.

Luckily her children are digging a hole to China in the back yard.  So we banished it from the house...

Bad magic bars....bad bad bad.

After they received a good talking to, we went back into the house to rally.  We had to bounce back.  It was time to pull ourselves up by our apron strings and kick some baking ass.

And so we did.  Erin pulled out the oldies but goodies recipes and slammed out some gingerbread men....I finally turned my biscotti into biscNAUGHTY.  And in the end Martha Stewart had nothin' on us.

Happy 11th Annual Bake-a-thon to my best friend...