What I'm not baking for the holidays.

[Tri2Cook]

M holiday spirit seems to be at an all time low. I'm not depressed. I'm not unhappy. I'm just feeling tired and uninterested this year. I've literally done no baking or shopping at all. None. Zero. I'm going to try to get all of my shopping done thursday, I don't think the baking is going to happen this year. There are a few friends who prefer the cookies and confections that I usually do over any gift I would buy for them, they're not going to be happy with me this year I don't think. I'm making a couple giant aerated chocolates that I hope to be energetic enough to coat in tempered chocolate for two people who really like them. I don't see much else happening. Anybody else doing the Holiday Anti Bake Off this year or am I the lone Grinch?

[chefpeon]

<raises hand>

count me in!

After a long day of baking at work, I'm not about to do any holiday baking at home, I can tell you that much.

I am VERY bah humbug this year.

I tried to do all my shopping this last weekend in a crowded mall with worthless stores. I purchased things mostly out of desperation, because none of my loved ones were very forthcoming about what they wanted this year. I actually bought a "quesadilla maker" for my sister-in-law. Now THAT'S desperate!

[Sunny Simmons Steincamp]

Anybody else doing the Holiday Anti Bake Off this year or am I the lone Grinch?

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No... but I feel your pain. I wish I had the jocones to beg off of what I've come to be expected to produce, so I say, Viva la Apathie. Take the year off. Buy some great cookies, or make some easy but impressive ones.

And here's my wish that you have a terrific holiday.

[Lilija]

I'm baking, but I'm not doing anything else... Seriously, we haven't even decorated yet. My son suspects we've all converted into Jehovah's Witnesses.

I was sick for a month, then we went to the Caribbean for a week, then we came back and The Holidays (doom music) were already in full swing. Did all my shopping online, then got roped into baking and cooking. Honestly, it's cheaper than buying a buncha little gifts, but my heart isn't 100% in it. I discovered, this year, that I don't have time to decorate, entertain, shop, AND bake. I have to pick a few, or go a little easier on all of 'em.

[jumanggy]

My mom did ask me to bake all her give-aways, but that's pretty much it. The only people I'm going to give gifts to or cook for are the ones under my roof. If my friends want some holiday food, they can give me a call and I'll whip up something glorious for them-- but I won't give them anything they don't ask for. Everyone receives too many sugary treats as it is. We have tons here that I was pretty much forced to eat until I said that they can just give it all away to the neighbors or the neighborhood rugrats because I refuse to be a garbage disposal unit this year!

Much more cheery to do the decorating (and yes, even entertaining) and not expect gifts from anyone/ stress out over giving gifts to everyone

[gfron1]

I am getting very sugared out these days...there I said it! This Sunday I'm baking for church and i'm thinking of doing only non-sweets. (my gills are filling with air...what am I going to do!)

Don't worry, I'll be over the nasty phase within the week.

[Lindacakes]

Well, I thought there was a whole week between now and Christmas that ain't. I'm going to try to not go to work on Friday and bake a couple of things that go into the oven in a unit -- shortbread, gingerbread -- instead of cut-outs.

My parents love for me to bring cut-outs home to them. Which involves a load of work I'm uninterested in. I'm in such a devilish mood that I'm actually sort of looking forward, in an interested way, to the reaction when I say I didn't have the energy to do it.

I'm okay with all this, but on the other hand, I do believe it is the continued demands that the corporations most of us work for that has drained us of energy and it's costing us the joy of our lives.

But that's another story.

[Special K]

Eh, I used to bake a dozen different kinds of cookies, but everyone loves the Snickerdoodles the best, so that's all I'm doing this year. Say, cinnamon is supposed to be good for lowering blood sugar, so maybe it cancels out the sugar in the cookie?

Oh, and I am baking one pecan pie - I tried out the Impossible (Bisquik) recipe on a friend last weekend and she loved it, so she's getting it again, in a nice new stoneware pie dish.

But that's it!

Unless I decide to make cheesecake truffle bombs . . .

. . . and a red velvet cake . . .

Edited December 19, 2007 by Special K (log)

[CKatCook]

Hmmmm....let's see....AMEN!!!

We had this huge ice storm here that wiped out our internet and power for a week. It's all finally back on and now we are just tired and want to just to have some fun. I made some divinty, biscotti, chocolate dipped pretzels, gingerbread, fudge. And that is a SHORT list compared to what I normally make. I don't even think I am doing a special Christmas dinner like I normally do. It's just too much and I am simply ready to enjoy myself for a change....and not spend half the time doing dishes.

[alanamoana]

I'm in the same boat as chefpeon...as a pastry chef, I don't really want to bake when I'm at home. Christmas (holiday) baking also isn't part of my family tradition, so that makes it even harder to want to bake a dozen different kinds of cookies or treats. That being said, I sometimes fantasize about making all kinds of delicious treats for everyone...

[chefpeon]

I did NOT make the following items:

Caramelized Onion Tart

Red Wine and Black Pepper Crackers

Baked Brie in Puff Pastry

Fudge

Bacon Wrapped Pineapple appetizers

Oyster Stew

Nope. None of those things. The family will have to starve this year.

[Tri2Cook]

I pretty much stuck to my guns on this one. I made two 500g aerated milk chocolate bars that I sprayed nice and velvety with 64% and decorated with white chocolate ribbons and bows for a couple of friends that really like the aerated chocolates I make (I'm a grinch but I'm not good at saying no to the ladies as a general rule... grumble, grumble, grumble). Anyway, that's all I did and I've already been hearing about all the things I didn't do.

Merry Fishmas!

[lucylou95816]

I've never been a "baking" kind of person at Christmas, at least not in the last several years. I too, haven't been in the mood, not depressed, just not in the mood. I guess in my older years, I'd rather celebrate family and friends when I want, than a forced holiday..........I guess a big bah humbug from me.

[reenicake]

Emerging from nowhere to say that I did not do any baking this year.

Not for work, nothing. No chasing after holiday cookie classes or make-your-own-Yule Log classes. Even the cookies we served at a work reception on the 18th were made by a co-worker. The closest thing I did was peppermint truffles decorated with crushed starlight mints, and some Christmas-themed transfer sheets on dipped caramels and magnetic molds -- probably only about 30 each.

No cooking either except for some porkchops in mango-apricot sauce that I did not intend to taste like Chinese sweet-and-sour but did, for a lunch with friends on the 23rd.

My soon-to-be-sister in law's family bakes a lot and she obligingly brought boxes of cookies, caramel popcorn, etc. For Thanksgiving I had made a fabulous turkey, but for Christmas my mother-in-law got a 10-course lauriat from the Chinese place and made lasagna. No contribution from me.

It stems partly from discovering that our son is allergic to wheat and yeast (aside from the ones we already knew, eggs, dairy and nuts) which become airborne, so no baking at home. I got depressed about that earlier in the fall, and thus threw myself into knitting things for him instead of baking him things. And partly because I'm in that bah humbug mindset too.

[Pebs]

This is the first year of my adult life that I did NOT bake any cookies. Not a one.

I got a late start on decorating the house because we had a blizzard or an ice storm or both every weekend for 4 weeks which made shopping for ingredients ludicous. As it was I couldn't get my car out of solid ice for three days. The ride to work in the squad car one morning was fun (I work for city hall so they picked me up). I got to go on a police call on the way to work. The next week I couldn't get my car doors open for two days. They were frozen shut. A crow bar was finally used. By the time I got a Christmas Tree I had to set it up in the kitchen for a day surrounded by towels so the chucks of ice would melt off of it. By that time I started thinking about the fact that last year I ended up throwing about 5 dozen cookies away in February.

I figured I could live with a year off. I usually give them to everyone I know. I hate to admit it .....but it was kind of nice. No gooey bowls, no sticky floors, no stacks of cookie tins stashed in places. And I wasn't hauling plates of cookies everywhere. I could kinda get used to this. Well....maybe. Ok. I kind of miss the cookies for breakfast. Maybe next year. And it's snowing again. Another 5 inches today. Sigh.

[heidih]

This is the first year of my adult life that I did NOT bake any cookies.  Not a one. 

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Me too! Oven is on the blink and I don't like baking in someone else's kitchen because I am a kitchen control freak. Felt very strange. I was asked to bring something to a ladies tea on the 23rd and picked up a tray of generic baklava from the superstore. Baklava is something I always do alot of for the holidays. This stuff did not even have any aroma. Did not bother to taste it, yet the ladies were scarfing it. Oh well, we will see what next year brings.