As part of my seasonal series of diaries last year, we had a Cookie Swap. Let's do it again! Follow me below the dingledoodle squigglie dKosagnocchi dividerthingie fold after a word from our sponsor...
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Casa Brillig held its first Holiday Open House in... well, it's been so long we can't remember the last one. We think about 60 people showed up over the course of the party, including surprise guests JustOneMore Dad and family, who proved it is possible to keep a secret even in the age of Facebook! We pulled out every favorite cookie and candy recipe we have, including the cookies I want to share here tonight. They're these incredible bits of chocolate and toffee goodness and I've been making them using this recipe for at least 30 years - it predates the Interwebs and is handwritten on an index card, even! So without further ado, I give you...
Casa Brillig's Saltine Cookies
Preheat oven to 400°F
Line a baking sheet (the kind with sides, about 10"x15") with heavy-duty aluminum foil, and coat with butter. Yes, butter, not margarine or coconut oil or anything. Butter.
Lay out a layer of saltines (the square cracker you put in soup) to cover the bottom. It will take about one sleeve of saltines to cover the bottom of the cookie sheet.
In a small pan mix two sticks (1 cup) butter and 1/2 cup packed brown sugar. I've seen most recipes call for 1 cup brown sugar, but the one I use doesn't, which suggests anywhere between 1/2-1 cup works :-). Either light or dark brown sugar works fine.
Bring the butter and brown sugar to a boil (it will get all frothy) and boil for 3'. Pour immediately over the saltines and spread it around so that all the saltines are covered.
Bake for about 5', it will be all bubbly. Take out and immediately sprinkle one 12oz bag semisweet chocolate chips as evenly as possible over the top.
Return to oven for another minute to melt the chips, then remove and with a knife carefully spread the chocolate over the top of the toffee. Immediately sprinkle with 1/2-3/4 cup chopped nuts, our favorite is toasted pecans.
Let cool, then chill in refrigerator until cold. Carefully peel away from foil and break into irregular sized pieces. Store chilled until ready to devour.
Note: Because K2 doesn't like dark or milk chocolate, we tried this using white chocolate chips. They do NOT melt the same, and it doesn't work. However, simply not adding the chocolate then sprinkling nuts directly over the toffee mixture was deemed acceptable!
I wasn't thinking far enough in advance to get pictures of preparation, but here's a few of the ONE remaining piece after our party:
They're addictive so I suggest making them when you know others will be there to help eat them (or give some away).
The underbelly. No one ever knows they're saltines unless they look underneath and see the outline of the crackers!
So what sorts of holiday cookies do you make now (or remember fondly from other times in your life, even if health or other conditions don't permit eating them now? Please leave your plate on the table there, and take an empty plate to fill with other cookies from the swap!
The collaboration BeninSC and I have when doing these diaries is sweeter than any cookie or candy. Foolproof, too!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From Ginny in CO:
In Fokozatos siker's excellent diary: For Xmas, Newsweek attacks fundamentalist Christians - by using the Bible!, JohnB47 coins a great new word, in this comment, and succinctly defines it.
From MTmofo:
The Xmas spirit lives in spammer comments, wherein my comment elicited an outstanding reply from bubbanomics! .
Holiday regards to the TC world,
MTmofo
From JG in MD:
This excellent comment by Hannah reminds us that we're more caged than we know.
From nancyjones:
They just don't get any better than this comment by Gooserock!
Peace on earth,
nancyjones
From Yours Truly, brillig:
From Frank Vyan Walton's diary Off-Duty Black NYPD Officers say they've been Profiled, Harassed and Assaulted Too comes this stark comment by ThePhlebob.
Nominating this comment by kovie because it just as easily could have been written by me. From JGibson's Charity event for a retired LAPD LEO in Glendale features racist anti-Mike Brown song.
Top Mojo for Monday, December 22 2014, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) It's interesting how... by HugoDog — 180
2) we should offer to help them... by glutz78 — 153
3) Big mistake by jalbert — 110
4) Fox terrorizes its viewers - again. This remind... by Bob Love — 102
5) Great reply by DiBlasio. Many Democratic by d3clark — 99
6) One word describes all this....Depressing by Roxpert — 96
7) Talk about a war on Christmas!!! by substitutesforthinking — 94
8) The whole thing was exquisite. by serendipityisabitch — 94
9) Chris Hayes noted there have been FOUR attacks... by BruinKid — 92
10) Hahahah ... indeed! by akadjian — 91
11) They also don't want to by anon004 — 90
12) The narrative the RW wants by TDDVandy — 89
13) Or health benes by NancyWH — 88
14) Thanks Ken by Denise Oliver Velez — 85
15) it frankly shocks me by looty — 82
16) Apparently this the is same Fox 45 reporter by Intheknow — 82
17) I thought he was amazing by hulibow — 77
18) This: by cany — 75
19) It's sad he even had to answer that. The media by hyper — 76
20) As Sony was busy shitting its pants by LeftHandedMan — 72
21) The false dilemma. by rudewarrior — 70
22) And if he no longer cares about his fellow man by white blitz — 69
23) That's some world class discrimination - they by We Shall Overcome — 67
24) Have they tried turning it off and back on again? by Shifty18 — 67
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27) Ahem...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA by LiberalCanuck — 63
28) Reporters have taken some of the narrative by tmservo433 — 62
29) Ctrl Alt Delete by BOHICA — 61
30) Wasn't it just a few months ago that we by theKgirls — 60
31) He did really good by lizzyh7 — 60
2014-12-23 Top Comments with Pictures, courtesy of
jotter!