It's a Farmgirl Christmas

I've been reading more and more food blogs lately, but my favorite is still Farmgirl Fare. This Christmas season, I made two of her recipes.

About two weeks ago, I made her Beyond Easy Beer Bread, using the dill and sharp cheddar in the original recipe. But since we got invited back to Tracy & John's for Christmas dinner, I didn't want to go empty handed. Since this bread only takes about an hour to make total and it's really tasty, I figured it was perfect. Instead of the dill & cheddar, I made it with Italian herbs and asiago. I meant to put garlic in it, but I'm just now remembering it, so it's a little late for that. I didn't get to try any of this bread so I'm not sure how it turned out, but here's a picture. I think it looks good enough to eat.



I'm going to make this bread again on New Year's Day with some cheese soup and, of course, spinach and black-eyed peas. Does all that go together? I'm not sure, but that's what I'm making.

So then my family came for a visit. Cathy got a KitchenAid mixer, so she gave me her stand mixer and I just had to use it for something. I've only wanted one forever. The first recipe that came to mind was Farmgirl's Molasses Ginger Spice Snaps. Ross and I both prefer our cookies big (who doesn't, really?) and soft, so I followed the directions to get that effect and they turned out great. They're big and soft and totally yummy. I don't bake cookies often and when I do they're always a little too something (overbaked, soft in the middle, burned, whatever) but these came out perfectly and I'm saving the recipe for next year.



Not to kiss too much Farmgirl butt here, but I have to say that there has not been one recipe of hers that I've made that has turned out anything other than perfect.