Cookie season looms

I'm starting to get excited about cookie baking - usually cookie season begins the weekend after Thanksgiving, I have the party around the 15th of December - last year, exactly the 15th - and then ship boxes to friends and family.

This year, because of the way the December weekends fall, I am starting BEFORE Thanksgiving, and the party's the 12th. I have been getting a little negative feedback on the choice of day - a few people have said they can't make it, and there's a retirement party at work the same day, but earlier.

Still, I am making my list tomorrow night, shopping on Friday, and baking commences Saturday.

There're a few new things I want to try - some mini-fruit cake cookies in little foil bonbon cups - Rose Berenbaum has a recipe I love, but you bake them in little tart tins, and they always stick - the foil cups should eliminate that problem. And Martha has a sugar cookie dough that I think'll be the perfect base for chocolate stars stuck on top. And there's an anise one that sounded good, and something mint, to use up those two bags of mint chocolate chips that are still in the freezer from last year - that's the other thing - I hope to be a little more frugal this year, and not overbuy some ingredients. I think this is going to be the year that everyone's giving cookies, or homemade whatevers, with the economy and all <grin>, stealing my chops, dammit.

I'll probably begin with lebkuchen - they're the squarish ones in the middle, that I see I kinda screwed up last year, and simnel cake - because those are the longest keepers. And I always like to get the jam cookies made early, and frozen.