Merry Christmas and a "cookie" plate

Merry Christmas!!

This year I was way excited for the tradition of cookie plate giving because I had so many good food things I discovered this year that I couldn't wait to share, since food is one of my love languages and all ;)

It's less cookie than your average cookie plate, and more just a bunch of goodness. I feel like that's an accurate way to describe our past year of life, too. Not what we thought would be typical of this season of life, but still a whole lot of goodness! 

I wish I could make these things for everyone, but alas, my kitchen isn't big enough, nor my supply of flour, sugar, and jelly jars extensive enough. So I thought I'd share the list of goodies and the corresponding links to their recipes. 

The things I was most excited to share I divvied out in little four ounce jelly jars. Totally not big enough for how good they are, but enough to give a taste! 

Raspberry Chipotle Sauce 

Garlic Butter

Cinnamon Pear Caramel

-this is from a chocolate shop that was giving out as samples, so there was no recipe! I had to come up with my own (and fail a bunch of times before getting it okay--still not perfected yet) from the ingredients on the jar we bought. 

3 cups pear juice (from the baby food section or from a can of pears)

1 & 1/2 cups white sugar

1/4 cup water 

1 TBSP corn syrup

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 TBSP butter

Simmer the pear juice until reduced to 3/4 cup (about half an hour), then add to cream, set aside to cool and mix in a shake of cinnamon. Mix water, sugar, and corn syrup in a large pot. Heat on medium to medium high heat, stirring constantly until it starts to boil, then stop stirring and let boil for 7-8 mins. You'll need to keep an eye on the color to determine your time. You want it to look amber, but not too dark or it will taste burnt (been there, done that). I err on the side of not dark enough. Remove from heat immediately and slowly mix in cream--be careful since it will steam and foam up, so mix fast. Once it's all mixed in, add the butter and stir. Let cool and serve or keep in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. 

The rest of the cookie plate consisted of:

Oreo Truffles (so easy and so good)

Chocolate Turtles (I do make my own caramel because I just love butter and brown sugar--1/2 cup brown sugar and 2/3 cup butter boiled together until soft ball stage, the mix in 1/2 c heavy cream)

Molasses Cookies (I like them not so flat so I add about 1/2 a cup more flour)

Shortbread Cookies

I just love food so much--it's my kind of art!

I hope you enjoy your holidays and get to be with family, and enjoy the great food during this season :)