Amur Leopard

On Saturday night, Anne and I went to Smoking Joe’s annual Christmas cookie party. We’ve been attending this party for years now. Although, there was some question as to whether or not the party would come off or not this year. Joe had had surgery and it was uncertain whether he would be up to the effort of throwing the party. He’s a trooper though and the party went off without a hitch. In addition to the usual party activities, like eating, drinking and talking, this party features the activity of decorating cookies. Chef Chris mixes up by hand the pallet of different colored icing and then the guests go to town. Anne really got into this and I tried, but the siren song of those usual party activities lured me away instead. Guests are asked to bring a tray of cookies to share, which we did. As a first this year, our cookies were baked and decorated by yours truly. I chose to make sugar cookies, because we had a surfeit of powdered sugar in the larder and I figured that this would be a good way draw down our stock. In a twist, I used sesame oil to make the cookies, which gave them a nice nutty taste to boot. Next year will be this party’s 25th anniversary. We haven’t been going anywhere near that long, but many of the attendees have. Looking forward to it.