Annual Cookie Party Recap

As I blogged about last year, one of my friends hosts a group of us for a holiday cookie exchange party. A get together that has turned into a competition over the years. Whenever we get together, no matter what time of year, conversation always turns to the cookie party. Who had won last year, what people were planning for the next year. We take this thing SERIOUSLY.

I have not won this thing since (I think) 2007....so I really wanted to try and up the ante a little bit. I've been thinking in years past about a ravioli cookie. This year felt like the year to finally give it a go.

I settled on a s'mores ravioli -- a sort of sugar cookie dough with a chocolate, graham, and cheesecake filling (I had researched that Fluff wouldn't turn out that well.

I got all my ingredients. I even got new kitchen gadgets.


The night before the party, I got to work. Things were going along quite well...I had the fillings prepped in the dough and was ready to ravioli the heck out of them.

Notice the glass of wine in the back...that would be one of a few glasses consumed after things took a turn for the worse...

Following the recipe...well, it just was not working. I became irritated, then frustrated, then stressed. Like, real stressed. I left the apartment at about 10:30 to go get more supplies from the grocery store. I ended up having to scrap a whole batch because I just could not get them to work. I gave up and went to sleep, hoping I could figure things out in the morning.

The next day, I woke up and decided to abandon the very pretty and precise ravioli shape and just try to free-form them. Basically, I was gonna wing it.

So more dough and filling was made...and I made things that sorta-kinda resembled raviolis and put them into the oven. And took much longer to bake than they should.

And came out looking nothing like ravioli. They looked like little Christmas sombreros.


I was distraught. Actually distraught was probably an understatement. I was supremely disappointed in myself. I was probably *this close* to a temper tantrum; it was NOT pretty.

After I let myself wallow for a bit, I chalked this year up to a wash, boxed up my cookies and headed to the party. After all, it's about the good food and the good company anyway, right? We had a lovely dinner (with the Trophy earning a spot in the middle of the dinner table) and then set out the cookies. There were only 5 of us this year....maybe I might have a shot?


The competition was still looking tough though. A chocolate coco-nutty cookie, two different chocolate chip cookies, and some seriously decadent looking peanut butter bars.

And my stupid Christmas sombreros.

But somehow....a Christmas miracle took place. Those little sombrero suckers won! Maybe people felt bad for me....maybe those chocolate chippers cancelled each other out. WHO CARES -- I WON!!!!

I was so stinking excited. I raced over to MVP's place afterwards and he didn't even bother to ask me about the party. He had seen how upset I had gotten earlier the day and had SEEN those sad ravioli wannabes. I pulled out the trophy and exclaimed I had won and he looked at me, and serious as a heart attack, asked,

"What happened, did no one else bring any cookies?"

Gee, thanks for the support! After confirming that yes, in fact, my cookies had BEAT OUT other options, I got to celebrate my sweet, sweet victory with a glass of bubbly.


I am so grateful to not only have a friend who puts this together for us every year (THANK YOU!!) but am lucky to have such a fun group of friends who make this event such a memorable evening each holiday season. It is one of the things I most look forward to each year and a tradition I hope we can keep going for years to come.