Placesettings: Snowing outside and in!

The grandkids were supposed to help me bake cookies this past weekend. But we got a surprise snowstorm.

The streets were awful. The kids couldn’t come. I was housebound with pounds of butter, bags of powered sugar, and a brand new oven. (That’s another story.) So I made a blizzard of snowball cookies. (AKA Russian Teacakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes–everyone loves these so much they all want to claim them.)

Get the Betty Crocker recipe here. I like to increase the vanilla to two teaspoons. And for heaven’s sake use real butter!

These melt-in-your-mouth cookies are ManRay’s favorite. When they cooled I rolled them in powdered sugar for the third time and piled them into an old Bartlett Collins cookie jar. It takes two batches to fill it to the top. The excess cookies are in a really old Jeannette jadeite candy dish.

I made an impromptu centerpiece from a flour sifter filled with two really old strands of C-7 Christmas lamps. They have red and green wires and big red wooden beads to tighten the wires to the branches of your Christmas tree. They still work! I popped in a handful of Japanese glass floral picks to give it some glitter.

The small tablecloth has a charming print in red and jadeite green. I had it in mind for serving finished cookies and milk to the grandkids. The little angels remind me of a sweet little girl who loves to help in the kitchen.

Maybe next time. This batch of cookies won’t last long and we’ll need to make more!