A Week in December

Everyone says this is the busiest time of year.  It is busy, but certainly not as crazy as September.  What have I been up to? Well honestly I've been baking cookies, reading, picking up my knitting again and we also squeezed in a trip to Chicago, along with work of course.  

Chicago is one of my favorite cities; I was born there so I'm a bit biased. But really its a beautiful city and right on Lake Michigan.  My husband and son and I went down for an overnight and spent Saturday walking along Michigan Ave doing a little Christmas shopping.  Of course we had lunch at the Peninsula - my favorite lunch spot in the city.  One of my favorite things about this time of year is the Christmas lights and I so loved seeing all of the lights as it got later and later. 

As I mentioned I've also been baking. Gingerbread cookies are one of my favorite and I love a good rum ball.  The original recipe called for bourbon but I really don't like bourbon so I switched it up for rum.  See below for the recipe.  

Rum Balls

2 boxes Nilla Wafers - I crush them up in the food processor

2 cups ground walnuts - again I use my food processor

2 cups powderd sugar

2 Tbl. coco powder

7 Tbl. corn syrup

1 cup good quality rum

Combine first four ingredients in a large bowl and mix. Then add the corn syrup and rum.  Pinch and roll into 1" balls and roll in granulated sugar.  Let the balls sit on a cookie sheet for a day and then put in a cookie container.   I like to let mine sit for about 1 week before I start eating them.  But that is all up to taste.

Enjoy!

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth