Girls Night Cookie Exchange

Last night I hosted my first ever cookie exchange.  It was lots of fun!  I plan on making it a tradition!

We had a small crowd, but that was OK because I have a small house!

Our list of goodies:

Egg Nog

Soda

Hot Chocolate, Russian tea and coffee

Of course, white trash and some Christmas gummies

veggie pizza

Fruit,

and these yummy brownie/coffee mouse delights

MMMMMMMMMM.....

We ate

 

 

We played board games

and we rocked a little Guitar Hero and eventually Rock Band

(I really wish I had a picture of Jen playing the drums!  Good times!)

We also laughed and laughed!

And, obviously, we exchanged cookies...

I made gingerbread cookies.

I got a little razzed about not decorating them, but quite frankly I just did not have the time.

Plus, I'm not a frosting kind of girl anyway.

I think they taste great as is! :)

The recipe is really simple too.  It's not one of those where you use messy molasses or anything like that.  I found it last year on Allrecipes.com and plan on using it every year.

1 (3.5 oz) package cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the dry butterscotch pudding mix, butter, and brown sugar until smooth.  Stir in the egg.  Combine the flour, baking soda, ginger and cinnamon; stir into the pudding mixture.  Cover, and chill dough until firm, about 1 hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease baking sheets.  On a floured surface, roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness, and cut into gingerbread shapes with a cookie cutter.  Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are golden at the edges.  Cool on wire racks.