The Holiday season is a time of giving and
sharing and goodwill... and a plethora of sweets! But who has time to
bake delicious treats every week? Instead of
slaving away for days to create the perfect cookie sampler, invite your
friends over and invest in a few tools that will save your sanity.
Together with your cooking cohorts, you can have a cookie exchange where
everyone will leave prepared for the coming events. Here's how.
The Holiday season is a time of giving and
sharing and goodwill... and a plethora of sweets! But who has time to
bake delicious treats every week? Add on the extra parties and gift
exchanges that require plates of cookies and scrumptious chocolates and
one may begin to feel they'll be in the kitchen forever. Instead of
slaving away for days to create the perfect cookie sampler, invite your
friends over and invest in a few tools that will save your sanity.
Together with your cooking cohorts, you can have a cookie exchange where
everyone will leave prepared for the coming events. Here's how.
Ask around to see if any of your friends might be
interested in a night of cookie fun. Have them bake and bring their
favorite holiday treat and the recipe. Once you have a group committed,
make sure no one is bringing the same item and encourage unique fare.
This will help you to end up with a wide variety sure to please
everyone's taste.
Before the gathering,
check to see if you have all the tools needed. A small laminator as well
as compatible pouches or film is useful to preserve the recipes. Be
sure you have recipe cards, pens, a heavy duty hole punch, and binding
rings. If you don't have any of these items, consider splitting up the
cost between you and your friends. For example, maybe you have a
laminator but one friend is going to provide the recipe cards and pens
while another is bringing the film and a hole punch.
While
everyone is at your house, split up the cookies evenly. If you have a
large group, it might be easier to break up into smaller groups to
divide cookies. Pass out recipe cards to everyone in a circle. For
smooth recipe sharing, have everyone pass their own card to the right
and copy down the one they've been handed. Keep doing this until
everyone has the recipes they want. If you have a photo copier, copying
the cards onto cardstock may be a quicker way to complete this.
Alternately, you could have everyone email you their recipe beforehand
and then print them out onto recipe cards.
Now
it's time to break out the laminator. You can find a smaller machine,
such as the Xyron EZ Laminator, for less than $60. Xyron devices are
high quality and can be used for many other projects. This particular
laminator offers a 9" feed, which will accommodate multiple cards at
once, and a built-in cutter that can be removed and used alone. The
initial purchase of this device also comes with an adhesive cartridge.
The Xyron EZ is simple to operate and doesn't require heat or batteries.
Once
all the cards are laminated and trimmed down, square them up and use a
heavy duty hole punch to pierce the corners. Then slide a binding ring
through the hole and lock in place. Now you can send each person home
with a plate of delicious cookies as well as the recipes for each.
This is a fun way to have a productive get together with friends.
It costs less than traditional gift exchanges and as a bonus you can
get some baking done while hanging out with friends. Cookies can be
stored in the refrigerator or frozen to stay good for longer. So put on
some Christmas music and invite your favorite couples over; it can be
fun to see what everyone brings. Good luck and Happy Holidays!
If you'd like to purchase the Xyron EZ Laminator,
you should really visit MyBinding.com. They have this product available
at a great price and they also have a wide selection of other Laminators. Plus, you'll get free shipping on all orders over $75.00. Check it out for yourself now!
