It’s December at the end of the week, which means it’s less than a month until Christmas so for all those Grinches out there, it’s time to stop complaining that it’s still too early for Christmas music and decorations.
It couldn’t have been more clear that the holiday season has arrived than last week when the dumping of snow turned this beautiful province into a Winter Wonderland.
It’s time to cozy up inside and for those who haven’t already started, it’s time to start pulling out the Christmas tree, ugly sweaters and assorted decorations.
But more importantly, it’s time to enjoy sugar cookies, gingerbread, candy canes and hot chocolate with marshmallows.
Sweet goods go hand-in-hand with the holiday season. After sledding, people warm up with hot cocoa, when decorating a tree, a tray of treats usually gets placed out and when opening stockings, almost everyone expects a few candies ¬¬¬ Terry’s Chocolate Oranges anyone?
It can be hard to say no to all the wonderful sweets for those trying to stay on the healthy path so I say, why bother?
There’s all this information out trying to warn us about how much weight we’re going to pack on over the holidays but how true is it really? Health reports suggest such varying facts. A 2000 New England Journal report suggests we only gain about a pound of weight over the holiday season yet a limitless supply of advice can be found online or in magazines on how to loose all that holiday weight.
Sure, focus more on portion control but don’t kid yourself if you’re tossing raisins in your cookie mix. It’s like people who ask for whipped cream on their non-fat latte or a large popcorn with extra butter and a bag of chocolate treats at the theatre but demand their extra large pop is of the diet variety.
What I’m saying is, either say no to the treats altogether, or enjoy a few here and there. Don’t try and make the cookie sound healthier because you’ve included raisins or used whole wheat flour with the batter consisting of shortening, sugar and chocolate.
Besides, the half-healthy treats, especially cookies, just taste awful.
I’ve become a bit of an expert cookie eater in my time. I’ve even been dubbed Cookie Monster on occasion and I don’t take this title lightly. It’s come from years of sampling a variety of both tasty goods and deceivingly unappetizing ones.
Part of my Cookie Monster training involved trying every baked good available at any party or social event. I remember as a child reaching out for what appeared to be a lovely, chewy chocolate chip cookie. But that first bite revealed something utterly disappointing. Those brown lumps were anything but the sweet cocoa bean. It was another entity altogether — the shriveled, dried grape.
Over the years I’ve become a pro at detecting the raisin cookies but raisins can hide well such as in cinnamon buns and carrot cakes.
I don’t understand the desire to include raisins in desserts that are chock full of sugar, butter and usually chocolate.
Raisins are healthy and belong in healthy foods like oatmeal or salads or even better, a fruitcake. Sure, nuts are healthy too and I welcome them in cookies. But they can be a great addition because they add a certain crunch. The chewy, paste of a raisin doesn’t add anything to Christmas treats, if I haven’t been clear enough about this already. Ooey-gooey sugary desserts need to be left alone.
If you’re baking treats for guests this Christmas, do everyone a favour — leave the raisins in California.
