I finally found a shortbread cookie recipe I like. I've been looking for a while.
My husband is currently playing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It is not a bad thing. Whenever I am bored or don't want to watch tv I ask him if he wants to play Skyrim. Its like watching a long pretty movie with relaxing music that inevitably puts me to sleep. In one such Skyrim induced sleeps this past week I dreamed that I worked in a bakery devoted to Skyrim. Treasure chests, armour, weapons, characters, castles, monuments, all made out of chocolate, candy and cake. This is my amateur attempt at a cake devoted to my beloved dream inspiring video game.
Sometimes you just need a cookie to feel better. 
I bring you: Ham Week 2011. Unlike Turkey Week, I actually completed Ham Week. The company I work for was kind enough to supply our 8 pound Christmas Honey Baked Ham which I lovingly managed to work in each dish. We started December 22nd with Ham and Eggs.
Julia Child's Tranches de Jambon en Piperade (Ham slices with Tomatoes, Onions, and Peppers) with grated parmasean and parsely on top. This came in as #3 on our top three favorite ham dishes.
Crock Pot Ham, Potatoes, and Peas casserole. This came in as our #1 favorite Ham dish. It is not pretty, but has a home-style, stick to your ribs, comfort food kind of taste that we could not stop eating. Crock Pot - diced potaotes - ham cubes - cream of chicken soup - 6-7 hours - then add peas and half a stick of cream cheese until the cheese melts throughout the entire dish. I definately need to make this one again.
Ham Quiche. I am starting to think my husband simply does not like quiche. Everytime I make it I end up with left-overs that he will not eat.
Ham week culminated in our glorious ham and split pea soup. Insert "The Exorcist" and Linda Blair jokes here. Yes, I have seen the 1973 movie, but not the re-makes or sequels. I went through a gross out horror movie phase that covered the cinema classics. Yes, I know it looks disgusting, but I love split pea soup. This year, for once, Split Pea soup took our #2 favorite dish of Ham Week, normal it comes in at #1. Also this year, thanks to random luck and good timing, Ham and Split Pea Soup was the triumphant finale of New Years Eve and more importantly a successful end to our week of Ham.
We have a tradition in our family: Turkey Week and Ham Week. It is not a terribly original idea, taking the left-overs of Thanksgiving Turkey and Christmas Ham and trying to come up with different recipes while eating it for about a week. But we do like to change it up a bit. One year we celebrated Turkey Week in February. This year Turkey Week started on Sunday December 11th by cooking a 17 pound bird with mashed potatoes and creamed corn.
We were off to a great start.
Turkey Rice-a-Roni and Peas Monday.
Turkey Pasta Tuesday.
I even had time to take a Christmas Cookie Decorating class on Tuesday. J's only request was that I do a Christmas Zombie cookie for him.
Turkey Salad Wednesday.
Along with chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting for a neighbor who just had a baby. Those pink things are supposed to be poinsettia flowers.
That's when Turkey week sort of fell apart and morphed into baking week. I did 137 Cake Pops with my Mom and sister.
And some 200 sugar cookies. Dad had the prestigious job of adding red hot candies to the cookies.
I think we ended up with 35 plates of goodies to give out to our friends and family.
Red Velvet and Cream Cheese Brownies for our Fort Douglas Re-enacting Christmas dinner.
I do Civil War re-enacting with my husband.
It was a "Choose your own costume" dinner involving several re-enacting groups.
Our Civil War Union beardies got to stick together.
I had extra Turkey Cake frosting so I made a small Fall Tree cake Sunday night using my favorite chocolate buttermilk cake recipe:
