The red-bellied woodpecker you see in my avatar has been eating at our seed feeder all morning. He/she is at the top of the pecking order (literally and figuratively). Even the usual bully blue jay waits for the red-bellied woodpecker to leave before he/she moves in.


Well, I FINALLY finished my Czech Christmas cookie blog series. I called it my "Czech Christmas Cookie Countdown". Since November 11th, I have posted 10 Czech Christmas cookie recipes, plus a Czech Christmas sweet bread recipe. Today, I posted the main post that includes photographs, descriptions, and links to all of the individual recipes. All are either my photos (not always that great) or my husband's. I did not make all 11 of these recipes this year. Four of the 11 I made last year and had photos from them. Yes, that means I've made seven of these buggers since October. I actually still plan to make two of the ones I didn't make this year, but that are already in the post.


Attached is a photo of the most involved cookie I've made so far in my life. They are called "Vosí Hnízda", which stands for "Wasp Nests" in Czech. They are also commonly referred to as "Bee Hive" cookies, because they look even more like a bee hive. They are a 3-dimensional cookie with the top part made in a special bee hive mold. The dough of the cookie is a walnut rum flavored dough. It is then filled with rum or brandy flavored eggnog, then a Nilla vanilla wafer is adhered to the bottoms to keep the eggnog in. The molded dough is never baked, but dries out a bit after about 12 hours plus. The eggnog never fully escapes. In the photo, the cookies with the edible bumble bees on the top are the cookie without chocolate coating. There is a regular nut version and a nut version that has cocoa in it (color difference). Then on the sides, I have coated some with dark chocolate, some with white chocolate, and others with white chocolate dyed green with food coloring. These have all been decorated in various ways. Anyone interested in seeing them, see attached.


Done with the cookie project!!!!!!!