Baking my butt off

Somehow I think that's not what happens when you eat these (butt coming off) much as I might wish for it. Hmm.

So it was my big night for baking Christmas treats tonight. I started around 4 and baked on and off until about 11:30. Whew! Here are some quick notes on the stuff I made:

• Saltine toffee is super easy and good and rich and looks pretty impressive on the plate. I made a 1.5x batch, which goes a long way. The kids and husband ate a ton of it. There is still a ton.
• The empty spot on the treat plate means that the pumpkin fudge has not set up yet. I hope that is not a bad sign. I don't know what I would do with a 9x13" pan full of pumpkin sludge. We'll see in the morning. I am holding out hope because the surface of the fudge still feels warm to the touch, so I am thinking as it cools it will harden more. I hope. I have never actually made fudge before tonight, though I love it a lot.
• The turtle thumbprints are quite work intensive but so yummy. It is hard to do the caramel neatly. I didn't really succeed at that. You will see that I did not drizzle the chocolate. I do not like drizzling, so I was trying to do it with a pastry bag. That doesn't work too well, because the chocolate in the tip of the pastry bag cools pretty quickly. That's because metal is a good conductor. See, I'm a science writer, and I know this stuff. (Never mind that any seventh grader knows that.) So I just took off the tip and piped big kisses on top instead. I like it better. I mean, it's Christmas. Who wants a drizzle of chocolate when you can have a big fat kiss!? These are Kissy Turtle Thumbprints!

Something I have noticed about myself is that almost nothing is too rich for me. Other people eat like two bites of stuff like this and go, "Oh, it's so rich! I can't finish it!" And I'm like, "Pass it over here, girl!"

I think I am done baking. It is late and I am pooped.