Happy Hanukkah!

I never celebrated it until I met my partner, and, to be honest, I think I inspired her to celebrate it simply because my love of holidays is contagious.  This evening we went out to eat with her mother, then came home to cuddle with the dog and exchange our first night of Hanukkah gifts.  Our relatively new tradition is to exchange 8 tiny things, then one or two larger things on Christmas.  We both unintentionally picked Etsy-purchased items to give tonight, which was a funny coincidence.  I gave her a scrabble-tile necklace she'd been eyeballing, and she picked out a most fabulous magnet for me!  The magnet is the best because not only is it a mermaid, but it's a fat mermaid.  And not only is it a fat mermaid, but it's a fat mermaid reading a book!  It took me a while to wonder how reading a book underwater would work, or if it would work.

Last night I baked some Hanukkah cookies to bring to tonight's gathering.  My partner had a set of Hanukkah-related-shaped cookie cutters (which she swears I got her, but I don't remember it), so I made dozens of little six-sided stars using a butter cookie recipe from the New Best Recipe Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.  I had a few minutes of panic when it came time to knead the dough into a ball, and all I could do was push bits of crumb into tiny, temporary clumps.  I added a tablespoon or so of cold water, mixed that in, and tried again.  Still no good.  I thought maybe the butter hadn't been softened enough when I started, which might affect the liquid to solids ratio, so I let it sit for 20 minutes, and when I came back I was able to form it into a relatively firm ball.  After that things when well, and the cookies came out incredibly buttery.  I don't know if that's because of the recipe or because I used organic butter for the first time.  If it was the organic butter, than I can say with certainty that the extra 50 cents or dollar to purchase it is well worth it, especially for gift-giving, when flavor counts most.  Our local Stop and Shop carries organic butter in its organic/specialty food section.  I wanted to decorate them with yellow and blue royal icing, but I ran out of time.  The story of my life.