Browned-butter spritz sandwich cookies

Can you believe that it’s December 17th already? I feel like it was September just a few days ago. Now here we are, creeping up on Christmas. How are you doing? Have you finished all of your shopping? Have you baked all of your cookies? How about the decorations, are they hung by the fireplace with care? To make you feel better let me answer these questions. No, no, no and no. I have not done any of the above. I’ve been living in my little fantasy world over here. You know the one. It’s the one where I have plenty of time before Santa comes rolling into town. What happened this year?

When I was little I would get ready for Christmas in November. It was simple, after my birthday was Christmastime! I spent the day after my birthday preparing my countdown chain. You remember those, right? A ring of paper for each day before Christmas and each day you tear off a ring. In the early days of the chain I would behave and tear off the right number of rings. As the days went on I would pretend to forget about the chain, only to be able to tear off three or four when I “remembered.” Such gratification, tearing off three rings!

Then thanksgiving would arrive, marking the official start of the holiday season. (For everyone else that is, I was already celebrating) The morning after thanksgiving we would head to the local garden store and get two trees. A cute tiny one (for my tiny grams house) and a huge one for us. And I mean HUGE, ten to twelve feet. We would bring it home and set it on the deck. This is where it would sit until the week before Christmas. It would taunt me. It would inevitably be buried in feet and feet of lake effect snow!

According to my calendar it’s one week from Christmas. The tree on my parents deck is getting ready to make its appearance inside the house. A few more days after that I’ll be heading home to visit. The holidays are here and they snuck up on me this year. I decided to make some more cookies to try and convince myself that they really are here.

Acorn Squash Ravioli with Cranberry Walnut Sauce

We all have those mountains in life that seem too high, too challenging of a climb. You think to yourself “Look at that mountain! Who would be crazy enough to climb that? Why bother when I have this delicious sandwich right here? I think I’ll just sit here and eat my delicious sandwich. I’ll bet that there aren’t delicious sandwiches on top of that mountain!” Hmm, I seem to have hit a tangent. Let’s get back on track…

Culinary mountains. Those food items that seem just too overwhelming to take on. And usually we have good reason not to attempt these culinary mountains. Why make your own puff pastry when you can buy it in the freezer section? Why make your own donuts when you live across the street from Dunkin’ Donuts? (Or maybe I’m just lucky enough to live in the center of a triangle of D. Do’s) And finally, why bother to mix, roll out and cut up your own pasta? Especially when pasta is seriously, a dollar. Really, sometimes it’s on sale two for a dollar.

We make pasta because we want to fill it with deliciousness. In my attempt to embrace fall, I took on the mountain of making homemade ravioli. And let me say, it was much easier than I thought it would be. The only change I would make, is to buy and use a pasta maker. Pasta dough is a tough item to roll out. It wants to spring back on you, shrinking back into a smaller shape. Work those muscles people, and you will be rewarded with one tasty dinner.

The flavor of the acorn squash is perfectly offset with the spices in the filling. The browned butter plays so well with the sweet cranberries and nutty walnuts. This dish packs major flavor. Set aside several hours to prepare the pasta. You can make them in the morning and cook them later in the night. Just be sure to let the ravioli dry at room temperature, then cover them and put them in the fridge until you are ready to eat. Don’t let the pasta mountain defeat you, you can do this. There might not be tasty sandwiches at the top of this mountain, but there is this…