TWD – Buttery Sables, Baked While I Caught My Breath

Picture for this and other Dorie treats will be up tomorrow. For now, this is Lil’ Gus:

I have spent a good portion of the past four months out of town looking after my auntie (who is doing a lot better and has agreed to move into a retirement community, and get hip replacement surgery – hooray!), and playing catch-up when I’m back home.  Imagine, if you will, going through three weeks of mail, including junk mail.  Or having your dishwasher conk out on you, the same year you’ve had to replace your washing machine, oven, microwave, and refrigerator.

And we went out of town for Thanksgiving to visit some friends.  It turned out to be one of the best Thanksgivings I’ve ever had, but five days out of town didn’t help me catch up with all the work around here, much less bake anything.  Oh, and did I mention we emptied out a storage unit, and my house is packed full, my in-laws arrive next week, and I have to head back up to Wisconsin to move my aunt into her new home?

I am exhausted.  All I crave is Honey Bunches of Oats and mac and cheese.  The cheap kind.  Those must be my equivalent of uppers or something.

But I did have the opportunity to make Dorie’s buttery sables, as well as her Holiday Bundt cake from last month.  My husband really liked the cake (even though I forgot the cinnamon), and we both loved the cookies.  Thanks to Barbara of Bungalow Barbara for choosing the Sablés on pages 131-133.  And to Britin of The Nitty Britty for the All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake.  The only addition that I made to the basic sable recipe was to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Thanks to all of you who have still visited my humble blog to see what’s been going on with me.  I hope to get back into the full baking and cooking swing of things in the next couple weeks.  Oh, and here is a picture of the cake on my dear friend J’s tropical serving platter:

Mai Tai’s all around!