Baking and Desserts

Just a note about baking cookies! My goal was 30 dozen cookies for my husband's two plants.  Does not sound like much...but.... The guys work in airplane hangers and in the summer, the heat is unbearable and in the dead of winter, they can't sufficiently heat an airplane hanger, and these are hard-working guys that work with highly combustible gases. I "marathon" bake and usually have several recipes going at one time. I  will bake for several days straight. My husband took in the platters of cookies (and we did not want the guys to know where the cookies came from) before the plant opened and he said in one hour, the trays were empty. How fun is that?!
 I'm not an advocate of using Teflon or Sugar; so broke the rules for the cookies. I think a Teflon cookie sheet is the only kind to use.
In the photo, is a sampler of desserts that we had two weeks ago in Rome. The presentation of the small bites on a slab of slate, was a novel idea. From left to right - creme brulee sitting in little spoons, raspberry gelatin, custard topped with black olives, biscuit and a lemon cookie.
This past week-end, I made gifts of home-made marshmallows with bags of shaved chocolate for cups of hot chocolate.  I'm using a recipe from a Belgian Chocolatier and a 25 year-old Martha Stewart marshmallow recipe. I've shaved pounds of chocolate blocks with a potato peeler.  Mix the chocolate shavings with half and half. I'll post a picture once the sugar in the air, settles! My husband thinks the only way to get through the long, dark months living here in the Northeast, is a cup of homemade hot chocolate with those "killer" marshmallows.