I'm ahead of the cookie curve, then. I'm having a small tree trimming party on Sunday evening. I'm making gingerbread, chocolate-mint cookies, cranberry-oatmeal-white chocolate cookies, and spiced pecans. Also serving tangerines, hot cider (brandy optional), and eggnog (rum ditto).

I am making a bazillion christmas cookies to send out to friends and probably some braised short-ribs on sunday.... if I am feeling up to it I might throw some blueberry pancakes into the mix.

... the cookies that I am making are:

raspberry thumbprint cookies
russian tea cakes
various sugar cookies
candycane and chocolate cookies
molasses spice cookies
"kitchen sink" cookies (so freaking good)

yeah, next week is kind of too late for a lot of people for cookies -- i'm going to my second cookie party this weekend. making two of heidi's recipes from 101 cookbooks: hermit cookies and the sparkling ginger chip cookies.
i'll probably be looking for some kind of lemon cookies, too, if anyone has any suggestions?

Cooking Trader Joe's Carbonera ravioli with a sauce of garlic, olive oil, chicken stock, and tiny peas.

Also going to make blueberry pancakes for Sunday brunch.

I'm making my annual Choucroute Garni variations with this Fall's crock of homemade sauerkraut. It's my favorite Fall food.

I'm also making Kugelhopf in different sizes to send to friends. Since this brioche is best served after holding for a couple of days, the quality of the cake isn't lost in transport.

I'll be whipping up my grandmother's chili to serve at my 14th annual tree trimming party this Saturday. I'll also be whipping up annatch of the "easy fudge" featured on the Food Network Show, Dessert First.

i'm making vegetarian chili cornbread pot pie. it's a variation of a few different recipes and oh so good. i made homemade peanut butter last night. can't wait to start christmas cookies and caramel corn. not yet though.

We are decorating gingerbread and sugar cookies today. I also wanted to try a pomegranate and white chocolate cookie.

French onion soup! The good stuff, with onions slowcooked for 2 hours, and 4 deglazings...

If tomorrow's weather is as bad as predicted, there will be a whole lot of baking going on. A batch of cookies, yes, but also bread, I think.

I made some candy cane cookies today from a 1971 recipe card for a 70s-themed holiday competition a friend is throwing; I just put together some braised short ribs for diner--they'll sit in the oven now until 6. Our house has kind of a funky smell now because of both...

I need to make a vegetarian main dish that's got a little dazzle to it for a dinner party for four on Thursday--also, I need it to be either fairly simple or prep-ahead, as I am proctoring an exam until pretty much when our guests arrive. Any suggestions? I'm thinking the usual pasta but am looking for some variety...

I made english muffin pizzas for dinner tonight. Lol. Mostly because we spent the day out and about searching for and cutting down our first fresh Christmas tree! And will now spend the remainder of the evening decorating. :) I think I will whip up some rice pudding tonight and I NEED to bake cookies at some point!

@sweetpeacooks - why not pasta with broccoli pesto? Just substitute well-steamed broccoli and toasted walnuts for the basil and pine nuts. And be sure to add lots of garlic and salt. It's different and pretty darn good!

Sweet pea, How about gorgonzola or other blue chees polenta with a spicy marinara (easy to make ahead with mushrooms and peppers) and a side of garlicky rappini. You can boil the rappini ahead and then saute with the garlic and olive oil at the end. And the polenta is quick, though you will need to stir for about ten minutes. It looks neat to pour it onto a big board where it forms a creamy puddle and then shave some parmigiano on top. Yumm

Made butternut squash risotto tonight. First time I've ever had to hack up the squash (not as hard as I thought, thanks to the how-to here!). I didn't have stock or white wine, but remembered Mark Bittman's blog where he insisted it wasn't necessary. It turned out amazingly great. And to top it all off, Bittman himself sent me a direct message on twitter saying "Do it!" after I posted my plan to just use water. Best encouragement ever :)

If anyone needs another cookie recipe for their list tomorrow, the cacao nib sables that Molly posted on Orangette this week were great and super easy. They're not super sweet, which I loved to counteract what everything else has going on.

STLcolleen, I'd be so stoked if Mark Bittman wrote to me!

Thanks for the help! I actually have a freezer full of regular pesto--we ate a bunch last week--from summertime. And sadly, neither my husband or I like polenta. We don't know what your problem is; we've tried it a bunch of ways and just can't get into it. But I like the rest of what you've got going there, Escondido.

I have two olive oil sourdough loaves rising on the counter which I'm putting in the oven in a few hours.

I made pancakes this morning for my two daughters and a friend who slept over.

My husband just requested a batch of salted butter chocolate chip cookies (the ones David Lebovitz posted a few months ago).

And I defrosted some strawberries to make strawberry cupcakes at the request of my younger daughter.

It's gonna be a busy day in the kitchen!

@hannaht - it was pretty damn great :)

I just made sourdough pancakes with apples and pecans, yesterday mexican chocolate cookies---both from the food network magazine. The sourdough pancakes are awesome.

This weekend, we're cooking appetizers to bring to different Christmas parties. For one we made roasted tomatillo salsa. For the other, we brought Pioneer Woman's bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers and cheese straws.

Today we are staying cozy and dry inside the house and roasting pork tenderloin and delicata squash.

Big pot of oven beef stew and biscuits for our blizzardish weather today.

Tonight we're making rum balls and Andes Mint Cookies. I added the mint cookies to our line up last year and they were a big hit. I used a full mint on each cookie instead of the half suggested.
http://www.food.com/recipe/andes-chocolate-mint-cookies-12849

@sweetpeacooks - my favorite vegetarian pasta dish is with mushrooms, artichokes, and cream - recipe from Smitten Kitchen (definitely add the balsamic vinegar!).
http://greenandlean09.blogspot.com/2009/12/creamed-mushroom-and-artichoke-pasta.html

Or I second STLcolleen's idea for a risotto.
http://greenandlean09.blogspot.com/2010/09/squash-and-spinach-risotto-with.html

But if you're looking for something more impressive for guests, a souffle will wow 'em.
http://greenandlean09.blogspot.com/2010/11/mushroom-souffle.html