Every Friday I’ll indulge my order-crazed brain in a list of randomness. Welcome to my Friday Fives.

We are two weeks away, people. The tree is up. The music is on repeat. All that’s left is a bowl game and then we are there.

I have a few cookie plates to make for friends and Etsy business partners, so I’ve been working on that menu as well as our own home menu.

Same as Thanksgiving, I’m looking forward to having a few favorites and trying some new treats. We plan to spread these out between next week and New Year’s so we’re not overloaded. Though, let’s be honest, we’ll be overloaded. ‘Tis the season!

Before I get to the new, here are some of the traditions we’ll be continuing:

Sninny Rolls (now that I know how to handle yeast dough in high altitude)
Sugar Cookies (this time with the new cookie cutters!)
Chocolate Crinkles (because, wow, are these amazing)
Lemon Bars (Joe’s favorite)
Pizza Bread on Christmas Eve

And now for the new…

Drum Roll, please. Drum Roll.

5. Sausage Stars

Okay, this isn’t new, at least not a new-to-me recipe. This is a request from Joe. He first tasted them at a Christmas party I threw in grad school, months before we were dating. Mere babes at this point.

Maybe they are what sealed the deal. If so, I should thank my sister. This is her recipe and its all Oklahoma in an appetizer. Ranch + Cheese + Sausage. Pre-vegetarian me loved them, so I’m going to have to come up with a veggie version to try this year. Or I may just eat my weight in my family’s Cracker Crew.

4. Cookie Butter Truffles

I don’t do most fudge, and growing up we had a bar version of my favorite chocolate-peanut butter buckeyes, which was as close to fudge as I would ever get. Instead of making buckeyes, this year we’re trying some cookie dough truffles. The jars from Trader Joe’s have a better life to live than one that just involves me and a spoon! They are screaming for a chocolate coat to wear.

These and these look promising!

Don’t like Cookie Butter? I bet you like Baileys!

3. Chocolate Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

These are mostly for my cookie plates to distribute. I have a freezer with three bags of Candy Cane Hershey’s Kisses (I like them in ebelskivers) that I need to use and this seems like the ideal way to do it: Cookies for other people!

This is the recipe I’ll try.

2. Seasoned Pretzels

Instead of Nat Nix (gasp!), we’re going to try this baked pretzel as our main snack. As much as I love Nat Nix, it always makes a lot, which means I eat a lot. We’ll see how it goes. I may break down and make Nat Nix for New Year’s!

This is the recipe I’ll try.

1. Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

Since we won’t have our normal buckeyes, Joe requested this peanut butter treat and I was absolutely on board. Especially when I noticed Joy the Baker had a browned-butter-peanut-butter version in her first cookbook. I’ll follow her to the ends of the earth for providing our INCREDIBLE Thanksgiving dessert.

The recipe is found in her first cookbook. Stay tuned, I just might cut them into Christmas trees. Probably not. But, maybe!

What are you making this year? Check out my new Pinterest board dedicated to all things holiday.