Wowza – I had a lot of sugar today!! It’s no secret that I LOVE sugar, so let’s just say today was a very good day 
[No calorie counting - will resume that tomorrow.]
My morning started with baking some cookies for a cookie swap party later in the afternoon, hosted by Shannon. Choosing a recipe for a blogger party was a tough job – do I go healthy? indulgent? fancy? simple? So many decisions! At the end, I decided that we’ll be eating so many cookies, a lighter recipe may be welcomed. Cooking Light’s espresso crinkle cookies got great reviews online, so I stopped over-analyzing things and got to work.
Of course I had to taste 1 fresh out of the oven Not bad. I wasn’t blown away but Adam approved them + after making 45 cookies, I kind of had no choice but to bring them.
When I got to Shannon’s, I couldn’t believe the spread! I knew we’d have 11 guests (which means 11 types of cookies), but each one was more gorgeous than the other. My heart was racing just thinking about all the cookie deliciousness I was about to consume. Mmm, cookies 
Yeah, like I said, the spread was no joke! I’ll do the pictures do most of the talking here – every.single.cookie was absolutely amazing!!! Yes, I’ve tried them all by now. 
Tina’s butterscotch choc chip bars. So many chocolate and butterscotch chips. Yum!
Shannon’s maple bacon toffee oatmeal cookies. The bacon was very subtle – these were just good oatmeal cookies, with a little secret ingredient 
Bridget’s chocolate almond orange macaroons (Ooh, I guess I haven’t tried these yet. I’ll let you guys know how they are once I finally do!)
Adrienne’s lime meltaways – yep, these lime treasures were definitely melt-in-your mouth delicious!
Kelly’s choc chip orange cookie dough truffles – loved the orange twist!
My espresso crinkles. Everyone seemed to enjoy them after all. Maybe I was overcritical. 
Kerstin’s chocolate peanut butter bar – OMG – soooooooo amazing. They had dense peanut butter base with pretzel and Whopper pieces inside, all covered in chocolate. I could easily eat the whole tray if left with them in a room all alone. 
Nicole’s lemon almond cranberry crescents – such light, sophisticated little bites.
Rebecca’s break-up bars – shortbread base, caramel and milk chocolate. I believe the word I used was “sick.” These were everyone’s favorites.
Mary Kate’s black & white cookies – a classic cookie perfectly executed.
Savory spread (courtesy of our host)
Salmon mousse with cucs and crackers
Wholly guacamole guac + salsa + TJ’s chips
Mini quiches with pears, walnuts and gorgonzolla
Chai infused almonds
Bacon chips (I purchased from Foodzie)
Bloggers in action. It was funny – I’ve been out with bloggers on several occasions, but we were really not holding back on picture taking this time
Cookie tasting…
Many questions were tough!
The party was so much fun!! Cookies + blogger friends = match made in heaven. 
After the party, I headed straight to my parents’ house to unload some of the cookie loot. Look at all these cookies!!!
My parents of course had lots of wine and food for us.
And my mom even made cake!! Yeah, apparently I haven’t had enough sugar quite yet
I wasn’t too crazy about this one (my mom was testing out a new recipe) so she brought me an old favorite – gorka!
Oh yeah, I had a tiny bit of rice pilaf with chicken wings just to say I had “real” dinner.
Pink sparkling wine – yeah, life sure was sweet today.
I am in a serious sugar coma. I left some cookies with my parents and took the rest home. I’m bringing the whole container straight to work tomorrow morning. I promise, I’ll be a good girl.
Which cookie would you have tried first?
P.S. Let me know if you’d like a recipe for any of these. I can find out for you. 
Wow! That looks like it was some party! All of the food looks amazing! I’m so glad that everyone enjoyed my break up bars. They’re one of my favorites too.
I tried one (ok, maybe more like two or three) of your crinkle cookies yesterday. Yum! Good job.
Beyond that, I’m not much of a cookie person, unless they’re classic chocolate chip or sugar.
Looks like SO much fun! Next time, I will definitely be there
.
Wow – what a day!! Looks like some amazing cookies. The PB one looked the best to me, but that’s only bc i’m such a chocolate/pb fan
I agree about taking them in to work, too tempting otherwise!
What a delicious day! I like the name of the Breakup Bars! Too funny
It was so much fun! I am so glad Shannon organized. After dinner I had to have tea and cookies–one of my favorite treats!
GORKA! nice to see mom is ready for my visit already
could you please ask for the lemon cranberry almond crescents recipe? they look really good
cookie overload
Great recap. Just as yummy as I remembered.
It looks like a professional bakery in there!
One of each please. yum they all look really good
WOW what a delicious spread. I definitely would’ve tried them all but I always go for chocolate chips the first so I think I would’ve tried Tina’s chocolate and butterscotch chip cookie bars. MMM!
Wow! All those cookies look amazing! I probably would have gone for the chocolate peanut butter bar or the break up bar first! Yum!
I actually wrote a post about healthier cookie swaps around the holidays. Check it out! http://nutritioulicious.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/healthy-holiday-cookie-swap/
All of them look amazing-but I would have tried the choc chip cookie dough one, love that flavor!
This looks like the perfect blogger meet up! Those break up bars sound to die for
The chocolate peanut butter bars and Break up bars look to die for! Yours obvs look great as well:)
jennA
Wow I wouldn’t know what to try! Looks like a fun blogger event!
That sounds like my kind of a day! I live for sugar!
I would love to try Tina’s cookies and I love coffee-flavored anything, so I would devour the ones you made as well!
I honestly don’t know what I’d choose – it all looks great and it looks like a really fun event!
Haha how about the recipe for… all of them??
Everything looks so good! What a fun day!
I’m particullarly intrigued by that game…. searching for it right now! Unfortunatly, I don’t think I have anyone to play it with
It was so nice to see you again, Elina! I liked what you wrote about my cookies. Your cookies were amazing. I loved how they tasted like a rich brownie. Perfect size, too! I can’t wait to see pics of your new kitchen. I hope to see you again soon!
-Nicole
Break up bar would have been my pick.
[...] Sugar overload – a cookie swap party in full gear [...]
You all looked like you had a great time.
Susan – those break-up bars are amazing!!!
Tiffany – you liked them? Cool. I know you won’t lie to me
Lauren – we definitely missed you. Next time
Kitchenbelle – yeah… I skipped the tea part and went straight for more cookies
Innz – I’ll find out the recipe for you.
Nutritioulicious – I saw that post!
Mae – the game was really fun. There was one particularly funny one. Maybe I’ll test you guys on my next blog post. See how you do (although I think most of us were not even alive when that thing happened).
Nicole – I was glad to see you again as well. We want the recipe for your cookies!!
[...] place on this earth, my cookie had its place at the swap. I liked what Elina said on her blog post best, “Nicole’s lemon almond cranberry crescents – such light, sophisticated [...]
It was great seeing you again! Your espresso crinkles were so yummy and perfectly balanced – mine are all gone…
It looks like you guys had so much fun! I wish I had been feeling better so I could have come. I love crinkle cookies, but I’ve never had them with espresso. I’m sure they must have been fabulous!
[...] tried these bars for the first time at the cookie swap party in January and they were definitely a favorite. I omitted the toffee (couldn’t find it + they [...]
[...] last year’s cookie swap party at Shannon’s? There was a lot of sugar consumed in several hours’ span… and it was a blast! [...]