Category Archives: Entertainment

Books/Art

Book recommendation: ‘Tender is the Flesh’

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By: Munira Ahmadad

*Warning: This book contains graphic descriptions of violence, includes depictions of sexual assault, and contains characters that may be considered to represent anti-semitic stereotypes.

‘Tender is the Flesh’ is a horror novel by Agustina Bazterrica. The story takes place in a dystopian society where a disease causes humans to be unable to consume animal products or flesh anymore. Not that long after the event, the human population turned to cannibalism for an industrialized replacement of animal meat. This is referred to as “the Transition”.

Humans are bred for consumption identical to how animals were and are referred to as “heads”. The majority of the human product in first world countries is advertised as “special meat”, and the Transition is easier on those who have the privilege to not have to think about where and how they got their meat.

The protagonist is a man named Marcos who works directly in the industry who struggles with his relationship with his wife after the death of their baby. At his job, Marcos was given a first generation pure female head as a gift.

The novel aims to comment on the bleakness of real life society with how the Transition impacted marginalized groups first and the hardest. The message wasn’t that eating meat is bad, but it prompts the readers to consider their own internal ethical conflict and how we oftentimes think around discomforting knowledge and try to disregard it.

The story parallels the real life horrendous aspects in the meat processing industry. Not only do slaughterhouse workers operate in physically dangerous environments, the mental toll of having to constantly disconnect with what they are doing leads to emotional dissonance, and the abusive workplace causes slaughterhouse workers to often turn to maladaptive coping mechanisms according to the National Library of Medicine. The majority of slaughterhouse workers are people of color both in the book and in real life. Slaughterhouse employees are mostly migrants in real life, making up 70% of the workforce in the UK.

I recommend Bazterrica’s novel to anyone who enjoys splatterpunk horror in particular, but I would say that it’s relatively grotesque with its descriptions, and some readers might find it excessive enough for the book to be put down.

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life, Tech/Games

The real reason some students use AI

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By: Nathaniel de Sam Lazaro

In the educational world today, much is made about artificial intelligence (AI) and how it could be used by students to cheat in their classes. 

By using AI, students are able to create work with far less effort than if they did it themselves, creating a well warranted fear amongst teachers that their students may be using AI to cheat by passing off AI generated work as their own. Not only is this academically dishonest, it actively hinders the student’s education. This fear among educators has been exacerbated by the increasing difficulty of differentiating work made by AI from that made by students.

Personally, I have never used AI to cheat, though I will admit to having intrusive thoughts of doing so from time to time. This thought comes up whenever I am struggling with an assignment, telling me that I could perhaps earn the same grade more easily, without doing any work. 

The reason I’ve never given in is not out of a fear of being caught or some compulsion to blindly follow rules, but because I know that by doing so, I would be hindering my own education. I wouldn’t be gaining the knowledge or skills that I would have if I were to do the assignment myself. This mentality is what has prevented me from giving in to this urge. But this made me realize that students who do use AI are doing so because they don’t value their own learning, only valuing the grade they earn in the class.

I was curious about what other people’s mentalities toward this were, so I asked some of my friends the following question: “If you could have AI do some or all of your assignments, knowing that there was no chance you would ever be caught, would you do so, and why?” Their responses intrigued me. 

Some people told me that no, they wouldn’t use AI in any cases, because they wouldn’t learn without doing so. This is similar to my mentality, and everyone seemed to agree with this in at least some of their classes. Some friends of mine stated that they would do so for certain classes, since they thought that those classes’ material didn’t matter for their planned careers. In other words, they saw no value in these classes other than to pass them, moving them closer to graduating. 

How does this happen, that these students don’t see any value in their learning except to pass a test, to get good grades, to get into college, and to start their career? They aren’t born this way. Young children have an endless amount of questions on their mind. They are naturally curious, ask deep questions, and annoy their parents by constantly asking “Why?”

By contrast, High School students only seem to see school as a transaction to get to where they want in life, and gain the information taught for the purposes of passing a test and getting an “A”. What happens that takes this natural curiosity out of our students between when they start elementary school and when they get to high school? What drives these students to use AI to pass their class, while they are missing out on learning and skills they would gain by doing their work on their own, missing out on the answers to the deep questions they asked when they were a child?

I think the answer is that our education system, and society as a whole, emphasizes grades above all else. If I could use AI and get the same grade, why not do so? Yes, I would be missing out on learning, but that doesn’t matter if all that I care about is my grade. In the above hypothetical, there are no consequences for using AI. One could get an A without doing any work on their own. In order to choose not to do so, a student would need to value learning, knowledge, and curiosity in and of themselves in order to get the most out of their education. Unfortunately, what is usually valued most by parents, educators, colleges, and society as a whole, is simply a letter on a piece of paper or computer screen. And in many cases, the allure of that letter grows to outweigh or even destroy any value one may have placed on what it is supposed to represent. 

Movies/TV/Theaters

MOVIE REVIEW: ‘SEVEN’

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By: Charlotte Bistodeau

The movie ‘Seven’ (sometimes seen as ‘Se7en’), is a 1995 R-rated, crime/horror film directed by David Fincher (who also directed 1999’s ‘Fight Club’, 2011’s ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’, and 2023’s ‘The Killer’) and written by Andrew Kevin Walker (who also wrote 1999’s ‘Sleepy Hollow’, 2010’s ‘Wolfman’, and 2023’s ‘The Killer’).

The film follows two police detectives, William Somerset and David Mills, as they hunt down the serial killer who kills their victims based on the seven deadly sins. It’s hard to give any more information on the story of the movie because you pretty much know about as much as the two detectives at the beginning and learn along with them. This makes the movie interesting. Instead of knowing things that the main characters don’t, you know only what they know, making you invested in each scene.

I would say that there aren’t a lot of horror aspects except a few dead body’s. Instead, there is a sense of dread making you feel like something bad could happen at any moment throughout the film. The ending of the movie though, is perfect. There couldn’t be a better ending to it.

I enjoyed the main characters thoroughly. Many horror movies throughout the 1980’s and 90’s have an incredibly stupid amount of main characters. Many times you end up being annoyed with these stupid characters and even end up rooting for the killer (or being extremely disappointed in the killer for not having killed them by now). But ‘Se7en’ is not that movie. William Somerset is incredibly smart, to the point that he’s able to figure out by the first two murders that they were done by the same person. Even David Mills, who is not as smart as Somerset, still has a personality that is able to put two and two together. These things make you root for them. It also helps that the actors of William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and David Mills (Brad Pitt) do a great job at playing their characters.

The background music is something else. You don’t notice it. Or at least I didn’t. It wasn’t bad, in fact it was great, it was just that you get so invested into the story that the background music doesn’t stand out. It adds feeling without making it noticeable.

You can buy the DVD for about 25$ on Amazon or you can watch it on HBO or YouTube Premium.

I’ve watched a lot of horror movies from the 1980’s-90’s and this one is definitely my favorite. Even compared to horror movies today, it’s still my favorite. So, I would have to rate it a 10/10. If you really like psychological horror or crime horror, I would definitely recommend this movie to watch.

Tech/Games

All powers in ‘Wild Life’!

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By: Julia Yang

The saga of ‘Life Series’ articles is almost coming to a close, but it’s never too late to discuss the latest season!

‘Wild Life’ is of course by far the most wild season, where every session is a different wild event! In session 7 every member was selected a random superpower! I loved this session so much that I want to explain to you every power, who got it, and how I think it connects to the person!

Grian – Copycat/Mimic

Grian had the ability to copy any other player’s superpower for 5 minutes, all he had to do was simply find and right click on a player to copy it.

Grian gave himself this power because he’s the creator of all of the “wild cards” (events), which meant he also came up with the powers!

I can go into lore to explain why this can possibly draw back to it, but I don’t want to waste your time with lore.

Cleo – Necromancy

Cleo had the ability to summon zombies back from the dead— no, like literally. She brought back all of the dead players.

Previously dead players Mumbo and Skizz came back from the grave for this session, but not as the same Mumbo and Skizz you may remember. They came back from the dead to serve the person they get summoned by, and no more than that. They each only have four hearts and listened to Cleo’s every command, no matter how hard or weird it may be.

When Mumbo and Skizz die, Cleo can simply summon them back, but they’re on a cooldown of 5 minutes.

Cleo has this power because her full gamer tag/YouTuber username is “ZombieCleo” and her Minecraft skin is literally a zombie! How could she not have this power?

Etho – Windburst

Etho had the ability to use a windburst and go up dramatically higher than the normal player and take absolutely no damage!

Although he had a mace and fishing rod which made his power extremely dangerous to be around, I don’t believe he ever landed a hit or killed anyone with it besides Gem (and Skizz, the zombie that’ll come back anyway)!

This power has absolutely no connection to Etho, but it was fun nonetheless!

Bdubs – Time

Bdubs had the ability to slow down time for about 10-15 seconds and sleep at night to make it daytime.

By “slowing down time”, I mean when he used his power, absolutely everything in the whole server would get slowed to this snail paced speed. It confused many when he used it the first time, because it affects everybody and they didn’t know who did it.

In a regular ‘Life Series’ season, all members of the server would need to sleep if they wanted to skip the night, which is impossible in a server of 18 people worried about dying and killing other members.

Bdubs hates the night time, he finds nothing good about it besides that it’s pretty! Back on the ‘Hermitcraft’ server, Bdubs can be called the “Sun God” or “Sleeping Master” because every single time it gets even close to night time, Bdubs is always there to sleep the night away using a mod. Now, in this one session of ‘Wild Life’ he can finally sleep the night away too!

Bdubs has time based powers because of his odd obsession with the Minecraft clock! He uses the clock to tell the time if it’s late and should go to sleep, and if he has one (which he usually does), it’s in his off-hand! Like a lucky charm!

Lizzie – Darkness

Lizzie had the ability to blind people and disappear for about 5 seconds.

This power was very dangerous, but Lizzie is a pretty non-pvp person so there wasn’t much to worry about!

Lizzie got this power because her full gamer tag/YouTuber username is “LDShadowLady”, it’s perfect really!

Joel – Triple Jump

Joel had the ability to triple jump. This was about it.

It doesn’t seem that good in text, but he had a lot of fun with it and it saved his life multiple times!

This power has no connection to Joel, but he enjoyed it and that’s all that matters!

BigB – Creaking

BigB had the ability to summon a small group of the Creaking mob.

He didn’t use this ability much because it wasn’t that helpful, but it was cool to look at!

BigB got this power because his whole shtick for this season was that he lived in the Pale Forest (the Creaking biome) and even had a Creaking skin! Like I said, it wasn’t useful, but man was it cool to see!

Tango – Speed

Tango had the ability to run at an insane speed.

He ran at an impossible speed to hit or kill, but it came at a price of ultimate starvation. His power was something he could toggle on and off, but insisted on leaving it on because what was the point of turning it off?

The entire server hated him in this session because he was basically unkillable and was rubbing it in everyone’s faces, of course in the end though, he did manage to die.

Tango connects to this power because Tango would like to flee more than pvp anyone! He isn’t very good at pvp and would like to avoid it at all costs, being more brains than brawn.

One of his most known catchphrases is to “flee with extra flee”!

Pearl – Flight

Pearl had the ability to jump up extremely high and fly as if she had an elytra on!

At first she thought it was just the big jump, but Grian eventually showed her that she can actually fly around. This power even came with a cool hat!

The only way I could connect this back to Pearl was that fans often thought of her as a moth because of her full name “Pearlecentmoon”!

Martyn – Super Hearing

Martyn had the ability to hear anything he could see!

If he were to hover his crosshair over a group of people from over a mile away, he could hear their entire conversation!

This connects to Martyn through lore! Just a snippet of what there is, Martyn is called a “listener” in the story that he has made for the series, which is perfect for his power!

Scott – Mob Morph

Scott had the ability to transform into (almost) any mob!

As long as he could click on it, he could transform into it!

This power doesn’t exactly connect to Scott in any way, it was actually given to him because it’s a passive power and he was on his green life which meant he couldn’t kill anyone, thus getting a boring power.

Ren – Player Morph

Ren had the ability to transform into any player on the server!

As long as he could click on the player, he could transform into them, skin and name tag!

You could say this power connects to Ren because he’s a theater kid and loves to role-play and act! Ren loves storytelling and playing as characters; this power couldn’t have been more perfect.

Jimmy – Invisibility

Jimmy had the ability to go invisible!

All he had to do was press a button and he could go invisible for an infinite amount of time!

This one I don’t believe can connect to him in any way, but he had a blast using it!

Gem – Astral Projection

Gem had the ability to go into spectator mode and talk to ghosts!

When Cleo’s zombies, Mumbo and Skizz, aren’t walking around in the overworld, they’re flying around as ghosts where Gem can then have a conversation with them.

I personally can’t connect this to her in any way, but I’m sure someone can, considering the lore behind her character!

Impulse – Teleportation

Impulse had the ability to teleport and swap places with another player using that same teleportation!

Anywhere he could see, he could teleport to, but to swap teleport with somebody, he had to be very precise about where his crosshair was because if they’re not right on the crosshair, he could miss which could be a vital mistake.

Impulse has nothing to do with teleportation, but he did manage to kill tango!

Scar – ???

Scar had the ability to sit on anything— including on other players’ shoulders, and hit players with a knock back of like 10 blocks!

This power couldn’t really be given a name because obviously they’re two very drastically different things, it was more so given to him so he could enjoy himself!

This once again can’t be connected back to Scar, but he had loads of fun with it.

I do believe these are all of the powers, and how they may connect to their corresponding person! The ‘Wild Life’ season is over, and so is my collection of ‘Life Series’ articles.

I bid you all adieu!

Getting To Know/History, Movies/TV/Theaters

How ‘Sesame Street’ changed education

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By: Kara Fini

In 1969 ‘Sesame Street’ was aired on television. It was the first time that there was an educational show for all children and its impact showed.

Before ‘Sesame Street’ was created most children were exposed to cruel shows meant for adults. A study done by the University of Michigan showed that the average American child had seen 16,000 deaths on TV before they turned 18.

Although there were children shows on TV like ‘Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood’, they were meant for middle class children and gave an advantage to middle class children who knew more before they started school. The founder, Joan Ganz Cooney, observed that and wanted there to be a show where children of every class would be able to start school on a more even playing field.

When ‘Sesame Street’ first aired, it was an almost immediate success. Children who watched the show were seen to have higher knowledge in math, reading and writing before they started kindergarten. The impact was so big in some parts of the US that districts had to change their elementary school curriculums because too many kids had already learned what they were trying to teach them. It wasn’t only educational learning, but social and emotional skills too.

‘Sesame Street’ gained some backlash for its diverse cast and hard topics that it covered. It took a very long time for it to be aired on TV, but ‘Sesame Street’ never backed down from this backlash. They wanted to have a television show that all kids would be able to see someone like them in. They introduced more puppets that came from different backgrounds and continued to cover heavy topics like childhood poverty, natural disasters, death and racism.

‘Sesame Street’ paved the way for tons more educational shows and showed us how you can turn a harmful thing like television into something beneficial.

If you want to hear a more detailed explanation on how ‘Sesame Street’ changed education, a history day project made by Maeve Callahan-Schreiber is available on YouTube from the YouTube channel ‘The Better Angels Society’ with the title “Sunny Days: A Turning Point In Children’s Television”. Maeve is currently a 9th grader at Como Park Senior High School, and represented SPPS at the National History Day in June getting second for Junior Individual Documentary.  

Tech/Games

All you need to know about ‘Hades 2’

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By: Persephone Pond

‘Hades 2’ is an upcoming roguelike action role playing video game developed and published by the studio Supergiant Games. As the name suggests, ‘Hades 2’ serves as a sequel to the hit indie game ‘Hades’, which was also developed and published by the same studio. This article will cover all you need to know about this upcoming masterpiece of a game.

‘Hades 2’ is currently available for purchase as an early access release on PlayStations 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and series S, and Microsoft Windows. Early access to this game means the game isn’t fully released. In addition to bug fixes and new mechanics, Supergiant Games has also been adding new characters and stories in big updates to the game as users continue to test the current mechanics.

With the early access of this game, initially released in May of 2024, many fans have begun to speculate the full release date of the game on a wider variety of platforms. These speculations have led to the conclusion that the full version of the game could be released anywhere between quarters 2 and 4 of 2025 due to the extensive build of the game so far. This timeline is earlier than expected, since Supergiant’s previous game, ‘Hades’, was in early access for over 2 years before its full console release.

So far, in its 8 months of availability, the game has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from returning fans and new players. Especially considering that ‘Hades 2’ is Supergiant’s first sequel, the game maintains a good balance of mechanics from the original ‘Hades’ and new unique aspects that make the game feel different and avoid the feeling of repetition between games.

From creative and unique interpretations of figures from Greek mythology to the fighting mechanics, ‘Hades 2’ is on track to be one of the biggest releases of 2025. In 2023, ‘Hades 2’ was nominated for the Most Anticipated Game at The Game Awards and Most Wanted Award at the Golden Joystick Awards.

So, whether you’re a returning ‘Hades’ fan or a newcomer to the games, keep an eye out for the full release of ‘Hades 2’.

Travel/Food

Jam thumbprint cookie review

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By: Norah Hoglund and Max Cahoon

Image created with Instagram AI

Overview

Jam thumbprint cookies are a classic Christmas or holiday cookie for this time of year. They not only look cute but they also taste really good. We tried out a recipe for them and are going to share our thoughts on it.

Link to the recipe:

https://www.loveandlemons.com/thumbprint-cookies/#wprm-recipe-container-53346

Review

Taste

These cookies had two components: the cookie and the jam. The cookie was like a shortbread cookie, and it was sweet and crumbly. They were also very buttery and they were quite a good cookie. If they didn’t have the jam in the center they would have been a bit boring, so good thing there was jam in the middle. It added a different tart flavor to the cookies as well as a fruity flavor and a different texture. The cookies would have been a bit dry without the jam but it made their texture perfect. We rate the taste an 8/10.

Baking process

The process of making these cookies was fairly easy. The cookie part was pretty straightforward to make and wasn’t really any more difficult than any other cookie. The hardest part was putting the jam in the middle of them, because it was sort of hard to be precise with a spoon and to not spill over the edge of the indent that was made in the cookies for the jam.

Another thing about the recipe is that it says to wait until the bottoms are lightly browned, so we put it in for 12 minutes but the bottom edge didn’t look brown at all, so we put it in for a little bit longer which made the cookies a little more dry. Other than that, these cookies were pretty simple to make. We rate the baking process a 7/10.

Overall

Overall, this recipe is pretty simple and straightforward and yields good results. The taste and texture is good and the blend of flavors is pleasant. The one thing that we would change is the instruction about looking for brownness, because you can’t see if the bottoms would be brown.

Overall, we rate this recipe a 7.5/10. We would recommend this recipe to anyone who enjoys baking, cookies, and especially the sweet jam.

RECIPE

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the two flours and salt.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract until fluffy. Gradually add the flour and mix until completely combined.
  4. Scoop rounded tablespoons of the dough and roll them into balls. Place them on the prepared baking sheets. Gently press down to form discs and use your thumb, or the back of a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon, to make an indentation in the middle of the cookies. Use a spoon to spoon ½ teaspoon of jam onto each cookie.
  5. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely
  6. Then enjoy.
Music/Concerts

Songs meanings of ‘0.1 flaws and all.’ album by wave to earth

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By: Christine Yang

Wave to earth is a three-member band, Daniel Kim (singer-songwriter), Dong Kyu Shin (drummer), and John Cha (bassist) based in Seoul, South Korea. They want their band’s aspiration to “become the new wave” and expand their universe across the world. The band’s songs consist of indie pop with a lo-fi sound rooted in jazz drumming. The album ‘0.1 flaws and all.’ was released on April 20, 2023, with 14 songs (12 lyrical songs and 2 instrumental) on the album.

Lyrical Songs:

“bad”:

The song “bad” is about being with someone you love, and how the days will never be bad when you see/be with them. Which basically means their presence lightens your day or mood, and how in love you are towards them. 

“sunny days”:

“sunny days” is an expression of appreciating the joy and warmth that love can bring into someone’s life.

“peach eyes”:

“peach eyes” is an expression of the sweet bond between two people, showing how love brings light, comfort, and motivation. The song also symbolizes the partner’s “peach-colored eyes”, which are also the representations of beauty and warmth of the person/love.

“evening glow”:

The song “evening glow” is about a person’s flaws and how they feel “broken” or “unloveable”, and trying to find healing and acceptance while struggling.

“pink”:

“pink” is a poetic way of exploring the short lasting nature of life and love. Also, seeing the person you love in nature sceneries.

“calla”:

“calla” is about spending time with someone you love no matter the conditions, and hoping it’s not just you daydreaming about it. It’s also about how strong love and hope are, and staying strong while facing difficulties/misfortune.

“love.”:

The song “love.” is about the human connection, emphasizing the individual desires that are wanted to be brought into relationships, friendship, community, etc.

But Daniel Kim’s definition of the song “love.” is about his band members, expressing the emotions that the whole band felt during times they spent together. But also memorializing the growth that each individual member went through, and how far they came in life.

“homesick”:

“homesick” is about the feeling of an unfamiliar place and wanting to be at home due to the familiar comfort.

“dried flower”:

The song “dried flower” is about the person you used to love that doesn’t hold a special place or meaning to you anymore, and how you don’t want to get back with them because it won’t be the same.

“sunburn”:

“sunburn” is about dealing with “pain” (struggles), no matter if you try to get “rid” of them the pain won’t go away, and trying to seek freedom from it.

“nouvelle vague”:

“nouvelle vague” talks about the struggle of growth, and wanting to stay/memorize the past instead of moving forward in life. This is due to the desire of not wanting to move forward in life is because of unfamiliarities or just fearing you’ll lose yourself as you go further.

“so real”:

“so real” is about emotional imprisonment and deep isolation, while yearning for freedom, understandment, and connections. Also, having to know the challenges that will be faced in achieving those goals. 

Instrumentals:

“pink horizon”

“akira”

Tech/Games

‘Marvel Rivals’ review

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By: Munira Ahmadad

‘Marvel Rivals’ is a new multiplayer hero shooter by NetEase games. It was released on December 6th with 33 playable characters to start with (there have been 4 more added since). Outside of skins, the current roster consists of popular Marvel heroes and villains, designed after their comic looks. You play against other players in teams of 6 and each character fits into role categories that are based on what they’re meant to do. Some characters work well with others, and it’s encouraged for players to consider team-ups for more efficient matches. This also gives incentive for people to try out multiple heroes.

 When I first started to play the game, I didn’t expect to enjoy it a lot, but so far it’s been really fun, which is a pleasant surprise. Initially, I was leaning towards the option of skipping it since it’s a third-person shooter game, and I usually get tired of them quicker than other games. I ended up getting it just because it’s Marvel. The game uses well-known characters who are superhero icons like Captain America, Spider-Man, and Iron Man, and heroes that aren’t in the spotlight as much such as Psylocke, Squirrel Girl, and Jeff the Land Shark.

So far, I’ve only played in quick-play as Mantis, a strategist/support character, and I think the movement in the game is clean. The locations chosen for battle maps are cool. I’d give the combat a 6/10 for my own personal experience, but that’s likely to change since I’m still not familiar with the gameplay style and how to play optimally. I’m sure someone who actually knows what they’re doing would have a different opinion on it. Also, these types of games with objective-based game modes become repetitive for me. ‘Marvel Rivals’ is still in its early days, so I do have hope it develops well over time.

I give the character design a 10/10. I absolutely love the look of every hero, especially Scarlet Witch, Squirrel Girl, Mantis, Iron Fist, Rocket Raccoon, and Namor. I have no complaints about the designs and each character looks incredibly cool. The designs take from the comics rather than the animated shows or the films. Even with how faithful the designs are to the comics, they still have their own unique feel to them. Players who are fans of the MCU characters can purchase various characters’ movie equivalent designs as costumes.

Due to its similarities with ‘Overwatch’, a popular game, I’ve seen people online refer to ‘Marvel Rivals’ as a knock-off version of it, while others say it has potential to be a hero shooter that won’t decline the same way ‘Overwatch’ does over time.

Overall, I give the game a 8/10 for its initial release. I don’t have time to really play it a lot, and as it is right now, I don’t know if I’ll continue playing but the experience of playing as some of my favorite characters has always been something I really like.

‘Marvel Rivals’ is available on the PS and Xbox systems along with PC.

Travel/Food

Christmas cookies

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By: Sophie Elmstrom & Lily Sheldon

Photo by Jonathan Meyer on Pexels.com

The holidays have come to an end, but that doesn’t mean that all of the recipes that come with it do!

During the holiday season there are so many treats to make, with Christmas cookies being a staple recipe. There are so many different cookie recipes for the holiday season. We wanted to share a few of our favorite cookie recipes to make.

Sugar Cookies:

Sugar cookies are a classic, and are a very common cookie, not just made for Christmas, although once you add the red and green sprinkles it will add Christmas cheer! This is a very simple recipe, so it’s easy and quick to make. It’s sure to be a staple cookie to add to your holiday baking. These cookies have cream cheese in them, and that adds a richer flavor to them.

You can find the directions here: https://www.nourish-and-fete.com/sprinkle-sugar-cookies/

Hershey’s Peanut Butter Blossoms:

These cookies have a delicious peanut butter cookie base topped with a Hershey’s Kiss that is perfectly melted on top. These are a fan favorite, and they don’t take long to make either. With a simple list of ingredients, and a short baking time of 8-10 minutes, these cookies have the perfect texture with a slightly crispy outside and warm chewy inside, and the kiss on top adds the perfect flavor and richness to the cookie base.

Here is a simple recipe: https://www.hersheyland.com/recipes/peanut-butter-blossoms.html

Christmas Bark:

Christmas bark or “ Christmas crack” is a saltine layered base with chocolate and toffee pieces on top. This is a very versatile cookie, with the option to add any combination of chocolate and toppings to the saltine layer base. Here we have a version with milk chocolate and toffee pieces, which is our personal favorite combination. Other ideas you could make are white chocolate with peppermint, or milk/dark chocolate with various toppings such as M&M’s, pretzels, etc. This is a crunchy treat that is so delicious and a fun bake for the holidays!

Here is a recipe: https://therecipecritic.com/christmas-crack-recipe/

Sandwich Cookies:

These sandwich cookies are flaky and buttery, they crumble in your mouth. This recipe is very complicated and takes a while to make because you have to refrigerate the dough for the cookies before you roll them out and cut them. Even though these take time to make, they are so worth it and don’t have to be made in just the holiday season, you can make the frosting different colors for different events and enjoy them all year long! Make sure to bring these to a cookie competition, it will be a sure win for you.

Here is the recipe: https://inspiredbycharm.com/cream-wafer-tree-cookies/#Ingredients

Wreath Cookies:

The wreath cookies are an easy to make recipe without using an oven. All you have to do is melt marshmallows and combine them with rice crispy cereal, shape them into a wreath and add some green food coloring and you’re done! These cookies are very good and chewy and once you show them to people they will be begging for more. We’re sure you could make these into different shapes for different holidays and events.

Here is a simple recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10070/christmas-cornflake-wreath-cookies/