Dessertmania!!!

Oh the Holidays... my favorite time of the year. Realistically speaking, anything before Christmas means very little to me. I didn't grow up celebrating Halloween and Thanksgiving is an American holiday which means nothing to me. I do love Christmas, though. I am such a sap for a Christmas tree and lights. The food, the presents (shopping, giving, and receiving!), the music, the atmosphere: I love it all!
Regardless of meaning we have adopted TG as a way for the family to get together and be fat. Don't ever expect to have anything traditional at my house but turkey. There is no stuffing, no cranberry sauce, no yams, and no pumpkin pie. That isn't to say we don't make a ton of delicious stuff. My mom makes turkey and her delicious Salsa de Champignon (mushroom gravy), oven potatoes, apple pie (both hers and my grandma's neither of which is anything like what you know apple pie to be), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and pure amarillo (which is mashed sweet potatoes, I think). There's always a bunch more.
As the non-sides I'm making deviled eggs and my mom will make paté. I'm also in charge of the main dessert. Oh yes, let the fun begin.
I love, love, love, love to bake. And I'm damn good at it. :P Every year I bake a bunch of stuff and give them as presents to family and friends. I try to make something new every year which means I bake A LOT. I've gotta make sure everything is good before I give it out so I test out a lot of stuff.
Last weekend I made Fudgy Fantasy Bars. Four delicious chocolaty layers: Doughy chocolate cookie with nuts and coconut, chocolate ganache, moussey chocolate cream cheese, and more chocolate ganache. Freaking heavenly. That's a contender for TG dessert. I'm also considering chocolate cake layered with chocolate ganache topped with chocolate whipped cream. Or pie... chocolate pie... French Silk pie... ... ...
Oh sorry! I got lost in my delicious thoughts. Moving on!
This weekend I'm going to be trying out a couple of others: Peppermint/mint brownies, blondies with chocolate chips, and I'm not sure what else. I have a lot of recipes to look through.
For holiday gifts I'm going to venturing out into the cupcake world. I've already decided I will master the Peanut Butter Surprise cupcakes for sure. I'm going to be trying my luck with caramel frosting and REAL DEAL dulce de leche (brought to you from Argentina, with love). To avoid getting fat I'll be recruiting taste testers (i.e. family, friends, and coworkers).
In case you didn't pick up on it I have a sweet spot for chocolate. If it gets to be too much I'll be looking into some fruity desserts but I don't foresee that happening. I would love to find a good recipe for some strawberry filling, though. The jelly kind not the creamy kind.
I will report my findings next week. I think I ought to put together a cookbook already. I'm always printing recipes and throwing them all in a shelf. They are all crumpled up and stained with food. Julia, the organizer. HA.
*note to self: Step it up at the gym or you'll regret it later.