The Sisterhood of Traveling Cookies

My sister and I discussed baking cookies and what day would work for us to bake cookies together. The only day that would work for both of us was on a Friday. The Little One had dance practice so we would go over to her house after practice. We are never busy on Fridays. Usually we bum around and watch movies. The one Friday we put on the calendar to bake cookies... is the day when there is a dance to chaperon and a play to attend. Of course! Doesn't this always happen?
Sister had all the ingredients ready and out. Husband was prepared to take flight upon pre-heat of oven. The kids have disappeared. We were ready. It was 6:30.

No Bakes 

The Sister started off with making the No Bake cookies. It specifically said to drop the cookies QUICKLY. She was under some pressure. They turned out looking good and tasting yummy.



Sugar Cookies - not using cookie cutters. They had to be pushed down with a glass. Sister was pushing them down with the glass. At some point I put some in the oven and forgot to push the cookies down with the glass. They cooked like balls. Keep in mind we are battling with three kids and their drama of coming in the kitchen sometimes wanting to help or tattle on someone for whatever reason. Also, there is a dog involved with the chaos.

The kids did an awesome job frosting the cookies and a superb job making a mess with sprinkles and frosting. These grandparents best appreciate the love and sweat (literally sweat) put into these cookies.

Almond bark pretzels. It is 8:00. The most tedious holiday cookie out there. It feels like it is midnight. You know when you get giggly and laugh at everything but are probably borderline crazy? That how the Sister and I were at this point in the baking process. If her neighbors dropped into the house and saw us in the kitchen they might be inclined to institutionalized us or ask if we were sober (There was no alcohol in the making of the baking process.)

I do not think we talked in our 'normal' voice at all after 7:30.

It is around 9pm. We gave up on the pretzel cookies. The Sister started packaging the sticks in pretty wrapping and pipe cleaners. It is going to be the new big packaging trend. Pipe Cleaners.

Meanwhile, the last of the pretzels, we were glancing at on the stove. They were not hardening. Several times we touched the stove. Actually, It was probably eight times or more... one would tap it and then the other would tap. Is it hot?

In our defense the stove WAS off and it was not that warm. At this point we have lost track of t.i.m.e.

The kids have decided to play nice with each other as we are cleaning up a mess that seemed entirely too large for what our cookie outcome was.

Why do children always start a BRAND NEW game right before it is time to leave and seem to be playing so pleasantly with each other. That is a question for the philosophers of our time. Everything was cleaned up. I, of course, forgot the tins for the cookies.... but.. I think in the end, it all worked out.

If you were the DJ in our evening it would have started off with Christmas music, Linkin Park, They're Coming to Take me Away, Silent film music, and then ending with a chorus of Hallelujah. 

I am done baking cookies!

The No Bakes were the easiest

I might try my hand at them

at my home.

MIGHT.

Otherwise, this marks the end of cookie baking season for Captain Sera.

Fourth Batch

I decided to pre-make the batch for chocolate chip cookies. I did not have anymore salt. Who runs out of salt? It comes in a huge box. I really thought of leaving it out of the batch. I googled what salt does and I guess salt adds flavor to the batch. I had just enough left in my salt shaker to be able to add it to the batch. I have before added too much salt to sugar cookies and that did not seem to make it flavorful....
I was definitely getting burned out from baking cookies. I wish I could have a teaspoon of baking passion that chefs seem to have in abundance.

I left for work dreading the fact that I would have to go home and bake another set of cookies. Where did the Christmas spirit go? The spirit left and was replaced with a mom who needs to open up a bottle of wine.....

I blame it all on the fact that  I do not have state of art kitchen. This is exactly the reason why....

Look how festive these cookies are! The cookies turned out looking delicious.

BUT

I cannot take credit for baking these cookies.....

On the fourth day of baking cookies, Santa delivered me an amazing good looking elf...

My beau baked the entire batch of cookies. It was the best feeling to come home and not have to bake the cookies that night. I just ate them. I firmly believe now that this is how all holiday baking should be. The mother has someone else bake the cookies and when they are all finished (the cooking mess should be cleaned up along with freshly baked cookies finished) she can just sit down and eat them. Isn't this what our kids do? They are onto Something....

                                 

Thank you for baking the cookies

(Just to clarify, that is my beau.. my arms are not that hairy....)

Tomorrows post will detail

 traveling to my sister's house.

 We baked cookies there. 



Third Batch

I can hear the music playing while I am making the fudge. It's the classic 'dun dun dun' cliffhanger tune where you don't know what will happen until after the commercial break, possibly not until the next week the show airs, or after the holiday season - which brings me to a heated rant about television shows and their holiday breaks. *ahem* Greys Anatomy and Private Practice.. *ahem*... In another post, in another post.....

I added all of the ingredients. It was so simple to add everything together. How can a recipe supposedly easy turn out to be the most challenging experience I would deal with? Melting the chocolate and adding the milk - effortless!

So now that I have added everything together all I need to do is put it in the buttered pan and according to my mother, let it sit and harden.

I let it sit for an hour! I turned down the house heat. I put it in the fridge and finally cut through it. The top layer seems to be harden but underneath when you lift it with a fork the fudge clings to the fork. I suppose I could take it off the fork and form it like play dough. Did I not butter the pan enough?

Alas, you do not need to wait until next week, or after the holidays to find out the end results. I do not think the fudge was a success. I am going to keep it in the fridge overnight in hopes of salvaging some of the chocolate. Otherwise, I am going to be eating a lot of fudge for a while. Too bad my sob t.v. shows are not playing to compliment the fudge....

On the third day of a cookie disaster

Santa has left me high and dry.

Send the elf UPS express please.

 tomorrows menu is chocolate chip cookies...

Bring it on.





Second Batch

I was thinking that if I made the batter before the Little One's swim lessons and work then I would be one step ahead of the cooking game. I did not fit into the equation that a sinus infection would flare up, the Little One would be crabby, and it would be much later when we arrive home.

Did that derail me from cranking that oven on? Not one bit, fellow readers. Ignoring orders from my Beau to go to bed early. I popped an Advil and started rolling out balls for peanut butter blossoms and peanut butter cookies. 

Rolled and Prepped!

I remembered the eggs and all the other ingredients (See First Batch).

First step when making blossoms or anything requiring to unwrap a large amount of candy is to hire someone to unwrap each individual Hershey's kiss.

I ate some...

Second step is to get the lap top in the kitchen and turn on some CSI. It really helps the time go along. Note that the Christmas music has been turned off. Third step is to try and find ways to improve your baking experience. I rolled out each ball and put them on wax paper so they were prepped and ready for oven (see photo above). Overall, I shaved a good 5.5 minutes off of my time from last night. I am going to take some Sudafed and not forget to turn the oven off.

On the second day of

cookie making Santa

 still has not

delivered me an elf...

Blossoms!

Peanut Butter

I am caught up on CSI NY and Vegas

You see that one blossom that has a messed up Hershey? Spoiler Alert: It does not make the freezer bag. I ate it. 

Tomorrow night will be the dreaded

... fudge....

First Batch

Baking cookies. In our minds we pretend that putting the batter together and the entire baking process will be a filled night of happiness and joy. As if we were in our own Christmas movie special.

I am going to share my first cookie night of the holiday season of 2011.

I started the baking spirit after dinner, as my Little One quickly goes AWOL to watch a movie. I am one down and solo in the help department. There goes the family togetherness night. I kept moving along thinking positive. I started off with putting together oatmeal cookies. My wonderful mixer has the batter all finished. I have my wire racks out, the ove-heated, and the Christmas music is blaring. I put the first dozen in the oven. My sister calls me and we chatted on the phone about our days. I was looking at my batter and happened to glance at my recipe.

 I forgot the eggs.

Clear and loud it is heard, "OH SHIT! I FORGOT THE EGGS!" I am sure my sister had to pull the phone away from her ear, not to mention my Little One was in clear ear shot. I am wondering if I will get a call from the school tomorrow....

Who forgets the eggs in cookies???

a main ingredient....



I scrambled about what I should do to my sister who I was still on the phone with. We both had no idea what eggs actually do in the batter. What their job is. I am hoping that someone will read this story, google the answer and post it for me - because all the energy I have is quickly deflating.

I looked into the oven, the cookies were not forming. I made a quick decision to put the oven cookies back into the main batter. The main batter now had the proper amount of eggs. It all sounded like a grand idea in my head. The oatmeal cookies turned out well enough that the Little One tested the cookies and ate two of them. Accomplished.
So, what possessed me to put green and red M&Ms in the oatmeal batter? I wanted to see if it would work. I poured the entire bag in.. all in or nothing! Right? Delusion has set in.
The cookies were not working (of course..)! I told my Beau to call his mother and ask her what was wrong. Of course that would way too much work to physically talk on the phone and ask for help. It was not like I told him to ask for directions!
Instead he looks the recipe up on the Internet. (I wonder why I did not do that in the first place...?) I turned down the heat and they turned out okay.
I do have to say I burned the second to last batch of cookies because I forgot to put on the timer. The way I see it, if you do not burn some cookies or burn yourself, and  are sweating hot - are you really baking?
So, the first set of Christmas Cookies are finished. I wonder what the rest of the week will entail!

The burned batch...

 The batter, finally almost done.

I think I might have had a bit to many m&ms

The GRAND finale! End results: Plain Oatmeal over on far left,

burned cookies in the middle, 'good' cookies scattered...

Ready for freezing. Which one will you get?

Second Batch

 soon to come.....

 unless cookie

 nervous break down

 happens.

I need some elves.

Boys, Boys, Boys

I went through the online dating world (See Online Dating: Exposed). One of the guys who messaged me from the website had an opening line of how his parents named him after a blade of grass. I knew I was hooked forever.
We chatted online about simple things. Fresh Prince, doing the Carlton Dance, hobbies... safe topics. He really wanted to meet me, but I was scared and because I did not want to meet him, he stopped talking to me. I decided to pull up my bootstraps and put the brave sweater on. I could meet someone offline. Without drinking my liver to death.
My sister and I went to meet our favorite band and dance the night away, while also meeting someone from the online dating scene - offline. We did not work out. Great person, different types of people. I had a blast dancing and knew that I could finally do it. I could meet someone else now. I was on a roll. And I did it. I met another guy (alone ((without my sister)) at a coffee shop!), who was a very nice person, but not my type. Two boys under the belt. The grass guy had not messaged me back. I put up a new photo of myself, got a great feedback from other boys, but one message I was excited to see in my inbox. Grass Guy messaged me. I was ready to meet him. Pumped to add another guy under this now seemingly competition I was having with myself. I was late for our meeting, of course. I had just left from chaperoning a dance. I danced and was sweaty. Not my ideal way to walk into a date. I met him at the restaurant and I talked like someone was holding a gun to my head and would shoot it if I stopped talking. We talked for two hours in the parking lot after we left the restaurant. If you are wondering ladies, he did not give me a goodnight kiss. We met several times after that night and finally after he asked me several times to be his girlfriend, I said yes to him to be exclusively his. The journey we are on has been amazing, I am excited to see what the future hold for us both. I think that we compliment each other in many ways.... and I do enjoy dating someone who was named after a blade of grass.

.Timothy.

Knitting a scarf (and completing it)

On November 29th, 2011 I completed my first scarf. A friend who passed away showed me how to knit scarves. A year or so later another friend continued the knitting education. I started a white scarf that I dropped lines and added lines. It was a mess (see photo below) I never finished the scarf. I stopped knitting for a year and decided that this year I would pick up the project again. I had some brown yarn laying around and from what I remembered I slowly started making a scarf. The best part, it was all even! I finished the scarf, only one issue stood in my way, how do I get the scarf off the needle? I You Tubed the process but was still unsure of how to do it. One wrong move and BAM start the entire process over with. One day at my six year olds swim lessons I noticed a lady who was knitting. What luck! The next week she showed me how to drop stitches, add them, block, and how to take the yarn off and finish the scarf. I was so excited! I still am. I finally completed a scarf. I am still a basic knitter and only can knit scarves. Soon I hope to move onto knitting a hat! I hope to publish my knitting projects!

My poor attempt at knitting my VERY first scarf I never finished.