Cookies

Well the cookie making extravaganza weekend was indeed canceled.  My windshield wiper mechanism is in the backseat of my car as we speak (?! speak, type?!- hmmm) Luckily, our friend Chris is always up to a car mechanical challenge and 'fixed' it for me!  Savings of like $150 probably - right before Christmas - Thank you Chris!!

That didn't stop me from making cookies though - I had three kinds of dough already made and after a little arm-twisting (and maybe even some tears - lol) Eric did cave in to helping me - and I think in the end he might have even had some fun!  We made peanut butter blossoms, ginger molasses, and Great Gramma O's cut-out cookies...

By the time we got to the cut out cookie I think he was getting into the spirit.... (or maybe it was the other spirits he was getting into...I dunno!)

But he seemed to have some fun and even a sense of humor.  He made the Christmas Liberty Bell.

lol!  Luckily we were invited to dinner at two good friends houses on Saturday and Sunday - so I got to bring a plate of cookies to share (instead of me eating all of them!)  Unfortunately I didn't get to see BK again before Christmas, and I still have to frost all the cut out cookies (yeah, that's not gonna happen).  But I did get some more Christmas crafting done (I really can't wait to show you all I have been making!) and some house cleaning and laundry to get all ready for our trip home this week!  Only two more days!  Yippeee!

Cookies ... Cancelled?!?

Alas, the cookie baking extravaganza weekend maybe cancelled, and not on account of anything fun - like snow!  (unfortunately - b/c I would choose snow over the 33 degree rain with 20mph winds we ARE having ANY day..)

Instead, it may be cancelled b/c in my anal retentive ways this morning, I couldn't STAND to have a leaf going - back, and forth, back, and forth, back, and forth, across my windshield.  So I rolled my window down, gave my wiper a quick snap - and well, broke it.  (I know...my brute strength is amazing right?!?)

Well - its gonna be rainy and dark (bad combination for me driving to begin with) but add REALLY cold, alone on the interstate, and no windshield wipers - and well, it just becomes a bad idea.  So short of getting home and Eric saying 'Oh!  This is why!", and clicking it back together (which won't happen b/c our mntc guy at work couldn't do that!) then I won't be on my way to Chapin for any of this...

and these...

or donning our cookie making war paint...

 or spending the weekend with my BFF

Ahhh Man!!  Why do I have to be so anal and ruin all my own fun?!?  :(

(there will still be cookies though - but making them in my small kitchen by myself - boo!)

Some Apple Baking

If you read my real life blog (not crafting) or actually know me (which I think both of you do - ha!) then you know last weekend was our (first!) anniversary and Eric took me up to the NC mountains for the weekend. We did alot of apple picking (and got a little carried away).


Evidence of that - I bought the hard core apple peeler, slicer, corer (awesome!) Looking at our bushels of apples I knew I wasn't going to peel them all by hand! When we got home, I just had to try it out and before I knew it I had a PILE of apples - all peeled, cored and sliced in pretty ringlets. Oh what to do!


So I made my mom's (famously amazing...LOVE!) apple pie. And that didn't use them all up - so I made some smaller apple crisps too (gluten free for my celiac friend) and had an oven full of apples.


Good thing I had some help with all this...


Riiiight... the bad news. There isn't even a DENT - you can't tell AT ALL that I used any apples. There will be canning in my future. Any good recipe ideas?!?

Flops...

Well in other crafting (not exactly)- maybe homemaking news... I tried to bake some cookies this weekend. I have been reading Smitten Kitchen and she must have read my mind b/c her latest posting when I looked was Snickerdoodle cookies (which I had been dreaming of) - and they looked just perfect. Crusty edges with ooey-gooey middles - just sorta underbaked - perfect!!
See- check out her cookies - YUM!!


Now, I just happened to have bought some cream of tartar too - (which I had never had before and always noticed you needed for snickerdoodle cookies). So... I decided to try it.
These are my cookies...



Not soo good looking...not soo ooey, gooey. Actually - they were tasteless and not ooey or gooey at all. I am generally a pretty good baker, I pride myself on that. And I was REALLY looking forward to these, so I was pretty upset. I tried to save them with more flour (when they were flat), more sugar and cinnamon (when they were tasteless) and more butter when they were taller but more tasteless (from the flour)...all to no avail.
I am gonna blame the weather (really humid rainy) and the fact that I realized AFTER the fact that I had light butter instead of regular butter (silly rabbit, cookies are SUPPOSED to be bad for you!) I plan to try this recipe again (and I still have to bake some GOOD cookies this week b/c there is still one 18 yr old little brother away at his first year of college who needs a care package, specifically a care package with ooey, gooey - yummy cookies. so this big sister HAS to succeed!)

That said, all I was left with from this round of baking was a mess of not yummy cookies (which are being eaten by co-workers as we speak) and just a mess in general...


I did make better things this weekend...I'll show you later!