Cookies!

Every year someone I know has kids who sell those frozen cookies to raise money and because I’m a sucker I always end up buying some.  I’ve begun to learn that those cookies are very dangerous.  The problem is that I LOVE cookie dough.  These frozen cookies come in perfect bite size pieces that are so easy to just eat without cooking.  In the beginning I start out baking a couple every now and then but eventually I always get back to eating a couple now and then…and let me tell you, that’s not the best for my appearance!  Well, my very favorite cookie dough is sugar cookie dough.  I actually think that’s my favorite food!  I’m not sure that cookie dough counts as a food but it should.  Every year around Christmas I always bake a ginormous load of cookies and send them to family and friends.  Unfortunately they haven’t seemed to make it to their destination in one piece.  Typically these family and friends get a box of pretty crumbs.  This Christmas season was crazy and I just didn’t have the time I usually do (although to be honest I never seem to have time for this!) plus I didn’t really want to pay a ridiculous amount of money to just send crumbs.  I did manage to fit in some baking with my mother-in-law though which was a lot of fun.  Mr. C and his brother (also Mr.C which is way too confusing) also helped out, mostly being the go-phers which we loved!   Oh, they also taste tested our wonderful baked items.  Since I had witnesses, I had to cut down on my sugar dough consumption this year which was both good and bad.

My grandma was quite the baker and apparently I take after her.  I’m one of those people that tends to have recipes where you “add a little of this, throw in a little of that”, etc.  I do a little less of this when baking though since flour can’t just be thrown in willy nilly.  I can’t believe I just used that phrase.  I’m not deleting though because that would mean I’d have to think of a replacement.  Anyhow, baking rocks and it’s really not  Christmas without it  Sometimes I don’t even know who I’m baking for but I do it anyhow.  It’s really not hard to find volunteers to eat the stuff.

I do tend to go a little crazy when baking.  Last year I bought this huge bowl to accommodate the huge batches I mix up.  I figure if I’m doing it, why not go all out?  I ended up making 4 batches of sugar cookies this year which seemed small (I always have at least 7 usually) but OH MY GOSH, that’s a lot to bake and decorate in one day.   Usually I bake ahead, freeze, and then decorate them all in one day right before I’m ready to send out.  That way is a little less overwhelming!  After baking all day we weren’t exactly in a decorating mood.  Towards the end we just slapped some frosting on.  Mr. C decorated every single cookie blue at a certain point.  In case you’re wondering why they were blue – well that’s the color that was in front of him at the time. 

In the end we got all of the cookies decorated and had a wonderful selection of wonderful treats for the Centner Christmas we hosted before leaving for NE.

After having fun baking in AZ with my other family, I also got to have fun baking (well, mostly decorating) in NE with my super fun nieces, my mom, and Mr. C.  My mom baked the gingerbread cookies and my nieces did most of the decorating.  This was quite effective because it caused me to avoid eating the cookies they did, at least the youngest one.   At one point I saw her drop sprinkles on the ground and then proceed to pick them up (with some dirt I presume since the floor wasn’t exactly the cleanest) and sprinkle them on the freshly frosted (and very sticky) cookie.  I do have to admit that my mom and I didn’t share this info with Mr. C as early as we should have.  He’s doing fine though.  Well….he does have a cold but I’m sure that’s totally unrelated!