16 December, 2006

In which I consider the relative joys of Festivus...

Yes, there are times I can see the beauty in the simple aluminum pole and non-rituals of Festivus. This afternoon? Oh, that might be such a time...

On the plus side of Christmas preparations, there are many things. First, I found a rocking Christmas music internet radio station with a true mix of tunes, all of which I've enjoyed so far. Check out Superjukebox. Only the occasional plea for funds, and I like 'em so much I may just make a donation!

We were able to pass on some Christmas love by giving Lily's old toddler bed to a new toddler through Freecycle this afternoon. So her lovely Pottery Barn-looking pine bed will help another New Big Girl sleep well...that's cool.

I had a great time with Lily this afternoon, mixing up a great big batch of sugar cookie dough. Tasty stuff. That's more Christmas love, as we are making the cookies for single airmen who are here in the dorms (barracks) far away from family at the holidays.

On the minus side, oh, let's see - ahhh, yes. The fact that I somehow FORGOT about the BAKING POWDER for the entire batch of dough, and didn't realize this until we had rolled and chilled all of it, and were cutting the first batch of cookies to bake.

Yes, that was a minus. It was even an opportunity for me to use colorful language. LOTS of colorful language. I'll need more flour AND more butter before I redo these the right way, because I am just about out of both. Sigh...

So, on to a plus. We do have two dozen chocolate chip cookies done (these were the slice and bake jobs but the kids added their special sprinkles touch to each one). Made those already while the "sugar cookie" dough was chilling.

Furthermore, I have made great flourless peanut butter cookies before, and they're dead easy to do. Even had organic PB around so they wouldn't taste totally of sugar. They took no time at all to make up, and David rolled each one in sugar for sparkly good looks.

Oh, wait, a minus! The cookie baking is supposed to be nut-free to avoid allergy issues in any recipients. However, we decided that might just be a plus, because it means 2 dozen cookies are going to be eaten right here at home...

And a final plus - the test batch of "sugar cookies" that I went ahead with tasted just like boring but good pie crust. So I have taken some of the batch and I'm baking a crust right now. We'll have an apple tart from it, at least.

No, wait, another final plus - because I'm a DOOFUS, the house will smell of baking cookies for two days instead of one. I love Christmas, you guys!

Signing off for a coffee and one of the non-givable peanut butter cookies now..

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems like they ought to be able to accept well-labeled peanut butter cookies. It's a shame for the guys who might actually *like* those cookies. Oh well, more for you!

Have fun with the rest of your baking.

Susie H said...

I agree - I think someone was a bit overzealous, and probably people with nut allergies can't enlist anyway (can you imagine making the mess hall nut-free, etc.?). But all the more for us :)

Lynn said...

How nice of you to make cookies for those guys that are in the barracks w/o family! And how nice that you were able to use that sugar cookie dough after all! Make sure you let us know how the tart turned out.

And LOVE cutable cookie dough!