Cookies

I think today I will be thankful for cookies.  Not the ones you can buy in a package in the store.  While there are some good ones out there, those are just mass produced morsels.  I'm talking about labor-of-love, hand made bites of yumminess.

Of course, sometimes they aren't all that great.  Maybe it was the recipe.  Maybe it was the quality of ingredients.  Or the oven temperature was off (or you turned the oven off and wondered why things weren't cooking....).  Or you forgot half the flour.  Or the leavening.  Or you had to make some changes due to what you had on hand.  (Yes, I've had all those crop up at one point in time or another...)

Anyhow, today is my birthday.  And while there were some good things about today, I think I'm most thankful for the time I spent with Boo baking cookies.  We made two different kinds today.  (Actually, I made the first batch while he was supposedly napping, he helped with the second.)  The first batch I made were cranberry pumpkin ones that turned out very cake-like and very delicious.  (As soon as I write this I'm making another cup of tea and enjoying a few cookies...)  The second batch didn't turn out all that great.

Earlier in the week Boo asked if we were going to make cookies.  Of course I said sure!  I was figuring we'd make sugar cookies of some kind so he could do the sprinkles (which is his favorite part of cookie making).  But, this morning he asked to make chocolate cookies.  Oh, darn, twist my arm.  Unfortunately, the recipe for crinkles that I love requires you to refrigerate the dough for an hour or more to make it manageable.  We just didn't have that kind of time or attention span.  So, I tried a different one.  One that I thought should have worked, since it was in the Betty Crocker cookbook after all.  You know, the red notebook one?  The one with all the basic staples in it?  Yeah, well, this one didn't work out so well.  I'm not sure if it was me or the recipe.  Boo had a lot of fun helping me measure the flour and the sugar and loved that I let him lick the spoon I used with the melted chocolate.  (They definitely could have used more than 2 oz of chocolate, maybe double, but I'm a chocoholic....).  The biggest challenge was to keep him from licking the various measuring cups and then putting them back in said flour or sugar.... yeah.  Oh well.  Everything was going into the oven to cook...  The first dozen spread out way, way, way more than I expected and weren't done and then were suddenly burnt.  So, I added another half cup of flour and a touch more baking soda to the remaining batter and the rest didn't spread so much, were more cake like and cooked without burning.  They just aren't the stellar chocolate cookies I was in the mood for.

Oh well.  I really can't complain.  The time spent with Boo more than makes up for adequate at best cookies.  So, I guess I'm not really thankful for the cookies themselves, but for the time it takes to make cookies (or other things) from scratch and the time that is spent with loved ones in the process.

So, on that note, I'll wrap this up.  I wish I had a picture of the cookies to put at the top, but I haven't taken one and I'm just too lazy to get up and do that, come back, download it, upload it and post.  So, you'll just have to use your imagination.

Peace to all and may you have some quality (cookie) time with loved ones.