Monday is baking day.

Or at least it was this week. To be comfy is a must when baking:) The lovely slippers I got for Christmas from my bro. And, well, if the only apron you own is a Christmas apron, then it's just Christmas all year round... I do have a lovely green apron with pink cupcakes and red cherries on the way from my mom, a belated Christmas present. Can't wait for that:)


S0 I have this fabulous cookbook, full of nothing but COOKIES! It was given to me many years ago as a gift and I do really love it but I'm kind of in that rut (where I only make 1 or 2 recipes out of it), so I decided to shake things up a bit:) I'm starting at the beginning and my goal is to make every one of the cookie recipes at least once. That's my goal. Ok, so I didn't set a time frame for this so it may take years. Literally.:) But I'm keeping track of each recipe that I make and jotting down notes as I go. So here's recipe #1 that I tried for the first time: Oatmeal_Crispies Yummy! Ok so I'm the kind of baker who tweaks things to suit my mood at the time:) The recipe asked for shortening, I used butter. I don't know why but I just like to use butter better than shortening. I'm weird. I know. Shortening tastes good in cookies too, but I just imagine all of that FAT sticking to my gut. Ok. So butter's certainly not any better. Oh well, like I said I'm weird. Well all that to say. Um, I think shortening would have worked better:) The cookies taste wonderful (oh btw, I also added 1/4 tsp more cinnamon than it asked for cause I like cinnamony cookies:)), but they really ran while baking therefore causing some square cookies because they ran into each other. I'll be trying shortening next time. Really. I bought some when I went grocery shopping today:)


The second recipe is: Cranberry_Chip_Cookies. Oh my. These are good! These I like, but since the cookies I bake are mostly for James' lunches during the week (I try not too eat them, you know, they stick to the hips, ahem, right, wish I could say I DON'T eat any...) and his opinion is very highly considered when it comes to making these again... They're just not his favorite he says. Well, ok, they were fun this time:) Oh, and these asked for both butter and shortening and since the above cookies ran so much I did use the shortening that it asked for and they turned out better:) But, I did reduce the heat in my oven after the first batch came out REALLY dark, not burned, but darker than what I like.
So after all the cookie making, I turned to my Martha_Stewart_Baking_Handbook which I got as a Christmas present from my mom 2 years ago. My goal for that book is the same as the cookie book (and has been for the last 2 years!), so this is why I say this may take me years to get through, it already has:) So yes, I'm on recipe #5 or so for this book, sigh... Anywho, I made the buttermilk biscuits from that yet to go with supper. Those were yummy too!

Oh so much baking in one day, it was a good day:) Oh, and I had JUST enough flour in the house to make all this. Whew! Next time I'll make sure I'm better prepared:) Stocked up on that flour at the grocery store today! So sometime in a few more weeks, once all these yummy cookies are gobbled up, I will be making some more. Fun:)