Another Monday Adventure!

Cookies! I spent yesterday cleaning and baking and wishing I was knitting. It's a very secret family recipe, handed down from generations. Okay, it's in a very old Pillsbury cookbook that my dad has had for as long as I can remember. It's probably out of print. Dad and I make these every year, without fail. This is the first time I have made them by myself, though. Not that it is a particularly difficult or complicated recipe, but I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Just like Dad's! He's given them away as Christmas gifts before, and everyone has always asked for more. Now I know why. I made about five dozen cookies and brought them in for the cast and crew this afternoon. I'm not sure the cast actually got any, as when I checked them after about an hour, the crew had demolished them and there were only about ten left. Luckily for me, while I enjoy baking them and occasionally nibbling on the dough, I don't really like the cookies themselves, so I don't have to worry about overindulging on these guys.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to make these cookies in real life and not get flour all over creation and back. I don't care what they show you on those cooking shows. Flour for the dough, flour for the rolling board, flour for the rolling pin, flour for the cookie cutters, and then, once you're done with the flour, powdered sugar for the icing! It gets ALL over the place. And, of course, the vaccuum cleaner dies as I'm trying to get the stuff up off the carpet. Completely and totally dead. Grr...granted, it was a very cheap vaccuum, and you get what you pay for, but really, just what I need to do right now, spend more money! But, I can't leave flour and sugar in the carpet, that's just gross. So I run to Target while the dough is chilling and get a new vaccuum (a better one). (Ironically, in what appears to be a dramatic expression of sympathy, Chrissy's vaccuum also died yesterday and she had to get a new one as well. We did not get the same kind for replacements, though, that would just be weird!) Get home, go to roll out the dough, and realize I don't have a rolling pin. It's just not one of those things that I thought I really needed at the time I was stocking my kitchen, I guess. Go back to Target. They are completely sold out of rolling pins. Go to Vons. Same story. Finally I cringe, screw up my courage, and go to Wal-Mart (I really don't like our Wal-Mart). They have two pins left. Sigh. I didn't get to actually start baking the cookies until about 10:00p. I baked them all last night and iced about half of them before conceding defeat, and iced the rest this morning before the show. Now I have to finish cleaning the kitchen counters, do yet another load of dishes, wrap presents, knit Mom's slippers, and felt all three pairs. In between the five shows we're doing between now and Thursday! Oy!