C is for Cookie

Today, Meg and I baked our very first batch of holiday cookies. This is one of the things that being a parent is all about . . . one of those fun activites that you look forward to from the time you find out you are expecting. It was quite an afternoon for us.

I should start by saying that I'm no baker. I've tried and tried to make GOOD roll-out cookies. I've failed. Usually, I just buy the bag-o-cookie mix at the store, mix it up, roll it out, and go. Those are at least fool-proof. I even go so far as to buy pre-made icing and ice the cookies that way. And Jim LOVES the white cookies with frosting . . . so I always feel like a REAL failure when we go to visit his family and they have the cookies he loves. Why can't I make those for him at home??

So this year -- when my "Cooking Light" arrived filled with an entire section on how to bake cookies the RIGHT way -- I thought I'd give it one more try. Read each step slowly and repeatedly, until I was ready to go. I made the dough yesterday -- carefully measuring in all the many steps it took -- and today we were ready to go. I got out our stuff, pulled up a chair for Meg, and off we went.

Meg was a fantastic helper, from the start. She dug right in and cut her very own cookies, which amazed me. I only showed her once, and off she went. Of course, I helped a little :)

We carefully baked them for the precise amount of time recommended, promptly pulled them from the oven, and allowed them to cool completely before icing. (Actually, by the time we got to the icing part, Meg had lost interest a little . . . so I iced them myself.)

The result: not too shabby, I must admit. The dough made some tastey cookies, and the sweetness of the yummy icing covers up any flaws that there may be. I do have some changes I'll make the next time I make them . . . which I think will be soon. I am making a real effort to get a hold on this baking thing now so that I can do this with Meg every year. It was such a fun afternoon -- Meg and I both had a blast. No more buy-n-bake for us . . . we're making cookies from scratch!