C is for Cookies

And for Christmas.  And Courtney.  And cupcake.  And crazynutsopants.  But this blog entry is about cookies.  Lots and lots of cookies.

Baking cookies is my favorite part of Christmas, so I make my mother wait until I get home to make them.  This is mostly because she would rather I make them anyways because then I do all the hard work and she gets to eat them.  Hey, it works for me.

This year I invited Becky and Colleen over, and they unsuspectingly agreed because they didn't realize that I would put them to work, like little worker elves.  Speaking of elves, I haven't watched Elf yet.  I'd better get on that seeing as Christmas is in thirty-two minutes.  But I did provide them with pink wine, so they can't complain too much.

I put them to work with the sugar cookies, which I cut out.  The wonky ones are mine, naturally.

Look at those little elves.  They're so presh that I couldn't help but take pictures.

Becky did most of the work, but Colleen provided most of the humor, so I guess it evened out. 

They both requested that I not take their picture, but I ignore requests the majority of the time, and I knew if I pointed the camera they would smile.  It's a Pavlov's dog thing.

Here are our decorations.  Anything seem a little off to you?

*Sings* One of these things is not like the otherrr...

Paprika cookies.  They're all the rage.

No, in actuality, I just grabbed everything around the decorations, and I thought the paprika was red sprinkles.  It wasn't.  It was paprika.

But when Becky suggested we make an "everything" cookies, I demanded that we include paprika.  It was with the decorations.  It is included in everything.  But Becky was super excited to put some on.

Hello, snowman.  You have paprika on you.  Nobody is going to eat you now because that would be gross.  Did you know that paprika is a snowman cookie survival technique?  It is.  In fact, this cookie is now in a baggie in my purse because I didn't want anything to happen to it.

I do things like that a lot.

Becks and Colleen were really proud of this candy cane, and I don't have any pictures of the finished cookies, so this is the best representation of the greater collective I have.

We had a little baby problem with some of the cookies, though...

They were flat.

So, so flat.

I used the regular Tollhouse cookie recipe for these and they came out so strangely.  I mean, they taste delicious.  But I've make these cookies ten million times and I don't know why they did this.  I blame the oven.  My mom blames me.  But she's wrong because I KNOW I MADE THESE CORRECTLY!

Whatever.  More for me, man.

On the other hand, I know exactly why these ones were flat.  I added a cup too few of flour on the first go 'round.  I realize that this doesn't help my previous argument that I did not mess up the chocolate chip cookies, but I DEFINITELY didn't.  So I added extra flour to half of the dough and then all was right again.

These suckers were my favorite growing up... peanut butter kiss cookies.  If I eat too many I get a tummy ache now, but I generally just power through it.  I'm tough like that.

These are my grandpa's (Wolfgang Amadeus, and yes, that's really his name.  My great-grandpa was a composer.  I win the cool grandpa game) favorite, and they are lemon cookies with frosting and a cherry on top.  My mom made them.  The recipe never makes enough.  It's a problem.

Chocolate cookies.  Delicious.  I baked these, and they look and taste wonderful.  And yes, my mother made the dough, but that's besides the point.  I can make cookies without messing them up.  That's the point.

IT'S LIKE A MOUNTAINOUS REGION OF COOKIES!  Like the Rockies.  Or the Appalachian Mountains.  But Hansel and Gretel version.

My first leading role was playing Gretel in the third grade.  My tights itched and I was afraid everyone would look up my dress during the sleeping scene.  One time the kid who played my father got sick and I had to improv to save the day.  I didn't wear my glasses for the show and I probably almost fell off the stage.  I was so cool.

Stop looking at me like that.

Meringue cookies with chocolate chips.  I made these right before mass tonight, and they expanded SO MUCH in the oven.  Which is why they are humongous.  But I love them because you can eat a million without feeling full.  Or sick.  Because it's meringue! 

C is also for cheesecake, so I made a chocolate swirl one for dessert tonight.  It was reeeally good.  Also, I didn't make the cheesecake because it began with C; I just made it because I wanted to.  That first sentence was misleading.  I apologize.

C is also for chocolate, PS.

C is for chili.  I made it for dinner.  It was sitting on the counter when I was taking pictures of my cookies, so I took a picture.

C is for cat.  This is my cat.  His name is Lucky.  I plan on dressing him up like Christmas tomorrow.  He may hate me.  But then I will feed him and he will love me again.  I love my cat too much.  I accept that.

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Now it's time to go to bed and wait for Santa to come....

...so MERRY CHRISTMAS from me and my fam.

(We're in height order.  Not planned)

We're such a mess.

Love and Christmas carols (another C),
Courtney