For years, when both of us worked in academic settings, we used to go home and visit our families over Christmas. It was a lot of fun, and there are a lot of things to miss about it. Since my sister in WV is neither a cook nor a baker, we always would make sure that we had plenty of Christmas cookies baked, so that we could have some at home ourselves, but also take several large boxes worth with us to share. We would make hundreds of cookies of various kinds, and usually by about the second day we were home, everything was gone! 😃
Even though I continued to work in academia for a while, The Tim got laid off from his job and started working retail. Which meant that there were no more trips home at Christmastime, because working on both Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas meant it wasn't worth it to make the trip for what would basically be part of Christmas Day.
Needless to say, it also meant that we didn't do nearly as much baking. With just the two of us, we didn't need several different kinds of cookies, and since our schedules were not the same, we had little time to work on them together, which for us, was part of the fun.
Anyway, this year I have been watching several Vlogmas episodes of some of my fave knitting podcasts. And more then one of the people in the vlogs have been making cut out sugar cookies and then decorating them. For whatever reason, this year I decided that I would love some cut out sugar cookies to decorate. But there were two things to consider: 1) The Tim, who is much better at that kind of thing than I am, is not overly interested in that type of cookie, and 2) most recipes seem to make several dozen.
The other day, I decided to Google "small batch sugar cookies" and lo and behold, I found a recipe for only one dozen cookies! This particular recipe allowed for you to mix the ingredients, give them a short visit to the freezer, and then cut them out and bake them all that same day. I followed the reeipe, but put the dough in the fridge overnight because I know that's how a lot of recipes for larger batches work, and also, I wasn't planning on baking them until the next day.
So last Thursday, after finishing some cleaning projects, I dug out a few small cookie cutters from our collection and gave it a try. I had a good time rolling out the dough and cutting out the shapes, and in a case of truth in advertising, I did get one dozen cookies out of the recipe! (One fell apart when I took them off the cookie tray, so I ate that one in the interest of quality control.)
Then once they were cooled, I made the icing, adding in a bit of cream cheese because regular sugar icing doesn't really thrill me. I had so much fun, icing and decorating the little shapes!
The results:
I decided that this is a case of my adult self baking the cookies, and my 4-year-old self decorating them. Because really, this is what I ended up with, in spite of actually trying to get them to look nicer. 😂
In any case, I love them, and based on the one that I tried before any decorating took place, they are pretty tasty too! So now I have my cut out Christmas sugar cookies, and in an amount that is reasonable for us.
The Tim thinks they are hilarious (he's probably just jealous), and we decided that we could always just tell people that I baked them, and let the cats decorate them, LOL! But then I pointed out that I don't think that would be a good idea, because frankly, they would probably do a better job ...
Also, as we all know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I wanted cut out and decorated sugar cookies, and now I have them. What's not to enjoy??
*****
This weekend was the finale of cleaning the house for us. I finished with the actual cleaning last week, but The Tim did the vacuuming and cleaned the kitchen (two things he claims he does better - fine with me!), and the house is now set. Other than that, we had no specific plans, but I did make some other treats, finished a book, and picked up the stitches for the final sleeve of my cardigan, so it was a busy time around here. The Tim said he finished all of his gift wrapping, so he got some things done as well besides cleaning.
The cats rested. Because, well, they are cats!
I'm gonna work on the wrapping I have today, and have a couple of other small things to do - a quick trip to the market and to CVS, but otherwise all of the major stuff is done. We're about as ready as we can be!
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