I Could Just Say That I Let The Cats Do It ...

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!

Three Happy Things

I don't know about you, but I need to talk about some happy things, because in the past couple of days, things have been kind of awful on a personal and a work level.  So happy things it is.

As I mentioned previously, my colleague Jennifer is leaving and today is her last day.  We usually exchange small gifts at Christmas (because she enjoys Christmastime too), and today this was on my desk:

On the inside, a mini-skein of Fibre Company Amble, and a ceramic leaf button!  She said that she thought that would be plenty for a heel or cuff of a sock, which is true, but I might also incorporate it into something else, and who knows, maybe something else that could also sport the button - they look so nice together!

Also, I meant to share this the other day, but today is a good day to share it instead as it turns out.  I found this image and made it my background on my work computer:

Because I love Rudolph, and he makes me happy when I see him.

We got a notice this morning from The Bigger Big Boss, saying that we only have to work until noon tomorrow - YAY!!!  If they aren't giving us raises, it's the least they can do.  And that means I get to start my holiday vacation that much earlier, and if you don't think I'm happy about that, you really haven't been paying attention ... 😊

I hope your day will have at least one happy thing in it, because we all deserve each little bit of happy that we can find.

P.S. Several of you asked for the link to the cookie recipe that The Tim used and I talked about the other day.  He sent me the link, so here you go.  I hope if you make them, you enjoy them as much as we are enjoying ours (and I also hope that recipe is not behind a paywall - apologies if that is the case.)

Well ... Some Of Us Got Things Done!

Hello - I have to tell you that for a change, I am in a relatively good mood on this Monday.  It is the week leading up to Christmas Day, and we had a good and productive weekend.  And then when I got to work today, the woman who is the early morning security guard was telling me that her daughter was finally improving.  The daughter had surgery about a month ago - the kind that shrinks the stomach, you know something with "gastro" in it - because she was horribly overweight.  And she was not recovering well at all.  But apparently over the weekend, things started to look up, and she was improved every single day.  That made me so happy, because though I don't know the daughter, our security guard is such a great lady, and I had been feeling so bad on her behalf, because they were trying everything.  Good news like that is especially welcome on a Monday, right??

As I said, we had a good weekend, combining getting some things accomplished and then also just relaxing.  We finished all of our decorating, I finished all of the pre-Christmas Day cleaning, and some more baking was done.  The Tim made some pizzelles, and also some *incredible* cookies that were new to both of us.  I forget where he got the recipe, and the exact name, but they are chocolate chunks, cherries, and ginger and OMG are they amazing!  So rich, one is plenty (and that's saying a lot from me!).  

Of course, all of these activities required snoopervision from Hamlet and from the Koodle, so they took twice as long to accomplish.  Pip however, was apparently feeling quite taxed, and was unable to assist us because he was taking some much-needed rest.

You'll be relieved to hear that he is fine, and was also quite comfortable with this setup.

This week will be a sad one at work for me.  Our archivist's last day of work here is on Wednesday.  She is the one person in my dept that is bearable, and who knits as well.  She got a new job which will begin in January.  Which is great for her, because our terrible boss treats her only slightly better than he treats me.  So our dept of four people will now be only two, as the other person left in mid-November.  And even worse, the one person besides me who is left is the person who is the absolute worst.  Plus, she is the terrible boss' favorite in the world, and the two of them together is just more than anyone should have to bear.  Fortunately, she took this week as vacation, and since I'm taking next week off, I won't have to deal with her until January.  I'm not looking forward to it at all, but at least she isn't around right now.  I'll miss Jennifer, but she found a really wonderful sounding job that will even pay her considerably more, so I do hope for her that it works out.

That's all for the moment.  I hope your week goes well, and that if you are also counting down to Christmas Day, that it is enjoyable for you.

Cookies!

This past Sunday I was in the mood to bake, so I decided to get a start on some Christmas cookies.  And then I decided to try a new-to-me recipe because they sounded both uncomplicated to make and yummy.  I tried this reeipe.

It was in fact pretty straightforward, and other than the fact that you let the dough sit in the refrigerator for at least one hour, it didn't take much time until they were all baked.

But, of course, the actual dough and cookies that I made were not as attractive as the recipe photo.

I mean, the dough looked greener than I expected:

And  made the dough balls smaller than recommended, because I really think the recipe wants you to make cookies the size of a small platter!

Once you get them on the sheet, you press them down a bit, and add more sprinkles on the top.

The recipe claimed that the cookies spread out quite a bit, so I was careful how I spaced them on the cookie sheet.  But they didn't seem to spread that much at all - or maybe a) I missed something, or b) since mine were smaller to start, there wasn't much cookie dough there to spread ...

Anyway, I was pleased with the results:

I couldn't wait to taste them, since they have cream cheese as one of the ingredients.  When they actually come out of the oven and cool a bit, they taste pretty much like any sugar cookie tastes.  But if you wait, they are so much better - you get just the teensiest hint of cream cheese taste, which I happen to really like!

I can't say that these will become part of the regular rotation in our Christmas cookie repertoire, but I like to try something new every year to mix it up with our favorite standbys.  These were fine, but not extraordinary.  

I gotta say, it's pretty tough to break in to the regular Christmas cookie pantheon in our house, but at least we are willing to consider new members. 😊

Has any baking been going on at your house during this holiday season?