What's Up, Cookie?

Even though I've stepped up my frequency of cookie baking, I've been very bad about keeping up this blog.

I promise to TRY to do better.

Okay, so a couple of weeks ago, I made M&M cookies for my niece's school carnival. Can you say hit?

I mean, what kindergartner doesn't like M&M's? And quite a few parents too.

It only took me maybe 20 minutes to make the dough and another hour or so to bake. (I made quite a few).

Nonetheless, time well spent and some very happy campers.

I hadn't made these since my college daughter was a kid. Don't tell her though. She'll be mad. :)

What's on your menu today?

Comfort Cookies

Remember those peanut butter cookies you used to buy in the school cafeteria?

If you were super lucky, you could sometimes get them while they were still warm. They usually tasted of rancid peanut butter and they were chewy. However, for some odd reason they were really good.

Well, these are not those. These are better.

I'll share a tiny secret - never mind - I won't.

But, I will say that this particular recipe makes the cookies nice and fluffy! I like to bake mine until they're crispy brown on the edges. And what is it about that criss-cross pattern that just makes you want to play a game of jacks? Oh, I know, the criss-cross reminds me of what a jack looks like.

My daughter likes chocolate chips in hers, so I split the batch in half. One half with chips. One half without. There are different variations on this cookie jar staple, but that's another blog.

I love to eat them for breakfast with a hot cup of coffee. How's that for watching your carbs and cholesterol?

Peanut butter cookies just like mom used to make. Wait, that wasn't mom - it was the cafeteria lady in the hair net.

At any rate, these are good!

Eat Some Now, Bake Some Later

You can't be a Cookie Minister without fresh baked cookies on-hand. Am I right? Problem solved.

Solution - refrigerator cookies!

These cookies can be prepared ahead of time, refrigerated and baked whenever you need them.

This week, I made mini-chocolate chip refrigerator cookies. There are lots good recipes online.

Instead of reaching in the refrigerator case of the grocery store for the pre-made ones, you can make your own. Even on a weekday. After you make your cookie dough, you wrap it into rolls. My recipe makes two rolls (or logs), which I then wrap tightly in waxed paper and store in zip lock quart sized bags in the fridge. For best results, cook within 7 days.

I slice mine about an inch thick. My recipe makes an easy four dozen. So that means four separate occasions when I look like I got it all together, when in reality, I'm flying by the seat of my pants!!

Munch-munch.

My First Cookie Post

Welcome to my new blog. It's nice to come back to something I truly enjoy. That would be baking. Especially, baking cookies.

There was a time when I would bake several times a week. Of course, that was before the demands of a day job took their toll and of course I was younger and had more energy.

But, now, I'm an empty nester. And it's time to get back to some of the things that I used to do which not only brought enjoyment to me, but hopefully, to others.

I realized that I didn't enjoy baking quite so much in recent years because I began to associate baking cookies with a sense of grief. I would bake cookies for sick friends, my elderly and ill parents and community functions.

And, when my parents passed away, I no longer enjoyed baking. Every tea cake made me think of my daddy and every chocolate chip cookie made me miss my mama.

Then, all of a sudden, something clicked and I said to myself, "Snap out of it! Cookies are your thing. And you need to get your cookie groove back!"

So, here I am.

Now, I won't be sharing any recipes here, unless of course, you have some you'd like to share with me. I'm happy to pass those along. I'm "old-school," and I plan on leaving my cookie recipes for my daughter. With this economy, that may be all I have to leave her!

Seriously, though, I keep it pretty simple with variations on the standard recipes. Don't look for anything too elaborate. I'm just a southern girl at heart.

I made a batch of Toffee Drop Cookies this weekend. I'm happy to report the results were great.

Dottie