'Tis the Season...

...to bake as if you suffered from a life-threatening nutritional deficiency of butter, sugar and vanilla.

The top goodies were made for a friend from Ohio (Buckeyes, get it?) and the bottom goodies were made for my son's holiday celebration at school.

Frankly, I thought six year olds would get more of a kick out of dark chocolate and mint chip cookies, but I think they were pretty overwhelmed with holiday cheer  by the time parents showed up with treats at 2:00. I dutifully plated them out and an hour later put 90% of them back into their air-tight portable home and handed that to the room mom with my holiday blessings. She really wanted them, but I felt a little cheap. She's been an awesome room mom and deserves more. I'll try to make it up to her by the end of the year.

Last weekend the son was in a holiday performance and the parents were asked to provide cookies for the reception afterward. If I'd known how many people were involved in the performance and reception, I would have gone down to Costco and bought 5,000 commercial somethings. Instead, I baked my heart out and made over 10 dozen Chocolate Chip Oatmeal and Old Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies:

I don't regret it, of course, but I like a more intimate setting when I and my cookies meet new people. We just want to build a relationship, you know?

I have high hopes for finishing the 1940s in the Gourmet Cookie Book tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes!

June 1948: Jelly Centers

These are a keeper, if you ask my son. I'm not a fan of jam except in the close company of peanut butter, but these were a huge hit with everyone else.

The cookies are buttery rich with a hint of lemon, and I substituted toasted coconut for chopped blanched almonds on top. No reason for that really, except I had some toasted coconut sitting around and wanted to use it up.

You could mix up the flavors in any combination, really. Raspberry jam tasted delicious with the lemon/coconut cookie, but lemon curd might have been fun to try also. I have apricot/pineapple jam in the fridge that probably needs a simple vanilla cookie underneath. Almonds optional on that one.

They are really pretty and once again my photos don't do them justice. I'd happily and proudly serve these to guests, they look and taste great.

The Universe Wants Me to Exercise

From my horoscope today: "Physically, continue to do sport, given that regularity is much more important than intensity."

Thank you Master Rao for that sage advice. If you give me a housekeeper, a cook, a second car, AND a chauffeur I might have the time, energy, and inclination to "continue to do sport."

OK. Thanks. Bye Bye.

Sunday Weigh In - First Things First

Two week net: -2.2
Total: -12

You may have noticed I skipped a week for weigh-ins. I was in Chicago on Sunday and my tall and naturally thin sister doesn't own a scale. In typical weight-denial fashion, I decided to give myself a break and skip the weigh-in. That, coupled with the cookies, bread, and homemade ravioli in Chicago, resulted unsurprisingly in a net gain that, quite frankly, I didn't want to write down.  

That's a long way of saying that you can ignore the man behind the curtain and just go along with me here. Since I last weighed in here, I have lost 2.2 pounds (moderately sarcastic YAHOO!) and since I began tracking I have lost 12 pounds (bigger, more realistic YAHOO!). 

The funny things about all these numbers is that you can only go so far with them. I want to calculate my per week average loss (ok, I DID calculate that and it's about 1.3 pounds per week) but that doesn't tell me anything helpful because the goal is the bottom line (12 pounds of approximately 60). Looking at it per week treats all weeks equal, and that's just not real. Some weeks are up and some are down, and sometimes I have control over that (points baby, points) and sometimes I don't (hormones, namely). 

Bottom line: It's all about the bottom line, and the ends DO justify the means. I have a net loss of 12 pounds so far and that's 12 pounds more than if I'd done nothing at all. I'm eating better and exercising more and those are accomplishments worth celebrating. So YAHOO for me and for all of us working hard on personal goals, whatever they may be.  

Baking in Chicago with my Sister

I took a long weekend and went to Chicago to visit my sister and her growing family. Her second child, a boy, is 6 weeks old and was as amazing as newborns are supposed to be.

To welcome this beautiful boy to the world, I baked the boots off his momma's kitchen. We made three, yes THREE, batches of my "signature" chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and one HUGE  batch of the Old Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies. 

This was a small, staged sampling. Rest assured there were about a million more cookies than I've shown you. There are also small containers of chocolate chip oatmeal cookie dough stashed in her freezer for future use: 

Then we made artisan bread, which didn't look exactly like this but will when my sister figures out the optimal setting for her oven: 

She has a baking-with-yeast phobia, so I walked her through the basics of making the simple dough, letting it rise, then letting it rise/rest/relax again, then baking it in a hot oven with steam. That's all that stands between you and delicious homemade bread, BTW. We opened early Christmas presents the night before I left, and not surprisingly I gave her her own copy of the book -- now we both have copies since she gave me mine for Christmas last year. 

The chocolate chip oatmeal cookies served a very noble purpose on Monday afternoon. Shortly after I left for the airport, her heat quit working on a day that was predicted to peak at 18 degrees. She called her heating guy and told him he'd get cookies if he bumped her to the top of his list. He arrived within the hour and fixed her right up!  Not only are these cookies tasty, they make great currency too!