Friday, December 3

Cookies with Lindsay and Justin

I called Lindsay one day after Thanksgiving and asked her if she was interested in doing Christmas cookies and she said she sure was.  In fact, she was really excited about it.  However, we had to do it pretty early in the month because her due date was sometime around December 18th.  She was in the last few weeks of her pregnancy, and she said she was so ready for him to come out.  She was so swollen, tired and her back hurt bad.  

We talked for about an hour planning what day we wanted to make cookies and which ones we wanted to make.  We came up with the first Friday of December after work.  I told her that I would have pizza for dinner and plenty of ingredients and cookware.  I knew which cookies I was going to make, and it was up to Lindsay on which ones she chose to make.  Over the course of a week, she sent me the recipes of the three desserts she wanted to make.  We then, figured out which ingredients we needed and how much. 

I went through my recipes to find out what all I needed and made a short list of stuff I needed to get at the store.  After I logged off for the week, I went to the store near our house and picked up the pizza and the few supplies I needed for my cookies.  I picked up more stuff than I thought I did but I would rather have enough than not enough...especially when it comes to cooking.

I went home and unloaded everything.  I put it all away and then started getting the stuff I needed for my cookies out and set them on the table.  I got my hand mixer out, an assorted bunch of bowls, spatulas, cookies sheets and measuring cups.  Lindsay said she would bring her kitchen aid, bowls and some ingredients for the cookies she decided to make.  It was going to be a fun night.

I decided to make no bake cookies, a chocolate cookie with mint chips and fudge and Lindsay wanted to make these lemon cookies and some flour-less chocolate cookies.  We both thought that making a bunch of batches of a few cookies rather than a batch of a buttload of cookies would be better.  Two years prior, Lindsay and I made so many cookies we were up until almost 3 a.m. finishing them up.  It was quite a night, and we didn't want to do that again.

She and Justin showed up just after 6 p.m. with all of her equipment.  I had started the pizzas so they would be done when she, Justin and Ben, who got off work, arrived.  We ate pizza and salad, caught up a little bit and then busted out the first set of cookies.  I made the no bakes first because they were quick, and they would be able to dry as we worked on the chocolate mint and the lemon cookies. They all turned out pretty well.  We set them on the cooling racks and moved onto to the next set of goodies.

Lindsay got the flour-less batter all mixed up and had to do a "trial and error" batch, so we knew how they cooked in the oven.  The first batch spread out and we had to cut them away from each other.  So that meant, we needed to make the scoops smaller to give them room on the cookie sheet.  Turns out, making the scoops smaller worked and the cookies turned out great!

We saved the fudge for last.  I have never made fudge before but have seen my Mom make it hundreds of times since I was a little kid.  She makes it perfect.  I followed the instructions and stirred the pot for the correct amount of time it needed.  Upon putting it into the casserole dish to cool, something didn't look right.  It tasted like fudge, but it didn't look like fudge.  It was very dry looking...almost like we over stirred it or something?  Oh well, that is my first attempt at fudge, haha.  


Lindsay and I separated the cookies somewhat evenly.  I told her if she wanted more just to take them because I could always make more.  She left me with more than I wanted.  I did send her and Justin home with the fudge so it could cool longer.  I told her to bring the container with her when we went to craft day at Nicole's house on Sunday.  She said she would do that.

We started cleaning up the kitchen and then she gathered all of her cookware and ingredients she brought with her.  Justin carried the stuff out to the car while Lindsay and I chatted for a few minutes.  It was getting late with it already being past midnight.  They thanked me and headed home.  I spent about a half hour cleaning the kitchen and setting stuff on the table and putting my cookies into a container so the kitties wouldn't get into it.  I would put the rest of it away the next day.     

Next Adventure:  Getting Our Christmas Trees

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