I love Christmas cookies! Love them! So much I think I would cross a street of broken glass barefoot to get too them! I like chocolate ones, I like shortbread ones, I like almond ones, I like peanut butter ones, heck I even like coconut ones! I love Christmas cookies!
Today I took it upon myself to make some Christmas cookies from scratch to give to a few friends for the holidays! I went to the store and bought the ingrediants I didnt already have in the kitchen. I patiently took all the hardware out I needed. I even put on a Christmas movie so there would be a little ambiance in the background.
I set the temp on the oven.
greased up the tins.
spread out the chocolate.
fired up the double boiler.
I then spent the next two hours mixing, dropping (a term for putting the dough on the cookie sheet) and baking. It was heaven! Just me and some of the best ingriediants known to the baking world. Making some of the most deliscious cookies ever!
But something was missing…. You see I was doing all of this fun stuff at work. (I am a firefighter). There were no little kids helping me lick the bowls, no one to sneak chocolate chips while I was folding the butter. No one to help melt white chocolate in the double boiler for the icing. Yep it was all perfect untill I realized it was too perfect. Perfectly quiet.
I needed a little person there to impart my cooking wisdom upon. Years my father spent in the bakery of his restruant with me as a teenager/young adult acting like I didnt care because it wasnt cool to cook. But in reality I was watching listening and learning from a man who got up every morning at 3am to make sure bread was baked for the days meals. I want my children to know that REAL men cook. REAL men bake and provide for their families in a multitude of ways! REAL men take great pride in giving the gift of baked goods at Christmas. Because to me nothing comes “more from the heart” than when I take the time to bake (I mean bake, not prepackaged crap, but from scratch)something sweet for you, my friend. So there I was alone….. Or so I thought.
Looking over my shoulder was one of our new guys. He is young, in his early twenties, a good kid full of heart. I was going to ask what he needed but a light came on in my head instead. I leaned over and said; Lets make some cookies, you get some eggs and Ill start mixing the flour. He smiled and jumped right to it! Within seconds one of the other new guys also jumped in and the three of us were chuckling and dropping dough.
After the first round came out and we all had a taster, the vote was unanimous. Make some more! And more we did! I slowly backed away leaving the young guys to do it on their own. They had watched carefully, studied the methods used and applied them perfectly. They are both now filled with Christmas spirit as am I. As I write this the two of them are carefully working on the next batch.
I had a great Pre Christmas day! Filled with good laughs, good food and yes I can say it. In a way I had my “kids” with me as I baked for people I care about.
Did I mention “I love cookies”….
They call me Betty 