Three Cookie Weekend

Bad days are bad and there's no amount of sighing and complaining that can fix that. Even blogging can't really fix a bad day. Because bad days are just bad. Like last Friday.

Nothing really wrong just nothing really right either. My nerves were on edge, my eyelids heavy and even just the wrong pitch of a certain person's breathing was like nails on a chalkboard. As I said in the beginning of Friday's post--both sides of the bed were wrong that morning so I just shoulda stayed in.

Friday night, though, I decided I was tired of the bad day and needed a cure.

Cure started when Mama and I stopped by the grocery store after work. Usually that's the sort of thing that sends me over the edge. I hate not going straight home and I hate grocery stores after 9am. But I think I was just so relieved to get away from she who annoyed me with her mere existence that I just couldn't be bothered to get upset. It also helped that Mama said she'd buy me some tater logs from the deli. Tater logs are like fried bits of starchy heaven and if you've never had one, I feel sad for you. ;-)

Cure continued when we stopped by Sis2's to pick up Emmy and also brought Lyssa home with us. As soon as the car stopped rolling Lyssa flew out of their garage and straight into my arms for a tight hug. She then scrambled into the car all by herself and had herself buckled in and ready to go before her mama had even made it to the garage door with her overnight bag. She was ready to go. I also got a little dance time in with Efan while Sis2 finished loading Emmy's things in the car. Not sure how he felt about me singing "Country Boy Shake it For Me" while shimmying around with him. But he didn't cry so he can't have hated it too much. (Song is actually "Country GIRL Shake It For Me." I think it's by Luke Bryan.  I had to, of course, change it for Efan.) Bonus points for anyone who can remember the name of the first song I ever sang to him after he was first born in 2009.

Though I was feeling some better by the time we made it home (and I shared my tater logs with Emmy--*sob*) I was still not 100%. Bad days--they're just bad.

So. Enter the baking phase. It's funny, really, to think that something I used to avoid like the plague is now a mood lifter for me. The process of measuring and stirring, tasting and spooning is soothing. Even when I hafta stop mid-way through the recipe to go borrow a cup of brown sugar from Mama.  And warm cookies straight from the oven? Bliss.

That bliss lasted me clear through the next day.

Since I was already riding on that little high, I decided to bake another batch of cookies Saturday night. After a long day of thrifting and yard sale-ing, I needed to decompress. 

Sunday morning, because I knew I had a long day of traveling ahead of me to return Emmy to her parents, I made another batch of cookies Sunday morning.  However,  I learned a valuable lesson in my morning baking lesson--Never try to bake cookies and cook breakfast at the same time. I overcooked my eggs and ended up feeding them to the Devil Pup. She enjoyed her feast. I, on the other hand, decided to forgo eggs and just content my self with a biscuit and ham. But the cookies went in the oven on time!

So, what all did I bake??

Here, let me show you them.

Yum. Just looking at them makes me hungry and happy again. Wish I'd remembered to bring some to work.

Clockwise from the top left, we have Sin City Cookies  which are chocolate chocolate chip meringues. Probably the easiest cookie I made all weekend. Helps that you put them in an oven and leave them for eight hours. With the oven hot but off, of course. Like their name implies, though, these are sinfully rich. I love the beautiful mix of crunchy exterior and gooey interior. Light and airy, these feel really decadent and fancy. These are the ones that ruined my breakfast Sunday morning. ;-) But they sure made my night when I got back from dropping off Emmy!

Next we have Puffy Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips. These were, for me, the hardest to mix.The dough is really REALLY stiff and dense--probably from the peanut butter--and I had to add milk to loosen it up enough that everything mixed and stuck together. Also, they weren't puffy. BUT, some of the consistency issues may have had something to do with me having run out of all purpose flour midway through and subbing self-rising. But they still turned out tasting good. Just not the puffy soft consistency I'd been promised.

And at the bottom, we have Giant Rainbow Cookies. I made these Friday night to kick off my three cookie weekend. These are the ones that required a trip to Mama's for brown sugar.  And ya'll, they are the fussiest cookie I've ever baked. Very bossy. Melted but cooled butter. Room temperature eggs. Roll into a ball then tear in the middle pressing the halves back together rough side up. Bossy, right? The PBChocChip have most of the same instructions but at least I was prepared by then. But I gotta say, these are da bomb dot com, ya'll. Worth all the hassle and three hours on my feet rolling, tearing and pressing cookie dough. I ended up sharing a lot of them with two little girls and one redneck man--all of whom wouldn't let me borrow the brown sugar unless I shared the finished product with them. ;-)

But ya'll, I still have a TON of cookies at home to eat. So much for shrinking my gut!