Tuesday, December 20, 2016

This Ain't Your Grandma's Cookie Day!!


So, you think you have been to a cookie making day in your time? Well, these Georgia people have some serious cookie day activities! Sheila has been telling me about cookie day almost since the first time I spoke with her (well, maybe not the first time) (okay, not even the fifth time, either) (you get the idea though, right?) and how much work it is to host the Family Cookie Day each year. And I thought to myself "yeah, yeah ... I've made cookies, big deal", but of course I didn't say that to her. I was properly sympathetic as all good boyfriends should be and promised to help her this year.

Sheila plotting the course of attack

As a means of explanation, lets start here:


Does your cookie making stash look like this? Of course it doesn't, don't even try to say it does. And that is hardly all of the stuff that Sheila pulled out in advance (yes, she pulled it out and put it on the counter ... our kitchen doesn't look like that normally). I asked why everything was on the counter and Sheila said it was easier than searching for it once the cookie making got started. I was thinking, "How in the world can you actually find ANYTHING with all of this stuff all over the place?"

On Cookie Day Eve, Sheila and I made the gooey cookies ... they were a new recipe that she wanted to try after our recent trip to Memphis and we made gingerbread gooey and carrot cake gooey cookies. Both excellent! We also laid out just about everything on Cookie Day Eve, including all of the cutters, SilPat sheets, pans, rollers, tongs, whatever we would need once the serious cookie making started. Sheila has a boat-load of cookie cutter shapes, I mean, really, a LOT of cookie cutters. She entertained herself making me guess what some of the shapes were and had quite a laugh at my Cookie Day novice skill ... "No, it's not a Santa sled, it's a squirrel collecting nuts shaped like presents ha, ha, ha" ... I felt quite the newbie.

 

Look at those faces, the concentration, the effort!! It isn't just about having fun all day, this isn't for the faint of heart! Cookie Day is serious business! These Georgia people know what they are doing! Now, let's look at the Jersey noob ....

Rolling gooey balls in my palms (I bet that's not the first time my brothers have caught me doing that!! But, hey, I have a lot of dirty secrets on those guys, too, if that's the way they want to play it, I can tell you stuff about them .... oops, sorry, got caught up in the moment ....) with a big stupid grin, clearly not serious about cookie day. Noob ....

The Cookie Day agenda results in several types of Christmas cookies. Here is a pic, excluding the gooey balls that I massaged (sorry):
 Almost all of the decoration was done by the kids, except for the dipping into warm melted chocolate. There are sugar cookies, peanut butter Ritz dipped in white and dark chocolate, Buckeyes (no, they aren't official since the peanut butter center isn't showing, but these keep better) in both white a dark, pretzels in both white and dark and of course, gingerbread. We also made 7 layer cookies, and when I asked what a 7 layer cookie was the Georgia-ites were almost hysterical with laughter at my lack of cookie knowledge

Now, all joking aside, it was a wonderful, fantastic experience! Family, friends, neighbors, all came over to partake in the annual Burns Family Cookie Day and I had a blast! And it was so much fun for the kids, just look at these faces:







It was a great day, Cookie Day 2016 and now that I have my feet wet I can really add to the day next year. Sheila and I hope your cookie days went great, as well!

BTW, here is an in-process Cookie Day 2016 pic with the "previously-mentioned-in-another-blog-post" dog door installed in the side of Sheila's house ... the dog door looks pretty darn good in this picture!

Yeah, baby!





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