Not to brag, but Jess and I are getting really good at this whole baking extravaganza cookie thing.
Two years running now, we succeeded in making dozens of cookies without any major disasters. No burnt Pretzel Bark, no forgotten ingredients, no cookies in a heap on the floor, no time-consuming meals, and no major messes (well almost, you see, flour is tricky thing...).
This eighth(!) year was a roaring success. At the end of the day, we had 10 different cookies and one bark. Oh, and a couple scars.
Ouch!
Yes, if I could sum up this year's baking day with one word, "ouch"
And it's a new word for us. We might have been picking up cookies from the floor for years and cleaning flour off the walls and breaking utensils, but we're pretty good at knowing things are hot.
Apparently, I forgot this at 9 am when we started making the Brown Butters. I think the name itself is warning enough. Yet, when I decided to remove the saucepan full of boiling browned butter from the stove so it wouldn't burn I forgot. I continued to stir. I continued to chat. And then some splattered out of the pan and onto my barefoot. Oh my mother-loving stars!
First off, I have to admit, this is the first baking extravaganza not to require socks or thick slippers because it's 60 freaking degrees outside. In December! In Ohio! How are we supposed to chill our extra dough if there's no snow?! Why is it not cold enough to let the bark set up outside, and instead I have to shove it in my freezer, where there is no room because Mr. B thought a half empty freezer is no good and he must stock it with meat the day before our cookie baking madness?! But I digress.
Thank you, Jesus, for lavender oil. When I was finally able to form decent coherent words, Jessica handed me the oil and I rubbed it all over the top of my foot. Within the hour the burn was gone, the mark was gone, and I was beyond grateful in a happy dance form. I was lucky, however, Jessica was not. I'm going to blame it on her pregnant brain, but she too forgot hot things are hot. Baking sheets straight from a hot oven are hot. Yeah, she pulled a Brindi. I still have the scars from last July. I'm sure she will have the scar this time next year; it's bigger and angrier. Ouch! Unfortunately, the lavender oil only soothed her. It's funny how sensitive the skin on our forearm truly is. It's also funny the words that come out of our lady mouths.
Other than the pain, we had quite the sugar-filled, fun day. The Brown Butters turned out to be the tastiest ones we've made in a while, and Mr. B can attest to said tastiness. Definitely. In fact we even tripled the batter, giving us well over 175 of these bite-sized cookies. The first cookies started, the last ones finished. As we were frosting these bad boys, Mr. B kept walking by and grabbing them. Soon I realized he was eating them faster than I was frosting them. I had to tell him to stop because we had them counted and still had to divide them up. Jessica gave me a this-is-why-we-do-it-at-my-house look. As Monica says, I know!
In the end, we ended up with 80 Brown Butters each. Yet, it was odd. When I got home from work the next evening there were only 30 of these delectable cookies in the entire house. These 30 now reside in the back of the freezer. Mr. B is verbally not happy about this.
With Love and God Bless,
Brindi
