When I was pregnant with my oldest, I made a momentous decision. I decided that I was going to be "That Mom", as in the Mom that always had baked goods and wonderful food in the house. I wanted my house to be THE house to go to, that way I would always know who my kids were hanging out with, where they were, and what they were up to. There was one slight glitch with my genius idea----I didn't know how to bake OR cook.
Now, some people say they can't cook but they are being modest. Kind of like the people who say, "Oh I'm sorry the house is such a mess" when in reality they've spent the past three days cleaning. I was not being modest. I once tried to bake Special K bars but ruined it because the recipe said to "double boil" the chocolate chips so I boiled water then dumped in the chocolate chips. FYI, that is not how you double boil something. I also tried to make homemade spaghetti and meatballs once and my uncle and cousins still talk about how awful it was sixteen years later. So while I desperately wanted to be That Mom, I had a long ways to go.
Thankfully, at that wonderful moment, God or the Gods or the Old Gods and the New or Fate or SOMETHING, brought Christa Weber into my life. We quickly became friends, based on lack of options and later because we loved each other's company. Now Christa Weber is a modern, young, beautiful, felony-free version of Martha Stewart. She grew up on a farm, her mother home schooled her so the lessons include learning to churn your own butter. Christa is a savant: she cooks, she bakes, she sews, she WELDS, she can basically do anything that you see on HGTV. And thankfully, this incredible woman took me under her wing.
Christa taught me how to cook and bake. (She's still a much better chef than me but at least I can cook and bake without embarrassing myself or making anyone sick). Now I love to cook and bake and feel relatively at east in a kitchen. For instance, last night I made rosemary pork chops with mashed potatoes and broccolini. I also am able to bake things like carrot cake (Christa has the best recipe), banana bread, pumpkin scones and rhubarb crisp. Basically, I rock.
Except for one thing. I spent all of my maternity leave with my second one to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. And I found it. I had spent hours on Pinterest trying out different recipes but I didn't need to exhaust myself so much. The perfect recipe is on the back of Crisco shortening bars. I think the secret is using shortening instead of butter (and you don't have to attempt to remember to put the butter out to soften). I additionally discovered that the kind/brand of Vanilla Extract you use makes a HUGE difference. Lucky for me, we have a Penzy's Spice nearby which is where I buy all of my extracts. They are powerful so you only need half as much. If you aren't lucky enough to be close to a Penzy's, I'd recommend Watson's. They are pretty great, too. So I found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Now I have a new challenge...the elusive sugar cookie cut-out.
Every Christmas, my mom would make sugar cookie cut outs. I remember them with fond hatred. I never could roll out the dough nicely and every time I would cut the cookie, it would stick no matter how much flour I used. Usually, my mom would take over and I'd end up on Spritz duty which suited me just fine. My mother-in-law makes decent sugar cookie cut outs, the only problem being she more than quadruples the vanilla and almond extract amounts, turning them into basically booze cookies (yes, there's alcohol in both of the extracts, check it out). I have tried numerous recipes so far and none of them are Perfect. My latest one, courtesy of Pinterest, was fantastic as a dough but failed as an actual cookie. So now I'm on the hunt for the PERFECT sugar cookie-cut. Wish me luck.
Yes, this is what my life has come to. Searching for the perfect cookie recipe. Oy.
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