Cooking Success!

You may have remember my lament on how cooking usually turns into a disaster for me.

I received quite a few comments on my facebook regarding this, and the biggest piece of advice I got was to be patient and start off small. I cooked chili a couple weeks ago and it was pretty good. (So good my husband said, "Wow, I feel like I just ate a Thanksgiving meal...soooo full. Now I'm ready for a nap!")

I've been on a bit of a baking kick too. Recently I made some brownies and banana nut muffins. Of course I used the boxed mixes, but I was just too timid to go all out and bake from scratch.

Last week I was blog hopping (a perk of being unemployed) and I came across a recipe for peppermint chocolate chip cookies. Basically they're good ol' chocolate chip cookies with peppermint extract and crushed candy canes sprinkled on the top. (I used peppermints. Of course I should have just waited until the day after Halloween to find candy canes.)

My mouth watered when I read the recipe and saw the picture of the finished product. I thought to myself, "I have to make those for Christmas!" But these cookies involved eggs, flour, sugar...not opening up a package of pre-made cookies already in convenient one-inch ball-form. I decided to go for it! But then fears crept into my head...I burn down the apartment weeks before Christmas...or I don't burn down the apartment but I make them wrong thus making my entire family sick with food poisoning during the holidays.

I decided to do a bit of cooking baking practice. We went shopping after Mass for the ingredients. One of the things I had to buy was a flour sifter. I never ever had used one of these. (And just a side note: I know that flour today is already pre-sifted, but thanks to Google I researched this topic and many people claim that sifting makes better cookies, cakes, etc. Sure it was going to be extra work, but I needed ANY AND ALL help to make these cookies taste good.)

As usual, while at the store, I called my mom for advice.

"How do you salt butter?" I asked.

"Huh?" my mom asked in a very puzzled voice.

"The recipe calls for salted butter."

"It's a certain kind of butter, you'll find it next to the regular butters and margarines."

"Does it it have 'salted butter' written on the package?"

"Yes."

I'm sure she hung up the phone with a smile. I on the other hand hung up the phone with a Homer Simpson "D'OH!" feeling.

I came home and was excited to get started. But I was completely un-organized (something that makes me panic-y) and was making a HUGE mess (another things that makes me panic-y) I had flour on the floor on the floor, on my feet, in my hair. Peppermint pieces were stuck to my socks. I was giving myself pep-talks, yelling and stomping my feet.

Surprisingly, when I put the dough into the fridge to chill, it looked normal. During that hour I cleaned up and mopped and felt a little better about my surroundings.

Finally I put the rolled up dough balls into the oven and waited. Ten minutes later I took them out. They looked like cookies! They smelled delicious! As I waited for them to cool I was still a little wary....

Finally I couldn't wait any longer- I bit into one. I was expecting to bite into uncooked cookie dough 0r a big powdery chunk of flour that hadn't been mixed in well. To my delight- it was very yummy!

I ate a couple cookies and called my mom to tell her the good news.

My husband loves them. Of course he will eat just about anything.

Finally- a small success in the realm of cooking!

If you'd like the recipe I used, go here!