If you follow The Big Gay Architect or Spotted Dog, you know this time of year means cookies at my house. Lots and lots of cookies. By now, James and I have culled the list from last year and added new recipes for this year. Putting anything in the fridge that isn’t butter or eggs is a challenge. This weekend alone, James made sugar cookies, chocolate mint cookies, and dough for gingerbread.
However, for the first time since we started making and distributing cookies, we find ourselves behind the eight ball. Because the aforementioned cookies are the only ones made, and Christmas Eve is 15 days away. What’s a girl to do?!?!
Normally, we start making cookies around the second week of November and popping them into the freezer. Sugar cookies and gingerbread are done right out of the gate. Then it becomes a question of what we might feel like baking next. Some are more complicated and require a weekend where we have a few hours to set aside. Others we can turn out after work.
But James had minor hand surgery that delayed the start of baking, so now we have to make a careful assessment of what exactly we’re making, who’s getting them, and the best method of delivery.
Our usual recipe list runs around 25 different cookies. And yes, that’s a lot, especially if you consider some are done as double batches. We have the tried and true (sugar) but don’t hesitate to flip through the latest cookie magazine James finds at the grocery store for something new. Plus at the tail end, there’s always chocolate peanut butter fudge.
(Yes, we are insane. At least that’s the look we get when we try and tell someone what we do.)
However, on the plus side, my dad has opted out of cookies this year. I secretly suspect he’s trying to watch his weight as he wants to start dating again. And my niece and her boyfriend won’t be coming this year, so that’s box number two to scratch off the list. However, we’ve already had people ask about cookies, so we aren’t quite off the hook.
For my family, I did propose we just take the unboxed cookies to the annual Christmas Eve get-together and let everyone put together their own boxes. Nothing screams hectic like watching James assemble everything that morning. Wax paper everywhere. Maybe this year everyone can join in the fun. Except we’d have to keep my stepmother from taking all the fudge and our other niece from hoarding the gingerbread.
Yet, as usual, I suspect we will overdo the number of recipes, leaving us coated in sugar and flour all over the kitchen. And James will still get up Christmas Eve morning and try to box up cookies. After all, tradition is tradition. Plus, someone has to think of the cookies!
