Linzer Cookies and other tales

3.5 cups of butter later, I remembered why I only bake once a year. Luckily, I was determined and stubborn enough that I finished the cookies even though I was totally fed up with the process half way into the first batch. Pictures? Not so many. I was often too covered in flour and butter.

My proudest accomplishment of this round of baking was Strawberry Linzer cookies.  2 hours = 14 painstakingly made cookies. Based on this recipe. They really are good, and they really do take a while. And to get those shapes, the dough really does have to be *exactly* the right temperature or you get to start all over. Also? Please only try to do this if you have a normally sized kitchen.

I also made Ginger Spice Cookies – like gingerbread but more spice. I picked this recipe because it had the most spice of any recipe I found.  Ginger juice that I made from real ginger, molasses, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice and ground black pepper. YES. I may have added more spice than the recipe called for. I love my food to be flavorful! These are done (I made them into candy canes and tiny angels, stars, gingerbread men and trees) but need a bit of decoration still.

I also made these cookies from Epicurious. Except mine are Milk Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies. The original recipe wanted bittersweet and white chocolates. I thought it would be too much. I think I was right. I added extra cranberries too.  These are actually my favorite of the three cookies I made. Tasty, with a slight crunch and a soft middle, with plenty of tart and sweet flavor. YUM.

Let me tell you, though, that I don’t bake most of the time because:

1) Cookies make me feel guilty.  First I put in the butter. Then the sugar. Then the white flour. And I think … that’s it? I’m eating pure Bad For Me? I CANNOT DO THIS. And then I do. Because mmmm, cookies are tasty. I happen to really disagree with Kate Moss, who said recently, to my everlasting irritation and disgust, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” Quite too bad and sad for her! There’s a lot more to life than being skinny. I’ll eat her cookies too.

2) Baking pastries takes FOREVER. Preparation, refrigeration, cookie cutters, baking, cooling, decorating. Just be done already! Cooking is really way easier. Much more instant gratification. Much less exercise of my limited quantities of patience. Maybe it was just that I chose really difficult recipes?

3) I have to measure things. I am not the type of person who either follows directions or measures stuff. I “go with what feels right,” but this is not an acceptable way to do things when baking. Some people follow directions, follow patterns, follow instructions, follow rules, follow guidelines. I am definitely NOT one of those people.

And also. Let’s remember the Cardinal Rule of Cookie Baking Chez Miriam.

If you show up at my house and I offer you freshly-baked cookies, I have not magically turned into Super Housewife. Let’s just realize that this was one of those times my hyperness and OCD got the better of me. It’s Solstice-Chanukkah-Christmas. I’m allowed to be slightly crazy about something, right?

SCARF

Ahhhhhhh … nice little blogging break there.

SO!  This is not exactly a major crafting accomplishment, but I finished a scarf. In particular the One Skein Scarf from Stitch ‘n Bitch Crochet: the Happy Hooker that I mentioned. I think it’s a pretty scarf, but it’s almost as if I suddenly went back to crochet kindergarten. What manages to redeem me is that (a) it’s cold here right now and (b) I’m also making a matching hat and mittens.

I would wait to post until I had all of it done, except my crafting has been so minimal lately that I feel as if I must show what I actually have managed to get done.

So here it (and Wesley and I) am (are):

The yarn: Once upon a time I couldn’t crochet that well, so I knew I needed to practice a lot. In pursuit of that practice, I was going to make this one crappy project-that-will-not-be-named, and so I bought all this yarn on sale (Homespun Prairie). Predictably, I got much better and decided the project was BO-RING and so I frogged it. But then I had all this yarn.

So! Recently I found the yarn and decided to make my scarf, plus this Applejack Cap from Croshay Designs and Lion Brand’s relatively simple looking mittens with wrist ribbing. I hope the yarn’s striping comes through on the cap and mittens.

The yarn is quite pretty, but a bad choice for a beginner. Homespun can be a pain in the a** to crochet with, because the ply is loose, it sort of bunches up and then it fuzzes out a bit at times. But the end product is soft and shiny, and has a nice rainbow stripe on a copper-brown background. It isn’t the best yarn I’ve worked with, but it’s not the worst, either.

P.S. I made the necklace, too. Woo!