Wednesday, December 12, 2012

That's what I get for boasting.

I was sitting in  Dunkin Donuts yesterday with my Zumba friends-my coffee club, I call them.When a couple of the ladies commented that they were feeling very stressed, I said, "Not me. I do not have any stress now that I am living the retired life here in Florida."
I think God heard me and thought maybe I was a little too smug, because the rest of the day became very stressful. 

 My #1 item on my to do list was to make cookies for a cookie exchange party  my friend Sandy was having today. I stopped baking routinely since the kids were no longer little( or even in the same state) and I have been more determined to lose weight. (My will power  for sugary baked goods is non existent.) There were even years when I was working that I relied on the generosity of friends for my Christmas cookies. So, once a year at Christmas time I bake cookies for Christmas, in general, and the past two years for Sandy's party in particular.

This time I did some actual planning ahead, searching the internet for easy cookie recipes. I found one using cake mix that sounded good. So yesterday afternoon, I went to the cupboard  and realized I did not have the exact ingredients I needed. Instead of 2 boxes of devils-food cake mix, I had 2 boxes of brownie mix. No problem I would go back to the internet and find
recipes using brownie mix instead. I started mixing the ingredients when it dawned on me that when you double a recipe that means twice as many eggs(duh) and I only had enough for one batch. And my DSH needed my help in the garage moving his boat into the garage before the rain came down(more about the boat in another post). So I left the mixing to help him, then went to borrow eggs from my neighbor. I get back to the mix and think, did I put the right amount of water in? It didn't seem the right consistency. I do a test batch with only 3 cookies, leaving the rest of the mix on the counter. DSH comes in to get a drink of water, opens the cupboard,and out come two glasses crashing together, landing on the counter and the ceramic floor in a zillion pieces. We are both bare footed. The heat of the oven is not the only thing making me sweat at this point.

We both step carefully around the glass, then DSH banishes me from the kitchen(for my own good) while he cleans up the glass shards very precisely. We both look into the bowl of batter which was on the counter where the glasses landed. The oven timer goes off, and I remove a tray of what look more like three pancakes. He says, "It doesn't look like any glass got in the batter." I answer, "I am NOT taking the chance, what with glass pieces all the way across the kitchen, that one did not go in the batter!" So I throw the whole batter, bowl and all into the trash. Minutes later I was in the car on the way to the store to get more ingredients.

I was feeling stressed now. I chose to pass the Publix and head to Sam's Club, just to give myself more time to cool down. After browsing the Christmas gift section, I buy a big box of brownie mix and plenty of eggs. I also buy 3 dozen oatmeal raisin cookies from the bakery as back up in case anything else goes wrong.

After getting DSH his dinner, I find a different brownie mix cookie recipe that uses less oil and water. I used the mints idea from the original cake mix recipe I had found. Then I mixed and baked for a couple hours and the result (8 hours from when I started getting out the first batch of ingredients) was 4 dozen really good cookies. Here's the recipe:

Touch of Mint Chocolate Cookies 
 
1 pkg ultimate brownies 
2 eggs 
2 tablespoons water 
1 tablespoon oil 
12 Andes mints, cut in half 
 
 Stir together eggs, water, and oil. Stir into brownie mix. Drop by rounded tsp 
onto parchment paper, 2 inches apart. Bake in preheated 350* oven 10 minutes. 
Remove from oven, but keep on pan 2 minutes and during this time press one mint 
piece onto middle of coookie. Remove to cooling rack. Use back of spoon to 
spread melted mint around. Let cool completely. One batch makes 24 cookies.
 
 
And here's a picture of the tray of cookies I brought home for DSH from the party. 
My cookies are the ones on the far right. It was a great party, by the way, with lots of laughter. 

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