Cookies...

So...yesterday the Secret Sisters from our church had a Cookie Exchange. At first I wasn't going to go but Jake kinda convinced me I should. I did want to go to socialize but I didn't really want to bake nor do any of us need cookies. But, I did say I would participate so Saturday morning I got out of bed at 6:30 AM so I could run to the store to get a few things I would need to make Penny Snickerdoodles. I wanted to go without the children and Jake had a meeting he was going to and he had to leave at 7:30. So I go to the store and get back in time. About the time I get home the kids wake up and need all sorts of attention. Finally, around 9 AM I get Jude all hyped up about making these cookies. I get everything out and realize I don't have flour. WHO runs out of flour? The truth is, I have 4 (yes four) bags of self-rising flour that are all open in my cabinet but no All Purpose. The recipe specifically says "do not use self-rising for this recipe' - figures. I couldn't believe it. I decided I would get a shower and try to take the kids out and get some real flour. Luckily Jake called and I asked him to pick up some for me. He gets it home and we start making cookies. I take the time to measure everything precisely. Afterall, I am going to be in a room full of other women, who will undoubtably have perfect Betty Crocker looking cookies...I don't want to look like I can't bake. All women are supposed to bake. Honestly, I am not good at baking. I hate recipes and measuring. It is too much like following rules. If you read my previous posts you will already know, I am not good at following rules. So, back to the baking. I roll out this marble size balls and roll them in cinamon and sugar. It took me about 15 minutes to roll out enough for one sheet. That is a long time considering I had to bake 5 dozen for this exchange. They baked for 8 minutes. I pull them out and they all melted together. So I try another pan full. They looked better but something wasn't right. Hmmmmm. I made the balls smaller. They burned. Black. Charred to the cookie sheet burned. I couldn't figure it out. I threw the cookbook in the trash, it was obviously faulty since I followed the directions exact. Either way I had to make a different cookie. I ran to the store, smelling like burnt cookies, and bought stuff to make a cookie I had 1. never heard of 2. never made before. Stupid. Shouldn't every woman have a signature cookie you use for events such as this one? You know, something that has been passed down for generations? Nope, not me. At 4 PM I called Heather to ask what time the cookie fiasco was happening. Her hubby said 6 PM. WHAT???? Don't these things usually happen at 7 PM? Oh, then I remembered I had told Stephanie I would make an appetizer. What am I going to do? Get the meatballs out. Did I mention my family was very hungry by now? Get out even more meatballs. Yes, we had a meatball dinner. I finally finished the cookies. They turned out okay...nothing to blog home about. The meatballs were good. I get out the door at 5:45 but still ended up being 15 minutes late due to some paving project they are doing in Monroe Falls. Why are they paving Rte. 91 in Monroe Falls on a Saturday evening at 6 P.M.??? When I got there I was shocked to see only a few cookies that were of Martha Stewart stature. Some were downright comical. About 6-7 had completely scratched their first cookie attempts and started all over. Only 2 people brought a cookie of some significance. Next year, I swear I am taking Oreos. You watch. By the way, I did figure out I put 1 pound of butter in the first set of cookies instead of 1/2 pound. I did fish the cookbook back out, wiped the egg shells off and plan to use it again sometime. I used to be able to bake. I don't know what happened.