Start Time: 11:15 am
Stop Time: 6:05 am
Goal: 22 types of cookies, packaged, wrapped & read to deliver on Tuesday 12/18
Baked: Chocolate Chip (8x)
Mixed: Paris Breakfast Shortbread(4x), Cranberry Shortbread (4x), Vanilla Bean Shortbread (4x), Lemon Sugar Rounds (6x), Pecan Sandies (4x)
OMG OMG OMG, I’m behind. No, I’m ahead. No, I think I’m behind. Maybe I’m not. I don’t know anymore! Day started out great. Again, MOTU and The Husband took care of food needs and ordered breakfast so I didn’t have to think about it. I spent most of the day hand-painting feathers. They came out really pretty though. But a TON of work. I think MOTU and I hand-painted over 400 cookies today.
Due to the lack of drying surfaces (if only we had another table..ahem…), we had a little bit of ballet to do today. Nothing like the Pacifica house ballet mind you, but ballet none the less. Thankfully, The Husband is super clever and rigged an extra table out of two chairs and a piece of wood. Potsie came home this morning and she helped with bagging and attempted to seal (McIrish had to fix a few bags for her). She also assembled the boxes too! Potsie is a new addition to my world. She’s like a little sister to me, and so far, hasn’t batted an eye to the craziness of cookie time.
In a lot of ways, Potsie & I have a lot of similarities in our backgrounds, despite our differences. She’s the first one to do a sink full of dishes (even though she didn’t make them), and she understands me in some really deep dark ways. She really gets how big groups and parties stress me out, even though I’m good at throwing them, and how affected I can get by the people around me. She’s also a dumpster, like McIrish, so that works in a lot of great ways. Garbage cookies, excess frosting, cookie dough, have a home now, LOL.
That might be this year’s take away. Garbage cookies. Cookies that are not pretty enough to make the boxes, broken, a little too dark on the bottoms, etc. This year, due to the 2 oven speed and me not being used to it, there are a lot of garbage cookies… I was going to throw them away, but MOTU said NO and made me save them. Potsie, too, wont’ let me trash them. But they are getting eaten so I can’t complain.
The Husband stepped up AGAIN and did the eight batches of chocolate chip cookies. Eight. That man, my god. He is my hero. I don’t know what I would do on no-bake days without him. I just wish he didn’t hate me so much at cookie time. McIrish didn’t stop sealing, pretty much all day, and between him and Potsie bagging, I’m on top of sealing for once. Usually there is a huge backlog of cookies to bag & seal. The extra hands are nice.
Speaking of extra hands– MOTU is a goddess– they don’t call her Master Of The Universe for nothing. Not only did she figure out the airbrush faster than I could have, but she helped me gild and decorate today like nobody’s business. Most people don’t know that she had the hands of an artist and a creative streak in her because for the most part, she’s just so pragmatic and technical. But to me, she is a fine artist who can do detail along with me. We killed it today.
I (stupidly) didn’t order extra airbrush food coloring, so the airbrushed cookies don’t have the dark, red I was hoping for, so I touched them all up with claret luster dust to enhance the design. The red, gold and white is looking so good. I struggled with the design for the cinnamon imperial cut outs, but after a moment alone, to clear my head, I figured it out.
The downside to having all the extra hands is that it means the house is full and there’s more noise and chatter than usual. Between the TV being on and people asking me what they could do, my head got too full and I couldn’t think. I needed a minute. Crisis averted and after that, it was just executing the designs. I did 2 stencils this year, 4 hand-painted designs (if you count having to hand-paint over the airbrushed design) so it was WORK. But, I’m really happy with the decorator cookies this year. They look so much better than years past.
Tonight, I just couldn’t get through all the mint chip. I never do this (because the OCD won’t let me), but I was dead on my feet. I left about 20 cookies on the table, unfinished. I just couldn’t. It killed me to do it, but my hands were sore and I wasn’t doing clean work. I had to stop. Lord almighty, did that shower feel good though.
Tomorrow is a new day. Need to catch up and get a ton of baking done. I feel behind, but ahead, if that makes any sense. I’m hoping the 2 ovens will help cut that baking time down. I gotta get it all knocked out tomorrow so I don’t spend my boxing day baking Monday.
Anyway, I’m dead for the night. My back aches, my hands are achy and I’m going to sleep like a log.
zzzzz….
