The Case of the Hesitating Chef

I am a reluctant baker, mostly because it is important to be exact with measurements when baking, and I am a cook who enjoys just eyeballing my ingredients. However, Kary at My Farmhouse Kitchen recently posted a recipe for cranberry walnut shortbread cookies that appeared to be festive and, most important, so simple that I thought that I could put up with the rarely used measuring cups and spoons. I am so glad I did!

They turned out fabulously, just as delicious as Kary said they would . Her blog included a photograph of her beautifully finished cookies, showing evenly colored and perfectly round spheres while mine, typical of an uncertain baker, have uneven edges and spots that are a little on the burned darkish side.  But the taste...oh,so divine! This recipe is a keeper.

Cleo and Winnie hung around the kitchen while the cookie creation was happening, hoping that a morsel or two might fall their way. Since I am not the neatest of cooks, they lucked out. Who knew pugs liked cranberries!

The cats, on the other hand, snoozed through the entire culinary process, content to wait for their dinner and correctly trusting that I will keep them supplied with their favorite treat: green grass, for all year-round munching, growing in a clay pot inside the house.  The latest batch, just now sprouting outside, will shortly replace the half-eaten one now being enjoyed. Yes, I have spoiled animals!

When will I bake again? Well, probably very soon...and this same recipe will be my target. Since I have already eaten 5 of these marvelous cookies, there is no way there will be even a crumb left to take to Thanksgiving dinner, still four days away.

Wow. Baking twice in one week: That might be a record for me.