Just call me Betty...



The title of this post is a shout out to my old college roommates. Whenever one of us saw another cooking something, we would ask, "Whatcha makin', Betty?" (I should probably not admit that as the clueless freshman that I was, it took me several days before I caught on that they were referencing Betty Crocker. Duh.)
Last week, I decided to channel my inner Betty and chain myself to the oven for a Holiday bake-a-thon. I was in the Christmas spirit, full-swing, and eager to get some neighbor goodie plates prepared and delivered. First, I had to decide what I wanted to make. I pored over my cookbooks and various recipe websites, and found many tasty-looking recipes. I had trouble deciding what I wanted to make, so I narrowed the selection down to three recipes and decided to make all three! :)
None of the recipes were particularly difficult, but they were all new to me. All three of the recipes were found on Food.com, and were chosen because

a) they looked yummy
b) the recipes and ingredient lists seemed fairly simple
c) they were all rated highly by many other website users.

I printed off the recipes, made my shopping list, and went to the store. The night before my bake-a-thon, I did as much preparation as possible. I had my strategy in place (mix the dough for this recipe while the dough for that recipe is chilling in the fridge, etc). I had all the dry ingredients I needed organized on my counter, my dishwasher empty and ready to be loaded with my baking instruments, and all my Christmas CD's stacked in the order that I wanted to listen to them.



The morning of B-day, I sent Tayson off to school at 7:45, as usual, and wasted no time getting started in the kitchen. Well, okay, first I set Brennen up on pbskids.org for a little game time to keep him out of my hair for a while. (Yes, I used an electronic babysitter. Judge me if you will.) My plan was to have all the goodies prepared and delivered on that same day, and everything was going according to schedule. The problem was this: I was in full Betty Crocker mode, and after my small, healthy breakfast (about 200 calories), I completely forgot to eat for the rest of the day. It just never even crossed my mind. So, at about 2:30 in the afternoon, after more than 6 hours of being on my feet in the kitchen, the 200 calories long since burned off, I hit a brick wall. My body and mind joined forces in rebellion and refused to function anymore.
I had just pulled the last batch of goodies from the oven and turned the oven off. However, I still had several dozen cookies to frost and goodie plates to be loaded, wrapped, labeled, and delivered. I was completely unable to do so, however, and instead sat on the couch in a trance-like state, letting my children wreak havoc around me.
Clint came home from work early, bringing dinner with him, which I ate listlessly while still sitting on the couch. After eating, knowing the kids were in good hands, I tipped over sideways and took a much needed nap. At about 7:30, I woke up with my will-power back in control, and my body and mind beaten into submission. I went through the bedtime ritual with my kids, then got back to work in the kitchen. I hand-painted the icing onto the cookies with a small paintbrush, as the recipe instructed, distributed the goods to the plates, wrapped them up, attached labels and bows, and set them aside to be delivered the next day. After some rudimentary tidying of the kitchen, I fell into bed, exhausted, at about midnight.

So, what did I make?

Sugar Cookies with Icing that Hardens

(click for recipe)



Fudge Crinkles

(click for recipe)

Chocolate Mint Candy (Fudge)

(click for recipe)

So throw them all together, and what do you get?

And multiply that by 35, you have:

So, were the goodies tasty and worth all the time and effort put into making them? I honestly have no idea. I forgot to taste-test any of them. :D