Cookies for Others

Amazing - I baked two batches of cookies today and I'm actually blogging about them today as well! Am I accomplished or what. (Plus I picked strawberries from the garden, went grocery shopping, got a load of laundry done and taught kindergartners all day - man I am productive). Note - because this weird blog format won't let me have paragraphs. I'll begin each paragraph with the word in bold. I'm finding it hard to figure out how to start this post. I feel like I am a caring person and I like to let others know that I am thinking about them, especially when a person needs it. However, probably like most people, I have good intentions but don't always follow through. On the other side of things, lately I feel like I could be doing more. I feel like I should volunteer more, give more, do more for others. I feel like I have been so blessed in life that I ought to give what I can, but following with my theme here, I have good intentions, but don't always follow through. So my two batches of cookies today have to do with that theme; hence my post title. I want to try to write the following in the most sensitive way possible. Since this is public I want to write this in a way that I would be perfectly okay with if the mentioned person read this herself. About 2 months ago a co-worker of mine received possibly the worst news one could get. Her husband received a grim medical diagnosis; the news is not good. Since then, this family has been in my thoughts and prayers. However, being newly married, I keep thinking about what if this were my situation. I think and I guess hope that it is human nature to be thankful it's not you when you hear news like that. I feel just horrible for this co-worker of mine. Just from how she talks and acts, you know that this is a strong marriage and this is the love of her life. I just feel so bad and helpless. Since hearing this news, I wanted to do what I could for this co-worker. I'm not close to her, I've only been working with her for 7 or so months. I'm not in her inner group, but this woman is the nicest woman and is a great teacher. I talked to my Aunt who lost her own husband to cancer a few years back and asked what was it that was the biggest comfort to her/my Uncle. She replied, just knowing that people were thinking about them. I planned on sending a few cards to this co-worker, cute funny ones - just to lift the spirits. Here it is the end of May and I haven't sent one. Worse yet is I've barely said anything to her. I feel awkward - I don't know what to say. Finally I had to email her to ask her to sign off on some paperwork for my own tenure process as a teacher (she's on my teaching team) and I asked what cookies her family loves. Apparently oatmeal chocolate chip is her husbands favorite - so that's the kind I made today. I hope this act does as intended and lift the spirits of this family and assuage my feelings of guilt for a few days. #36 Out on the Range Cookies These are possibly the best out of the 36 I have made. They are an oatmeal chocolate chip, but it has peanut butter in it as well. I couldn't leave the dough alone. Note to all who eat my cookies, I did not lick my fingers - I do not do that - after putting the dough on the cookie sheet - I took a small bit of dough for me and then wash my hands. As the little synopsis on the sidebar says, these cookies "combine the best of chocolate chip, oatmeal and peanut butter cookies into one treat". Okay, onto the guilt about not volunteering enough. There's a gardening committee at the church who will be working hard this weekend to beautify our church's busy corner. I'm a gardner, I enjoy it, what a great way to volunteer. I planned on working, unfortunately I'm in a lot of pain lately due to, what I finally got diagnosed after 2 months of horrible back pain, as a rotated pelvis. Doing any sort of manual labor, actually doing any sort of standing, walking, exercise, turning wrong, etc - puts me in pain for 2 days. However, the committee asked for a few cookie treats to snack on while they so unselfishly make our church beautiful. Of course if you're a believer of Joey from friends, you know that there is no unselfish good deeds - all good deeds are selfish (because they make you feel good about yourself). Note: If you know me at all, you know that I like to quote or reference "Friends" whenever I can, ; ) Anyways, batch # 37 Apple Butter Cookies So I didn't know what batch to make - so I just flipped opened my book and pointed to one. Unfortunately that brought me to the section cookie cutter delights (to the page of a bunch of star cookies). Frankly, I did not want to make those. I'm short on time, making 2 batches today and the whole pain the back factor made me page through my book until I found a "risky" but easy cookie. "Risky" because I don't know if I'll enjoy it so it won't be a problem to just give them away, and easy because it only makes 2 1/2 dozen and all I have to do is drop the dough on the sheets and pop them in the oven. So apple butter cookies it is. Did you know there is something called apple butter? Yep, you find it by the peanut butter. It has the consistency of thick apple sauce, and tastes kind of cinnamony. As for the cookies, they're okay. Really it's unfair for them to be tested right after the Out on the Range cookies. They are like a bread cookie - very moist and soft. Apple tasting with raisins in them. A very different kind of cookie.

The day of 24 dozen cookies

As usual, I find time to bake the cookies, but I never get around to writing about them. So again, I have two batches to write about. Mike and I have been looking at open houses lately - we have time before we NEED to buy, but if one pops up that we both love, we want to be ready to jump on it. In order to be ready, our current house needs to be ready to sell. I know, we just finished the kitchen, we already finished the basement, we made the bedroom into a sanctuary, we remodeled the bathrooms and we added more storage than one could ever possibly believe we have. What else is there you ask? The roof. So in typical Larson fashion, we arranged a weekend work crew composed of siblings and uncles to tear off the old and put on a new. On a weather sensitive project, trying to have everything ready and arranged can be a bit stressful. I was the ground crew who had to make sure the shingles got to the dumpster, and anticipate the needs of the roofers so that whatever they happened to need at any given moment - it'd be right there waiting for them. Plus, I had to make sure their was lunch and more importantly, donuts and mountain dew. As usual, the uncles and my dad swore that this is the last roof they will do. And as my sister Jenny pointed out "Aww, it's a typical roofing weekend, everyone is yelling at each other." With that said, I felt I owed something to all those who came to help, which brings me to cookie batch #34. I thought about making six different kinds of cookies (that's how many people helped out) and mixing all the cookies together so everyone got a variety. Then I decided to not be crazy and just look in the big batch bonanza section of my cookie cookbook and pick one from there. It had to be a batch with m&m's in it, because that is what my nieces and nephews wanted (their dad is the one who did the roofing, however 2 year old Eddie was pretty good at carrying shingles to the bucket). In my Big Batch Bonanza section of the cookbook, I found a cookie that has m&m's and makes 24 dozen - perfect - each person would get 4 dozen. 4/21/12 #34 Chunky Oatmeal Cookies I started this batch at 12:00 in the afternoon. I baked until I had to leave for my niece's birthday party - 3 hours later. By that time, I had about 14 dozen done. When I returned home, I baked for another hour and a half. 24 dozen cookies take a long time to bake. However, I think they were a hit. Uncle Reid got his batch right away. Three days later when Mike saw my other Uncles at "therapy" (the bar where the men in my family like to meet every week) he wanted to know where his cookies were. Fortunately I sent them with Mike - but then my Uncle Reid claimed that the other Uncles got more. Sheesh - you would think a bagful of cookies would be enough. And they all did get the same amount, I counted them out. Now one of the biggest batches in the book is done. There is one batch that makes 26 dozen cookies - maybe the next roof we have to have done, I'll make those. 5/12/12 Batch #35 Mom's Soft Raisin Cookies It occurred to me that it is Mother's day tomorrow and that I would be a bad daughter and bad daughter-in-law if I did absolutely nothing - and I don't think I can count on Mike to do anything for his Mom, other than maybe call her - so I turned to what seems to always makes everyone happy - their own batch of cookies. What better cookie to celebrate mothers' day with than a cookie called: "Mom's soft raisin cookies" . Granted my mother-in-law will not get them tomorrow as I just baked them today and we have to mail them, but I hope the saying "it's the thought that counts" applies here. These are yummy cookies - they are really soft with just a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon in it. Also, the key is to cook the raisins in a cup of water to get the raisins really soft. I'm all caught up now. Happy Mothers Day!