The Cookie Chronicles - 1st Ed.

Once upon a time, someone gave me a cookie jar that just called out to be displayed. Once my eyes beheld its unique beauty, I new it had to be filled. I was notorious for baking cookies when I was a teacher up north. I would spend 20 hours the Saturday before Christmas break and bake well over 1,500 cookies. In the beginning, I did not have the beautiful Kitchen-Aid....I had a wooden spoon, a bowl and lots of ingredients.

Times have changed. Several years ago, Mr. Incredible purchased a Kitchen-Aid and life became more simple. I continued the tradition of baking every Christmas..tons and tons of cookies. Cookies to share, cookies to eat and cookies to give as gifts. I baked cookies only during Christmas...it was...my thing!

Now that our lives have changed so dramatically here at our home, and since someone gave me a cookie jar that screams..."Fill me up!", the kids and I have decided that we would attempt to make a different cookie every week. I don't know if we will actually accomplish it, but we will certainly have fun trying! So thus begins the Cookie Chronicles. (Silly right?...I just miss writing).

Every cookie was sampled by several people, consistently, and not to be mentioned hereafter, those would be my family and Mr. Dave Dinardi. He appreciates a good cookie..so we make sure he gets at least one from each batch. :)

Cookie #1
August 12, 2011
Oatmeal Scotchies

I had just received the cookie jar as a gift from my best friend and these were the ingredients that I had in the house. Of course Lorrie Blandy sampled many of these. She was with us a lot this particular week. Blessing us by painting the boys rooms and building shelves. Good memories.

Cookie #2
August 18, 2011
Triple Chocolate Chocolate Chip
Kyle's Choice

What can I say, the boy loves chocolate. (Dodger did steal one and then we had to have the talk about how chocolate could be deadly to dogs....we can only hope Dodger was listening..he seemed to be too busy drooling to listen.) We made goodie bags for Lorrie Blandy and our special sister, Ms. Charlotte Sweet (she was in the midst of a challenging group project).

Cookie #3
August 30, 2011
Chocolate Mint Cookies
Shane's Choice
These were by far the #1 favorites...delicious Andes Mints gave this cookie a smooth cool mint flavor, surrounded by decadent chocolate both white and dark! YUM! After the last picture and my husband's comment about how the cookies looked like droppings...I decided against an actual finished product picture here! But did manage to get a unique shot with that very cute little boy in the picture! Our neighbors got to try these. We are good to our neighbors. I was supposed to bring some of these to my Life Transformation Group but I left the baggie on my counter when I left to meet them. They were very disappointed. Ms. Katie did call later in the week to see if there were any left, sadly for her, these were highly loved cookies that just didn't last very long!

Cookie #4
September 7, 2011
Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip
Brendan's Choice
His words exactly...."Why mess with the best Mom!" Both he and Mr. Incredible love these traditional favorites. I'm not sure if it is because of how delicious it is or because it just seems to make tons of them!
Cookie #5
September 25, 2011
Snickerdoodles
Kyle's Choice
Typically a favorite for Christmas, but Kyle loves their crunchy, yet seemingly soft bite and of course that delicate cinnamon sugar combination....Mr. Incredible loves how wonderfully this particular cookies goes with coffee or tea! Did you happen to notice there is a gap in the dates? That would be because the very next day after making Cookie #4 Chocolate Chips, I experienced the worst cluster headache attack that I've ever had. What an ordeal. I was in serious, almost suicidal, pain for almost 2 weeks straight. Even had an adverse reaction to one of the many drugs given to me. I was in no shape to get out of bed, let alone make cookies. UGH! Memories! So I missed two weeks, but that isn't the point. The cookie chronicles reminds me what happened in the gap. Fun huh? Oh and before I forget, Ms. Aleatha and her boys were here when I made these, then after she left Ms. Allison showed up and snagged some for her family too! This makes me smile...remembering my friends stopping by and sharing cookies with them.
Cookie #6
October 1, 2011
Mocha Orange Crinkles
Shane's Choice
What a fun cookie! The delicious combination of orange/chocolate and coffee...you savored each bite and they were beautiful. The dough was made on a Friday and had to be refrigerated overnight. The next day would be Saturday and Brendan's Baptism was the following day. We gave some of these to our new neighbor Ty and our dear friends Mr. & Mrs. Broadway (Mr. Paul & Mrs. Hazel) Mr. Dave Dinardi almost missed out on these, but when there were only 4 left, he picked up his children at my house and was able to snag one before they were gone!
This picture reveals why I love doing cookies every week...it lets me have fun in the kitchen with my superheros. Look at my Shane all disheveled and cute. We are not just making cookies you know...we're making memories!

Cookie #7
October 7, 2011 (My Dad's Birthday-love and miss my Dad-he would have loved these cookies!)
Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Brendan's Choice
Just look at those ingredients...how could anyone not want this cookie. The fun part for my superheros is helping to unwrap the chocolate and not get to eat any. There are 36 cookies and 36 candies in a bag. Mom only buys one bag...so there is no eating the peanut butter cups. I however did acquire another bag of Reeces Peanut Butter Cups, because as I was rolling the balls I thought I wouldn't have enough candy. So I made an S.O.S. call to Mr. Incredible and he saved the day by stopping and buying more. When I finished making the balls there were exactly 36. (Didn't need the extra candy afterall)...now those extra candies sit in my Lydia bowl and tempt all the children that walk by my entertainment center. The problem with this recipe is that it only makes 36 cookies and you must roll the balls correctly for these to actually work.
Hence the reason for the ruler. I am very particular when baking. I never ever just use a measuring cup..measure cups are always used with knives to level off every single time. Got a lot of comments to this cookie post on Facebook. But it makes me smile nonetheless! My Life Group got to try these. Too bad we had some people absent. They missed great fellowship, and delicious cookies.
I wonder what is next. I'm excited (and I'm probably the only one). So, good for you if you made it all the way through. The next edition of the Cookie Chronicles will only be featuring one cookie. If you need the recipe, just comment and let me know. I'll get it to you. Noticed the I intentionally used the word "need", because we all need a little sweet now and then.