Of Nerves and E. Coli

Today is the big day! I am going before 11 kids who want to learn how to cook. Whew.. I have prepared a presentation on Kitchen Safety/Hygiene and Safe Food Preparation. I even printed out some cute E. Coli and Salmonella to demonstrate with.

Why is it that I can get up before strange adults and give a presentation but when I think about standing up in front of kids I go all nervous nelly!?!?!?! I do this everyday! No easy task, this is. Ooooh! Maybe I'll go all Yoda on them.

No?

Probably not a good idea, seeing as I don't know enough Jedi speak to get through an hour.

Wish me luck, I hope these kiddos are ready for me! Man! I bet they haven't seen anything like me before! Wow! I'm gonna knock their aprons off! Whoooo boy! Watch out kids! Here I come!




help!!!

The gingerbread men...



The oatmeal raisin cookies



My Tree on Monday...updates to come



I'll be posting more pics of the cookies soon as I can..today I made:

JOT's wedding cookies
Choc-Ful Chocolate Cookies
Coconut Macaroons

The Long Wait is Over!

No, I don't mean Advent. I mean the long wait for the Direct T.v. technician to finally get out here and hook us up with High Definition access. Whew! I ordered this service back on November 28th! Long story short, they messed up my order, brought out the wrong box, never came to pick it up and almost had to cancel today! I called the tech manager and said I was havin' none of that!

While we waited, my middle son helped make some oatmeal cookies, 72 to be exact. My youngest made up the gingerbread man dough and put it in the fridge. By the time we received High Def we had made enough cookies to put in a bag for the young tech who was very polite and helpful.

I ran off the grocery to pick up some coconut for macaroons that I had to add to my baking list at the last minute. Tonight we are off to a Knights of Columbus dinner and we'll be bringing baked Macaroni and Cheese.

Tomorrow..home school group, more baking, library and more Christmas decorations to put up.

It's time to do the Jesse Tree! The kids are waiting on me for once!

Christmas Cookie Swap

These are my most favorite chocolate chip cookies. My middle son has taken on the responsibility of making these at least once or twice a month. He's gotten very good at it! My future top chef. The secret to a great chocolate chip cookie is in the chip..we always use Nestle. We are considering a "luxury" chocolate chip bake off in the near future. We will test different high end chocolate chips against Nestle. I'll let you know how that turns out!.

Butter Flavored Crisco Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients
3/4 c Butter flavored Crisco
1 3/4 c All-purpose flour
1 1/4 c Firmly packed brown sugar
1 ts Salt
2 tb Milk
3/4 ts Baking soda
1 tb Vanilla
1 c Semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 Egg
1 c Pecan pieces

Instructions for Butter Flavored Crisco Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie
Heat oven to 375. Cream butter flavor crisco, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla in large bowl. Blend until creamy. Blend in egg. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture, gradually. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop rounded Tablespoonfuls (about 2 measuring tablespoons) of dough 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies (they will look light and moist) DO NOT OVERBAKE or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool on baking sheet 2 minutes. Remove to coo rack. 3 dozecn 3-inch cookies. Note: if nuts are omitted, use 1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips