Simply Baking

We interrupt this episode of dorm room design for a little kitchen detour.

Tonight, Whimsy’s friends are throwing a surprise birthday party, and she was asked to bring some cookies. While she could easily have made this batch herself, she let me do it because she knows that one of my favorite things to do in the whole world is bake cookies.

I know…I know…. surprising considering the rest of my culinary talents, but for whatever reason, I not only have great success in the cookie department, I thoroughly enjoy myself when I’m doing it. (Hmm… maybe that’s the reason for the success?)

At any rate, cookie baking is one of my simple pleasures.

And I have some rules.

I always cool my cookies on a certain old cotton tablecloth. Growing up, the Duchess always spread out her cookies on a colorful cotton cloth to cool, and when I got married, I felt compelled to do the same. She gave me this one. It was either one of hers or (I think) it actually belonged to my grandmother.

I have used this cloth and this one only  for 26 years of cookie baking. It’s getting threadbare. Mr. Clean is not allowed to touch it..

I have to bribe him.

That's his cookie on the left.

So I spread out my colorful cloth.

And I gather my ingredients.
And I bake my cookies.

And I sing while I’m doing it.

In my head, I sound just like Doris Day.

All in all, it makes for a wonderful morning. 

Now, usually, I make my cookies from scratch. Snickerdoodles are my specialty. The ones we made this morning, however, are sort of cheaters.

They're called  My Favorite Cookies.
The basic recipe is this:

1 box cake mix (your choice)
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
and a cup of whatever you want to throw in.
Seriously.
Whatever you want.
OK, not meatloaf or something silly like that, but you know what I mean.
We've done chocolate, toffey, health bits, M&Ms, butterscotch, nuts, no nuts, coconut...

I love this recipe because it opens up possibilities for all kinds of fun combinations.

This one is actually the girls' favorite.

  That's all you need.

Of course, the best part of these create-your-own cookie adventures
 is making up the name for your cookie creation.

I like to call these Chunky Little Devils.
The girls and their friends do not cooperate in the cookie name adventure.
Miss Whimsy was just told to bring, "those chocolate things your mom makes."
No matter. The cookie making pleasure is still among my favorites.
And then, there's that simple cookie eating pleasure that goes along with it.
Well, of course!



*****
Joining Dayle today at her A Collection of This and That for her simple pleasures party.