Marathon Cookie Baking

The other day, I baked 380 cookies. Three hundred and eighty. Cookies. I went through four pounds of butter. I ran out of flat surfaces in my house to cool them on. It was absolutely crazy and I loved every minute of it. The purpose of this all-day baking blitz was to make up trays to give to coworkers, neighbors, and family for the holidays. This was the first year that I covered everyone on my own, so it was a real challenge.

Laying everything out was key. I usually grab stuff from the cabinet as I need it, but this was no ordinary baking session. The only problem was that it took up precious counter space, so I ended up covering the dining room table with wax paper and using it for a giant cooling rack. No pictures of that, it was horrible.

I started pretty early in the morning (10:00 AM is super early unless I'm going to work) and I was rotating pans trying to be as efficient as possible. I don't think I'll be doing that again unless I get another timer. My timing scheme that was based on the time of the previous pan broke down disappointingly quickly, so I switched to a single batch at a time in the afternoon.

My (still relatively) new baking stone has been working wonderfully. It makes perfect cookies every time and I think I just might like it more than my trusty tin pans. I know I'm probably ages late in figuring out that stone bakes better than metal. Also, it fit 20 mini Snickerdoodles at a time. That was so awesome.

I also made Peanut Butter Corn Flake Balls again. They're simple, easy, and everyone loves them. You really can't go wrong with these things, it's amazing.


Here's a picture of a tray being assembled. The stack in the back is Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate. They're surrounded by mini Snickerdoodles, with the Peanut Butter Corn Flake Balls in the middle, and Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip cookies in the foreground on the right. Also there is a horrible box of plastic wrap ruining the picture in the background. Yay for forgetting to set up the picture properly!

Here are a few of the completed trays. I had 13 total, with quite a few cookies left over for my immediate family. They all turned out pretty well, although some were a bit drier than I would have liked. I was afraid of having too few so I doubled each recipe and tried to make the cookies a bit on the small side. This completely backfired. Recipes that supposedly yielded 20-40 (I estimated 30, so 60 when doubled) ended up making 140. More than twice the generous estimate!

My favorite out of the bunch is probably the Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate. They were crispy and chewy, sweet and salty all at the same time, which was really neat. Even though I couldn't find the right kind of sea salt locally (supposed to use the flake kind), it worked out. I'll definitely be adding these to the list of cookies to bake for special occasions.

Here's where I got the recipes:
Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate - Smitten Kitchen
Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip - Carmen Cooks
Snickerdoodles - Oven Haven

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Guy Fawkes Night

Remember, remember...

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Now playing: Ludwig van Beethoven, Philadelphia Orchestra & Riccardo Muti - Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67: I. Allegro Con Brio
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KC Renaissance Faire

A few weeks ago, I went to the Ren Faire in Kansas City with my father and brother. We've been going for the past seven years or so, and the last few times I've dressed up for it. I'm currently working on my chainmail hauberk, but it's only about a quarter done, so I borrowed my friend's for the weekend. I made the tabard (the cloth part that goes over the armor) myself, all stitched by hand. I usually tell people that I prefer the rustic look it gives, but in reality I'm just scared to use the antique sewing machine my grandmother passed down.

The aforementioned friend and I planned out this outfit a few years ago, based off the Templar knight uniform. We ordered matching helmets, gloves, belts, and shields. The plan was for both of us to go at the same time, but schedules haven't worked out, which is fine since I'm pretty lazy about working on my chainmail.

I definitely have an elevated level of respect for medieval knights. This was hot and heavy and uncomfortable pretty much the whole time I was wearing it. The helmet alone weighed ten pounds, the hauberk was forty, and with the sword and shield I was carting around a total of sixty pounds of steel (with a long-sleeved shirt, pants, leather boots and gloves on as well). Still, I lasted about three and a half hours, at which point my arms were going numb from the pressure of the chainmail. I'll have to do some research and see if I can find a way to distribute the weight a bit better.
At around that point, we stopped at one of the clothing stores, and I bought a doublet, which I had been wanting for a while anyway. I ran (well, walked rather slowly) back out to the car, swapped shirts, and put on my hat. This outfit was quite a bit more comfortable.

Next year, I want to have my hauberk completed, as well as a coif (a chainmail hood) and a blue tabard with a fleur-de-lis design. The leather store where we ordered our belts has a neat set of ringmail greaves and bracers that I think would fit nicely. It'll be a ton of work, but I'm pretty excited about it. Maybe I'll post progress here to keep me motivated.

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Moving Back to Blogger

I'm temporarily moving back to hosting this blog on Blogspot. There were a few things I didn't like about hosting it on a separate server, mainly the fact that paging went away. I've also updated the template (using one of the provided layouts at the moment) and added a few neat widgets. You might notice the Twitter update at the top of the sidebar - I've finally broken down and started an account. We'll see how it goes.

As far as the future is concerned, I'm thinking about finally making my site. Right now I'm leaning towards Python and Django, but we'll see. Short-term, I want to create my own template or at least heavily edit an existing one. Also, I'm not sure if my feed has changed because of the switch; guess I'll find out after I post this.

In other news, I recently attended KaizenConf, which was awesome. I'll be either posting a recap here or on The Pirates' Code. Maybe both. To sum up in a word though: enlightening. And the number of people in attendance who owned iPhones was staggering. But seriously, it was the most amazing event I've ever been part of.

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Homemade Cookie Day!

So I guess today is Homemade Cookie Day. Last night, my mom and I baked four batches of these (about 120 cookies) and we both took them to work today. They're pretty time-consuming to make with all the different steps, but man they are worth it.

And don't mind the photo - it's one I took from the last time we made these, about a year ago. I was going to take a better picture to post, but... I ate all the leftover cookies.

Recipe courtesy Bake or Break.

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Talk Like a Pirate Day 2008

Avast me lads 'n lasses! T'day be Talk Like a Pirate Day 2008! 'Ave a mug o' rum, sing some shanties, an' above all, talk wit' th'boldness an' flavor o' speech tha' only comes from runnin' up th'jolly roger a time er two! Yaharr!

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Camping Trip: Photo 02

Seen on the bank of the river at Devils Den Campground. Kind of reminds me of those stock photos you seen on business websites.

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