I love this time of the year for so many reasons – the decorations, parties, music and all the delicious foods. This has to be the one time of the year when people go all out – especially when it comes to baking.
I am not much of a baker. I wish I was but I’m not. I’m a good cook but I have never really excelled at baking.
This time of year homemade (and not so homemade) cookies are in abundance. I love cookies. I wouldn’t mind a box of homemade cookies showing up at my door. 🙂
One day I’d love to participate in a cookie exchange. Those sound like a lot of fun, but I guess I need to perfect baking before I can do that.
My mom wasn’t really into baking either. I wish she was because I would have loved to have stood next to her in the kitchen baking up mouth watering treats for our family. It’s also something I wish I could have passed down to my daughter.
I have family and friends who tell me stories about the times they spent with their mom or grandmother baking. It was a special bonding time where family recipes were passed down from one generation to another, as well as family stories. I think the experience (for me anyway) is more about the bonding then it is the baking. The baking is just a “bonus”.
I received a package from Macy’s filled with some goodies to help me bake some cookies with my family. Sadly my son really doesn’t have much interest in it (he rather eat the cookies then bake them). My teenage daughter wanted to make the cookies herself. She’ll be off to college next year and she wants to be able to do things on her own – without our help (got to love teenagers). She begged me to let her make the cookies that Macy’s sent us on her own.
I wanted to spend the time bonding with her and talking, but she wanted to take on the challenge of doing them on her own. So I let her make the cookies on her own.
Macy’s sent a mason jar that was layered with ingredients to make cookies. All she needed to add was two eggs and some butter.
In addition to the cookie mix, Macy’s sent us a really nice spatula and oven mitt from the Martha Stewart Collection.
The directions were pretty simple, but my daughter mis-read something. Instead of making four dozen cookies she made about two dozen cookies – and she made them too big. As they baked they expanded to the point that they were all connecting with the ones around them. The cookie sheet looked like one big cookie. LOL!
Originally she was going to make shaped cookies (Gingerbread Man and Candy Cane) but then she decided she wanted to make the cookies with the Hershey’s Kiss in the middle. Needless to say that didn’t happen.
Even though the cookies came out mis-shapened and not the kind she originally started out making (the ones with the Kisses) they still turned out great and we got a huge laugh out of the experience. She wasn’t disappointed or upset that her cookies didn’t turn out the way she had hoped – she laughed about it even going so far as to say she should just stick to cooking and leave baking up to the experts. Ha Ha.
Believe it or not this cookie experience DID create a family memory. We’ll always remember this as the time our daughter’s cookies spread out all over the cookie sheet and she made giant cookies. I’m sure this will come up in conversation in the future when we make the attempt to bake cookies from scratch again.
A special “thank you” to Macy’s for the yummy cookie mix and great kitchen helpers from the Martha Stewart Collection.
For more information about Macy’s, or to find a location near you, visit Macys.com. You can also find them on social media.
Do you have any fond memories baking holiday treats? Feel free to share your stories.
Kimberly
*I received free product samples. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.