Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!


I like to call this one "It's the tradition that counts..."

Here's a shot of me attempting to pass along the joyous Christmas tradition of "rich roll cookies" to my son Nicolas. I've made this recipe tons of times, and this year was the first time I royally screwed it up.

This experience demonstrates the perils of baking only once a year. I tracked down as many of my American measure measuring cups as I could find (most were in various toyboxes), but all of the labels had rubbed off saying which one was which. I thought I'd be able to figure out which was which just by eyeballing it "Is this a half-cup or a cup? Guess it looks like a cup..." and I was very, very wrong. And even though the dough had the wrong consistency as I put it in the fridge to chill, I still didn't realize how badly I'd messed up until I tried to roll out the dough and cut it and bake it. And all the little shapes (that had been so much trickier than usual to cut out) liquefied and ran together.

I went ahead and baked them all anyway, and the result was almost tolerably edible if I do say so myself!!!

I think a lot of culinary innovations are the result of "serendipity" (a.k.a. errors ;-) ), so I thought of patenting this new recipe and marketing it as "Little Baked Pats o' Butter," but then it hit me that I'm probably not the first to make this mistake, and really they weren't very good.

Anyway at least I felt festive in my red-and-green-plaid Christmas apron!!! And I'll do better next year.

If anyone has forgotten my position on the whole Christmas thing, here's the explanation: Tradition! :D

19 comments:

m said...

blobs of butter are yummy! anything with butter is yummy!

I'll be attempting to make a Vienna style cheesecake right now, without 50% of the ingredients, which I forgot to buy. So.... I have the cheese, and eggs and that should be enough. hehehehe

enjoy your holidays!

C. L. Hanson said...

Thanks Montchan!!!

Blobs of butter are yummy except when I make 'em. If there's a cooking equivalent of a "green thumb" I don't have it. ;-)

I imagine your cheesecake will turn out great though!!! Mmmm, I love cheesecake!!!

(Another one of those items that unfortunately doesn't exist in France...)

m said...

but I have seen this strange kind of cheese that can be used for a cheesecake in France. And I have seen something resembling cream cheese too! without any flavorings.

I just realized I don't have any powder sugar. I suppose zapping normal sugar in a food processor will be OK.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about the cookies! Hope you had a great day anyway!

C. L. Hanson said...

Hey Montchan!!!

They might have some cheese here that would work, but after this whole cookie fiasco, I'm not doing anymore culinary experiments any time soon... ;-)

Thanks Aerin!!!

We've had a great day!!! I hope you're having a happy holiday season as well!!!

Sideon said...

Merry Christmas to you, Chanson!

Hugs and love,

-Don

T Wanker said...

Merry Christmas C.L.,

I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful Christmas present of your book. I'm about 80 pages in and it has been a fun, nostalgic trip so far. Couple that with hanging out with my very wonderful, TBM family and I feel all warm and traditional.

My trick for correcting any culinary mistakes on deserts is to add more sugar -- usually works, although I think I'm about to fall into a diabetic shock.

Merry Christmas from Utah.

Rebecca said...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Nice.

C. L. Hanson said...

Thanks Sideon!!!

Merry Christmas and hugs and love to you too!!!

Thanks T-Wanker!!!

I'm so glad you're enjoying my book!!! Merry Christmas from way over here in France!!!

Thanks Rebecca!!!

I'll have you know -- I am the unchallenged master of cooking disaster!!! :D

Floating in the Milk said...

I think the botched cooking and baking attempts might be the best ones anyway. My kids don't remember the various times I've made perfectly edible, or even delicious meals and desserts. What they do remember are the vile biscuits I tried to make from scratch last year, or the incredibly botched meatloaf from five years ago. My sisters and I still joke about the time our mother burned the Kraft Mac & Cheese in 1982, and we all started singing "Somthing's Burnin" by Kenny Rogers. It's the mistakes that create memories.

C. L. Hanson said...

Hey FiTM!!!

That is so true!!!

The one tale that is always recounted (from my mom's years of thankless cooking dinner) was the time we grew some eggplant in our garden and Mom made an eggplant parmesan that the whole family hated!! ;-)

Sister Mary Lisa said...

I hate holiday baking, therefore I refuse to do it. Why, oh why, can't I be a domestic goddess, if only for a day???

You made me laugh with this post.

C. L. Hanson said...

Thanks SML!!!

I actually kind of like baking once a year. But if the desire came on more frequently, I'd probably be better at it... ;-)

Just one of many said...

Sounds like a fine tradition! I love to bake ice box cookies with the kids they love the cute shapes and icing them. Your son is a cutie!!

C. L. Hanson said...

Thanks Joom!!!

I love this tradition, especially the part where the kids decorate the cookies. Hopefully we'll get all the way to the decorating stage next year... ;-)

Freckle Face Girl said...

Perfect measuring is always the key to baking (unfortunately). :) Looks like you had fun anyways.

C. L. Hanson said...

Hey Freckle Face Girl!!!

It's so true!!!

I always want to just eyeball it, and one of these days I'll learn to cut that out... ;-)

Christy said...

Very cute, I admire your efforts! :) Sugar cookie baking is a hobby of mine... let me know if you'd like my recipe and tips, I'd be happy to share!

C. L. Hanson said...

Thanks Christy!!!

Absolutely!!!