My Valentine Surprise...

Every year Valentine's has always been such a ho-hum day.  This year really has been nothing different.  However...the majority of my immediate family members are in other states.  So I thought about doing something fun for all of them that would surprise them and be something special for them....

 I can cook very well, but cooking is not my most favorite thing to do. But baking and I do not in anyway get along with each other!  I have no patience to wait for the entire process to be complete!  There's the measuring, the mixing then the scooping and the forever waiting for the final goodies to be baked.  Yeah, it's too much for me.  

My poor family, whenever they wanted cookies, they either had to make them themselves or have grandma make them!  I just never really had any interest in doing it.  Another thing about baking...the horrible painstaking clean up!  How many bowls, pans, plates, measuring cups and spoons does something really need?  Apparently the entire kitchen because it seems like the entire kitchen gets spotlessly cleaned whenever baking happens...

Anyway, with all the being said...this year I decided that I would attempt to make for the first time ever sugar cookies that I absolutely LOVE to eat because the recipe is for soft cookies.  So I asked my mom if she would teach me (poor thing was probably thinking "Oh man, I'm in for it!!!)

So a couple weeks ago my grandma's recipe was pulled out of the recipe box and I was given the task to find all the ingredients.  I know what all the ingredients are, I just don't like doing all the measuring.  Next out came the mixing bowl...

Then I was told to measure everything as double.  No problem, except when it came to 1 1/2...oh that's 3.  Yes, I really have to think about this stuff.  (Is it a bad thing when I think about how much it is to a tank of gas? Yeah that's what I have always do to determine exactly how much a measurement is...) 

So it was time to cream butter and sugar...huh?  How in the world do I do that?  Well it goes into the mixer together!  I had no idea!  Then the flour and all the other dry stuff...but that has to be measured separately and then folded together!  Folded together?  Really?  That means the dry stuff mixed together BEFORE it goes into the creamed sugar stuff in the mixer...(Seriously, I was amazed) Then when you add the dry mixture to the buttery sugar, you only add a little at a time...

While adding a little in at a time, you have to stop and scrape the sides of the mixing bowl to make sure its mixing completely...Problem!  I'm too short to see the sides of the mixing bowl!  So mom got the foot stool out for me so I can scrape the sides of the bowl better without hurting my toes because I was on my tip-toes trying to scrape the bowl!

That's me on the foot stool!  Yes I am that short!

Oh then once that's mixing you add one egg at a time.  Gees, no wonder I never liked baking!  Why can't you just put them in together?  What difference does it make?  Apparently it does, but I may never figure out why because I have to follow the recipe exactly!  

Once everything is all mixed together, get this...the cookie dough has to go into the fridge for 3 hours!  I don't know why, but that's what the recipe says to do....So okay what do I do with the 3 hours?  Well apparently a lot because I got stuff done!

I got the scrapper...mom got the beaters!  Dough going into the fridge for 3 hours!

3 Hours Later!!!

Now it's time to roll the dough out.  Oh man!  I have NEVER used a rolling pin.  I had no clue what to do now.  Make sure you have plenty of flour to roll the dough out because it will stick!  (See a huge mess!)  You roll like this, then this, then turn this way...I didn't think I could handle doing that...seemed way over my non-baking skills!  So I was given the rolling pin and told to roll.  I rolled!  Let's just say...it wasn't as bad as I thought!  

Cutting the cookies was no big deal.  Push the cookie cutter into the dough then plop it onto the cookie sheet.  The problem here was, the racks in the over have to be moved.  I never would have known to do that and why....

So with the racks in different places its time to bake cookies.  5 minutes on the bottom rack, move them to the top rack to 2 more minutes.  In the meantime keep rolling and cutting cookies! 

I was trying to be happy...but inside I was crying!  

Okay, this is where I have to admit...I was so ready to give up and say "SCREW IT"  I was getting so stressed out with moving trays, rolling and cutting.  I never thought I was going to get to the end of the dough.  FINALLY after what seemed like hours of this moving, rolling, cutting, scooping the last cookies were D.O.N.E.!  

Finished product of the first time EVER making sugar cookies!

I was relieved when it was finally done.  I had to keep telling myself I am doing this because I need to be able to know how to do this.  One day my kids will have kids and will send them to grandma to make cookies.  How sad would it be if I said "Let's go to the store and buy them!"  Yes, I would totally do that!  But my kids loved helping bake cookies, so I think it would be a good idea to start learning how to do this thing called baking.  I was happy when I finished this batch and had already decided that I was going to attempt to make more the next day all by myself without my mom's help.  Guess what?  I did it.  This time I wasn't as stressed out and it got done so much faster than it did the day before.

Clean up is never fun.  I had to refill the flour container for the next batch...
Yup, that's me on the foot stool again! 

I bought a few tubs of frosting and a couple containers for mailing.  I packaged the cookies up with frosting and sprinkles so they could be frosted when everyone got them.  I sent them packed in a container with the frosting inside and packed with different kinds of Valentine candies so they were somewhat padded.  Valentine cards, and boxes of chocolates were all packed into the boxes and shipped off to Josh and Adam in North Dakota, and Breanne and Tyler in Cedar City.  

As of yesterday everyone got their cookies.  The cookies were baked with love!  It was a totally new experience for me, and one I will definitely be attempting again!  

Oh, I make enough cookies to take to 8 different families at church and for mom to take to work for the staff.  I hope everyone liked them because they were definitely a labor of love!