July flew by, and it was more eventful than I expected and
am used to. Last July not much was going
on, no indoor or large gatherings and staying home to avoid catching the virus
made for a string of lazy summer days spent blowing bubbles, reading, and
keeping in touch via texts except for a few times friends or family stopped
over to visit on the patio sharing coffee.
This year was different, the weather has not been as pleasant, and more
days were spent inside with the air conditioning than out in the hot humid air. With my family all being vaccinated we are
able to gather inside, and we have. Our most
notable time together was my Christmas in July cookie exchange.
It was arguably
the hottest, muggiest week of the summer leading up to the big day, and it may
sound crazy, but I baked 2 kinds of cookies, as did my sister in law and niece
together. It’s challenging getting my
dough right in such weather conditions because even though I have the air
conditioning, it affected the texture of my dough. Lemon cookie cutouts became lemon drop
cookies because in spite of refrigerating the dough for 24 hours it remained
too soft and sticky to work with. So I
still decorated them with red and green sugar and they were just as tasty, unexpectedly
puffy and crisper than I expected. They
were delicious with iced tea and had a very light lemony flavor. My other batch was eggnog walnut oatmeal
cookies. They are a drop cookie but
again the dough was very sticky despite refrigerating it for a few hours. They were crispy and flat, and very tasty
with a slight spicy flavor reminiscent of eggnog and delicious with iced
coffee. We also did a Christmas craft
making fans with last year’s Christmas cards.
It was simple to do, (my guests dubbed it a Kindergarten craft), but fun
and useful if one is too warm. They can
be hung on the Christmas tree as an ornament or be used to embellish a
gift. Then we did Christmas Mad Libs for
a while before ordering pizza to munch.
While we ladies were busy tasting all the cookies and drinking iced
coffee and iced tea and making our fans, my husband and brother went shopping
at a new hardware store they’d been dying to check out. We saved them some cookies, of course! All in all it was a really fun day and we
ended it by donning our Santa or elf hats for a group photo. I think this will be my favorite memory of
the summer.
Although
we’re not really back to “normal”, (whatever THAT is), we’re doing more than we
did last summer with others and it feels good.
I don’t think things, at least for me, will ever be the way they were
before everything shut down but it can still be good. Maybe better in some ways, and different,
which isn’t a bad thing. It just might
take some getting used to.
The fans we made and the Mad Libs. So much fun!
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Here are the two cookie recipes I used, in case now you feel like baking cookies!
Lemon Christmas Tree Cookies (5 dozen small)
1/3 cup soft butter 1
cup sugar
1 egg 2
cups sifted flour
½ teaspoon soda ¼
teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon lemon peel 3
Tablespoons lemon juice
Cream butter thoroughly.
Add sugar gradually, beating until fluffy. Beat in egg, then add lemon peel. Sift
together flour, soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with lemon
juice, mixing until smooth. Divide dough
in half and wrap in waxed paper. On lightly floured surface, roll out ½ of
dough at a time to 1/8 inch thickness.
With floured cookie cutter, cut into desired shapes (I usually use a
tiny Christmas tree cutter) and decorate with colored sugar, if desired. Place
on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375* F for 10 minutes or until lightly
browned. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.
**When I made them drop cookies they were bigger and took a
couple minutes longer to bake. I got
only about 2 ½ dozen.**
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Egg Nog Oatmeal Walnut Drop Cookies
1 cup all purpose flour ½ teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon nutmeg ¼ cup shortening
¼ cup softened butter ½ cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg 2 Tablespoons milk ½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup quick cooking rolled oats ¼ cup chopped walnuts
Stir together flour, baking
powder, baking soda, ¼ teaspoon salt and spices. In mixer bowl beat shortening and butter for
30 seconds; add sugars and beat till fluffy.
Add egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well.
Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture, beating till well combined. Stir in oats and walnuts. Chill dough 2 hours; form 1 inch balls. Dip tops of balls in additional granulated
sugar or cinnamon sugar, if desired.
Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake in a 375*F oven for 10-12
minutes. Makes 36
1 comment:
What a great way to spend a July day! I love it.
Ralph
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