cookie monsters

On Saturday we had our monthly girl time scheduled - a newly started tradition with Abby, Shannon, Emily, and myself. We have typically been meeting after work during the week for dinner and drinks, but for December we opted for making Christmas cookie baking and it was a lot of fun - except we were bummed that Emily was sick and couldn't come. We started early and went to lunch, got groceries, and hit up Target and finally got back to Abby's to start mixing and baking.  As we were unpacking the supplies, I asked Abby if she had a rolling pin.  Nope.  We thought briefly about trying to find a rolling pin substitute, but then decided against that.  So they got started mixing and I was off to Target, again. Good thing - we didn't buy enough peanut butter either, so I was able to pick that up while I was out. :)

Amongst some girl talk and catch up, we managed to make four things:

• Monster cookies - Shannon's choice
• Sugar cookie cutouts (frosted, of course) - Abby's choice
• Peanut butter blossoms - In honor of absent Emily
• Oreo truffles - and my choice

Given how much work we had ahead of us, things went smoothly and quickly over the next few hours.  The monster cookies turned out amazing and as a bonus, they are gluten free!  I think this is the recipe that Shannon used (she was following something off of her iPhone - which reminds me of another topic I'll write about later.)  I think Chelsey has a recipe for these in the church cookbook, too - but I don't know if they are a gluten-free version. 

After the monster cookies, we did Peanut Butter Blossoms.  And although they tasted delicious, they were flat and we're not sure why.  Maybe because the baking soda was a little old?  I'm interested to know if you have thoughts on this because in the pictures on the online recipe, they were puffy and perfect.  But like I said, the most important thing is that they were yummy, so I won't complain. I guess I didn't take pictures during this process, so there's only one - of the end result. 

My choice was Oreo Truffles.  I wanted to try truffles again because when I did this last year before Christmas it ... well, let's just say it wasn't the result I was looking for.  They tasted great, but looked terrible.  This year, however, I got some great advice from Holly to use chocolate almond bark - and it worked like a charm!  In addition to using the almond bark the other key thing was to melt it over the lowest heat setting and leave it there and be patient (something I'm not known for.)  If you haven't had these I highly recommend because they are super easy - just oreos and cream cheese for the inside and then dipped in chocolate.  I used mint oreos and that turned out awesome.  I may try Nutter Butters next time - not sure yet - but I will do this again.  Sorry I don't have a picture of me doing this - Shannon does, so if I get it from her, I'll post it.

We made the sugar cookie dough and stuck it in the fridge to cool for a while when the others were baking.  With her new rolling pin Abby took the lead and did the rolling and thanks to Mom, we had some holiday cookie cutters.  Let me tell you that Abby's first time rolling dough on her own went much more smoothly than mine when I made an apple pie earlier this year.  Ask Mom - it wasn't pretty.  Anyway, I digress.  She did awesome - we let them cool and we frosted (and sprinkled) them.  We ended up using this cookie recipe and the frosting part of this recipe.  Also recommend.  I pretty much recommend everything we made - as long as you can get your PB Blossoms to raise. :) 

And we were happy that Harold (aka Herald - get it?), our Christmas moose from when Abby and I lived together, was there to supervise. :)

All in all, a great day. Shannon called us 'Cookie Monster Baking Machines' - and we were.  It was a great day with even better girls, ending the night watching old Christmas movies - Charlie Brown's Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Classic.

p.s.  E-money, you don't get to punk out next time.  we missed you too much! ;-)