Homemade Cookies are Overrated

Well, not really.

I love homemade cookies, and can't stand using store bought dough. But with three kids, that's about as good as it will get. Not to mention, for some reason, I can't bake a cookie to save my life. I don't know why, but I will have rock-hard, raw-middle, bitter, sour, or flour-y tasting cookies. I've read all the tricks on how to make perfect cookies. Make sure the butter is cold, don't add too much flour, use fresh baking soda, etc.

But Martha Stewart herself could not help me. I've even taken a few photos of the botched-batches...

Some muffins were good, others, not so much:

These were supposed to be "Double Doozies", and they were a "doozie" all right:

I love thick chocolate chip cookies, almost cake-like, but these looked, felt, and tasted like plaster:

So, I don't give up, I just don't bother. I use store bought dough. But maybe that's a good thing, because rather than waste energy on figuring out the impossible, I now have more time to spend with the girls. (Who I pray will be better bakers than their mother!)

Oct. 2008: Store-bought Sugar Cookie Dough with Halloween Sprinkles...

2009: Bisquick Easy Pour Pancakes, Just add water! :)

Dec. 2009: Gingerbread House from Target...

Christmas 2009: JJ wears the same smock I wore at her age, and we're baking with the same 70's Orange bowl my mom used when we were kids...

Today, JJ had a sad day at school, and needed cheering up. I always keep a log of frozen cookie dough, for such emergencies...

Big-A wanted to help... but we didn't bake her dough, yuck!

Using the cookie cutters... Big-A was a little aggressive with the cutters...

Decorating the finished product (which I miraculously did not burn in the oven)...


Tasting the finished product, YUM!

In the end, I think baking has taught me that no matter how disgusting the cookies turn out, the kids will still love me... and they will still eat them. With every batch that we make, we make memories, too. And I believe this, because I still remember baking with my mom.