The Season Begins!

Talk about a wild day - today was one of them for me! Things were moving along ok until this afternoon when it was time for Mandy and Kate to leave to go to work at the restaurant over in Clearfield where Mandy waitresses and Kate is now employed there on Friday and Saturday evenings as the dishwasher.

To say all Hell broke loose -that's a close description of how I felt after the fact once I caught my breath that is.

Maya went into meltdown mode as soon as Mandy and Kate were out the door -insisting she had to go with them. Initially, I thought she was beginning to calm down and then, she started up again and made her way to the front door which I then learned she had figured out how to unlock it and out the door she went. And, away I went too -trying to chase after her through the yard, down behind the house where I finally did manage to catch up with her and got her back inside although it was far from a pretty sight to the neighbors I'm sure as she didn't come with me as a happy little camper. I wasn't overly pleased either as I didn't have time when she took off to look for my shoes, much less grab them and put them on, so there I was, trying to run around the yard in my stocking feet, yelling at a four-year-old (I was nice though - didn't let fly with any cuss words), trying to catch her without putting myself into cardiac arrest in the process too, ya know. I definitely was pretty well winded though by the times we got back inside.

It took me a good bit of cajoling to get her to calm down but finally, I hit on something that caught her fancy. I told her she and I would bake some cookies together for Mommy to have tonight when she gets home from work. In typical Maya fashion, just baking cookies wasn't quite good enough. She insisted that we make cookies AND brownies too and I finally gave in and we did that.

Ok, the brownies were cheaters - a nice box mix. I'm not embarrassed in the least to admit that I rarely make brownies from scratch. The cookies today though - well these were a new recipe, one that is on the package of the chips I purchased about two weeks ago because they really appealed to me. Mandy and I both love the Andes mints - you know the ones I'm talking about - little chocolate squares with the green mint sandwich layer in between. Well, I came across these baking chips - Andes peppermint baking chips - little red and white chocolate chips, flavored with the Andes peppermint and the recipe on the bag has been enticing me ever since I bought that package and brought them into the house to try making these cookies.

So today was the day! And yes, Maya was my little helper too - licked the bowl and spatula after I made the brownies and then, when I baked the cookies, she was my official taste tester there too. She licked the beaters from the cookie dough almost clean as a whistle too. She snagged at least one cookie of each batch as soon as I got them out of the oven and even snuck out into the kitchen and managed to grab a little blob of the cookie dough on a sheet, ready to be popped into the oven as well.
Here's my chocolate faced little Princess after having licked the spatula and bowl that I mixed the brownies in as well as having cleaned up the cookie dough on the beaters and chowing down at least five, maybe six of the Andes Peppermint cookies I made.
And here's a shot of the cookies, in the nifty little tupperware container, ready and waiting for the family to see how quickly they can make them disappear. I baked almost six dozen cookies and as of now - after I had four cookies along with my coffee while writing this post, plus the ones Maya absconded with too, I think we are probably down to about 60 cookies left tonight.

They really are very good - have oatmeal, coconut and coarsely chopped pecans - along with those nifty little Andes Peppermint bits in them and they were also my kind of recipe too - EASY!

Maybe tomorrow, since we're slated to get a not-so-nice winter storm overnight - 2-4 inches of snow, topped off with freezing rain (YUCK, and Double YUCK forecase there), Mandy had declared before leaving for work today that tomorrow will then be Put-Up-The-Tree Day. So while she and Kate enlist Bill's help to get the tree, lights, ornaments, other holiday decorations down from the attic and get the tree up and trimmed, perhaps if my baking mood last, I will indulge in making a few other types of cookies to freeze, in preparation of the upcoming holidays.

That is, if my back and legs don't lock up on my overnight tonight after my chasing Maya around the yard this afternoon. I'm entirely TOO old for those kind of games ya know!