Mixing+Measuring+Baking=Cookies

So I decided I would do some baking today.  Anyone who knows me knows I hate to cook.  I actually like to use the word ABHOR because hate is not strong enough.  So, I abhor cooking.

I don't like the prep work, I don't like the actual cooking part and I despise the clean-up.  If I were single I would probably be eating out a lot, bringing home stuff or ordering in.  Alas, I have a husband and two kids so sometimes cooking has to be done. It has to be done on the days that I can't get my dear hubby to do it.  Ok so the family does get 3 meals a day somehow, so no worries there.

What I don't mind doing occasionally is baking.  I suppose I should be clear here....baking as in boxed cake  and cookie mixes etc.  I very much like the Toll House cookies that are frozen that you just break apart and throw in the oven.  It really doesn't get any easier than that!  Anything more than that and it's usually a disaster.

I've tried to make homemade rolled and cut-out Christmas cookies.  They burn on the edges and I'm not talented enough to decorate them to look like something Martha could do in the blink of an eye.  I have a beautiful book called Cookie Craft that has pictures of some of the most amazingly decorated cookies.  If I could make cookies that looked like that I'd be happy to get in the kitchen and sweat over them.  But I can't.  I've tried royal icing and it never hardened.  I've tried the pipe and flood technique. The pipes broke, the flood flooded the countertop.

So, last year at a cookie exchange with a bunch of girlfriends I found a cookie that I really like and when I tried to make it it was a total hit!  They go by several names but the most widely-used was Mexican Wedding Cookies.  They are light as air, not too sweet on the inside but rolled in powdered sugar, twice!
Very easy to make as well.  I guess last year I gave M some to take to work and yesterday he said that a lady at work asked if I'd be making the cookies again.

So yesterday I made 4 batches of the dough.  I did not bake them yet. I wanted to split the  job into two days so today I'll be baking them.  It's so much nicer to do all of the measuring, mixing, dirtying bowls etc all in one day and then bake with a clean kitchen the next day.  Maybe it's just me but it makes it more do-able.  I tend to lose interest if any baking process takes too long.  I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that when making cookies as a young girl, the last batch was one big cookie because I didn't have the patience to see the baking through to the end any other way.

So, the oven is preheated and I'm off to bake.  I bought some plastic Christmasy containers too so M can take some to his friend at his office.  I'm hoping I'll make plenty to share because I'm only doing this once!