So, trial number 2 of baking and decorating cookies. Ugh.
I bought an in-oven thermometer to see if that would help the burning cookies issue. It did! =D Although, I did find that my oven likes to pick its own temperature. I preheated the oven before the first batch, and set the thermometer in there. I had high hopes. When I opened the oven to check it about 5 minutes later, what did the temp read? 400 like I had set it? Ooooh no, my dear friends, it read 500!!!!! I was shocked. So, I went back to rolling dough out after turning the temp down to see if that would help. Checked it again...600!!! What on earth?! I don't get it. It just kept getting hotter and hotter. Which helps explain the charred cookies from last weekend. But still, what the crap?! Monday, I think I'm gonna go have a talk with management. I can't, no I refuse to live with an oven like this. I cook almost every day of the week! I cannot have an oven that sets its own temp, and then refuses to work after an hour.
Good news? I have cookies that are not, I repeat, NOT burnt!!! Some a little more brown than others, but not burnt!
More bad news. Icing. Ugh. First, I tried a plain "jane" icing recipe. It looked good, tasted great...until I added food coloring. It was like the icing just wouldn't hold the coloring. I even beat it with the mixer...and it was a no go. I even enlisted the help of my hubby with this, poor guy. I love him so much...he puts up with me through so much of my supposed "bright" ideas. So, we trashed the crappy icing only after decorating about 12 cookies with it. Oh well. Back to square one. I decided to try out the royal icing recipe* again. I finally figured out how to get 'flooding' icing along with the stiff kind so that the cookies look better. But, before I could decorate with the new icing, we had to wash my decorating bags (gross. I don't like the feel of icing on my hands. bleh.), and then I had to take Joe back to the barracks. More on this irritating fact later. Before we left, I was able to outline the cookies in the stiff icing. When I got back, I put the 'flooding' icing in the decorating bag. When she says 'flooding', trust me she means flooding. I had icing everywhere! On my hands, all over the counters, on parchment paper, on my iPhone cover...yeah. Not good. After having Melissa calm me down, I went and grabbed a hair tie (no time to search for a rubber band when icing is going all over the kitchen) and made sure that icing wasn't getting out of the bag. Gah.
What a night. I did get all of the cookies decorated. The ones with royal icing look very cute! =) The others, not so much. Trial and error, my friends. I do have pictures of them looking very cute sitting on top of their respective Valentine's Day bags. I'm just too tired to post them right now. Sorry. It's been a rough night. After decorating the cookies, and cleaning up the kitchen a little, I took a 2nd shower. I rarely do this, but I was extremely worked up. Once I got in front of a mirror, I realized that I had pink icing in my hair, on my forearms, and on my shirt. Awesome.
Oh, right, I was going to tell you the Joe story. Today, he (along with the rest of the IET students at Fort Gordon) was supposed to be released after evening formation for the 4 day weekend. Supposed to be released. Apparently, his 1st SGT and Commander ( or something) decided that they would be the only IET company to adhere to the TRADOC policy that says Soldiers should get a full night's rest before being released on a 4 day weekend. What.The.Heck?! Thanks for the notice!!! Not like we didn't have plans or anything!!!! Us? Go to NC for the weekend and want to leave early? Never. Us? Want to sleep in the same bed for more than 2 nights a week? No, we'll sacrifice that. We're only married. They act like all Soldiers in the company didn't have plans, or wives, or families to do things with. Talk about inconsiderate, unprofessional, and irresponsible! You know, if you're going to randomly decide to follow the rule book (which, from what I've seen rarely happens anyway), a day's notice would have been appreciated. Jerks.
With that said, I'm off to bed! You know you're up too late when Letterman is on. =) Hope you all have a good weekend. I'll try to be back to regular programming on Monday!
*I can't find the actual recipe on Confections of a Bake-A-Holic, but I did get it from her. =)
