BAKER?

I'm not much of a baker. My problem is, I often fail to pay attention to the fine details of when to add what and how. My kind of baking is throw it all in a bowl, mix it, scoop it out into whatever it needs to be scooped out on and bake it.

So lately I've been challenging myself.

Christmas was my starting point. My kids are picky about some of the usual things I make so I picked some new stuff to do.

First off was the 6 dozen cherry flips I made for the baking exchange and some for DH as they are his favorite thing that his Mom always made.

Firstly I made boomerangs, which my Grandma always makes at Christmas. A shortbread based cookie with crushed walnuts and rolled in sugar and of course shaped like a boomerang. While they were good, they didn't taste like hers. Problem was, she was sick over Christmas and didn't bake this year so I had to find a recipe off the internet and something is missing. She's been making the cookies since they came to Canada more than 50 years ago.

Then I made Peppermint Meltaways. OH MY GOD! So good. I made them 3 times because I couldn't keep up with consumption. The only thing I did different was instead of crushing the candy cane and sprinking it on the icing I really crushed the candy canes and mixed it right into the icing. Very good. I'll be making these every year.

There were a couple more things I wanted to try but didn't get around to it but hope to do it for next Christmas.

Then I tried these snikerdoodles that a friend of mine was raving about. Oh they are SO good. Of course LP wasn't interested. She really isn't a cookie kinda kid. LM and I really liked them and in fact, I think I'll make a big batch today.

I also tried what was supposed to be the Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were really good but I didn't have regular chocolate chips and used mint chocolate chip cookies which can be a little overpowering.

Next one my list, soft pretzels. I remember having them for lunch ocassionally when I was working downtown. So good. Can't be that hard right?

And after reading a blog post from a fellow force wife, DH and I have decided to try and make perogies again. We did it many years ago and didn't enjoy the experience. We're older and wiser now, lol. My Auntie D is going to pass along a recipe to me and we'll try that one. I figured if I can make the cabbage rolls & meatballs I gotta be able to make the real traditional ukrainan food, perogies. I gotta try at least and if I can't do it this time, at least I tried.