Bumpy is the best ride to describe my Saturday. In fact, I think that applies quite well to the start of my beloved Gators season as well. The day started alright. Mike, Chris and I headed up to Gainesville to meet Ryan and his friends before the game. It was great to see everyone again. All was right in the world...or at least I thought it was. Then the game began. It was sloppy, hot, and frankly, not too much fun. All I could think about was how much I could be accomplishing at the kitchen. We left in the third quarter and headed home.
My kitchen time was scheduled from 8-12. Dennis, Michael, Chris, Kenda and Mark all met me there to help. I set up an arts and craft project for Kenda and Mark to help with the packaging materials. They stamped hug bags, punched hearts, applied labels and cut ribbon...lots and lots of ribbon. Dennis and Michael helped me throw together several more batches of dough while the refrigerated dough from the night before softened up. Mike was a surprise addition when he showed up with the ingredients labels I had been stressing out about and a cooler of drinks. It was smooth sailing. Then I turned on the oven - the lovely vintage convection oven with the worn dial that makes setting the oven temperature an adventure. The trial run on Wednesday told me I may face some challenges, but it did not prepare me for just how many. We began the baking with Dark Chocolate Marcona Almond Cookies. It seemed to go OK. Dark Chocolate Cherry Berry were next. Not perfect, but still good. Then came the first batch of Toasted Pecan Chocolate Chip. This recipe calls for a slightly higher temperature. I turned the mystery dial slightly to the right and peered into the oven to take a look at the inside thermometer. The temperature had gone down. I turned the dial a little more. The temperature jumped up 75 degrees. This is not a good thing when it comes to baking.
After numerous tries, I finally got the gauge to read 350 F. In went two pans of Toasted Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies. The timer was set for 5 minutes. When the buzzer went off, I checked on the progress. Not good. The dough had only spread slightly. The tops of the cookie "lumps" were already brown only halfway through the process. I began to panic. I set the timer for the balance of the time and anxiously awaited the results. What I got was a cookie bearing no resemblance to a Heartsong Cookie. It was a big lump of dough very dark brown on the bottom and top, but raw in the middle. I could not serve these to anyone. It was 11:00 and I had 32 passable cookies to show for our effort. Not good.
It was time to regroup and get creative. I sent the gang home to tackle my dilemma alone. I became a multitasking machine. Scooping dough, turning pans, bagging cooled cookies. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I do not know the final total, but it approached 200 less than perfect cookies. The clock was my enemy. I still had two batches of dough to bake and the clock read 5:25. I was going to have to start getting ready for the day in a less than an hour. This would have to be good enough.
Into bed I climbed and got up 45 minutes later ready to tackle one of the best days of my life.
Many hugs,
Kathy
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