Sunday Attempt to Bake

Yesterday on our "all-day-date" I stopped at Pier 1 to return some stuff we didn't end up using at the Engagement party... but because I lost the receipt, I got store credit and picked up a few much needed kitchen items as well as as a $10 cookies in a jar thing. You know those jars that have layers of all the dry ingredients you need to make cookies? This one was by Sisters Gourmet, and it's called "Cookies for Santa"(and I won't even get into the whole Christmas starting so early thing).

Well, given the fact that I am not a baker... I had no idea what to do with this jar! I assumed when I opened it that there would be some instructions on what to add, and in what quantities but maybe I got a bum jar because there was no 'recipe' or directions on what to do to actually get cookies out of this jar. Then I thought, well - that's good, they saved paper! The recipe must be on the website and this must be some ploy to get more traffic to the site. No such luck. After about a half hour of scouring the internet for details on this Cookies for Santa jar, I decided to just look up random recipes for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I guessed on the measurements of the jarred dry ingredients and arrived at the conclusion that I was to add 1 egg and a half a stick of softened butter to it. The last time I made cookies 'from scratch' was 8th grade home ec, so I wasn't even sure once I added that stuff if the consistency was right!

I mixed the butter (unsalted) and the egg, then added all the jar ingredients. I mushed it around the mixing bowl with my fingers and then made little balls of the mix. Again, I sort of guessed (based on recipes online) on the oven temp and the baking time. I pre-heated the oven at 350, and decided to monitor the cookies at 7 minutes, and continue until I thought they were done, which ended up being 12 minutes. The first batch was a little overdone, but by the last batch I was at 9 minutes and a chewy yummy melty cookie, just the way I like them! Well, there's a really long story about the cookies, and here is a picture of them once they were done. They are delicious! They have oatmeal, crushed cornflakes, shredded coconut, light brown sugar, flour, regular sugar, chocolate chips and possibly salt and other stuff I didn't notice, haha. Anyway - now that I know what to do with the jar, $10 isn't too bad to not have to think about whether or not I have these items in the kitchen. I just wish that part of the $10 was invested in telling morons like me what to do with it!