The 13th day

I have been really excited about this day's activity! We are baking cookies and bringing them to the fire station as a gift to the firemen. I want my kids to realize that giving is often as much fun, if not more fun, than receiving. I picked the fire station because they have been called to our house on multiple occasions--you can read about a few of them here and here. I am so thankful that they have always been so pleasant and helpful and willing to come to our aid--especially with my allergy attack.

I decided that Liam would make a batch of cookies while Brendan napped and then Rori would make a batch when she got home from school. I have been wanting to try out a Cadbury Egg Cookie recipe from my favorite blog. This recipe calls for smashed mini Cadbury Eggs, which for the first time ever, I saw Christmas ones in the stores! So, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give them a try. Now, here comes a very important Public Service Announcement. Butter flavored Crisco is of the devil. I am a butter snob. However, when I make a recipe for the first time, I always follow it exactly. Then, the next time I make it, I make any changes that I want. This recipe called for butter flavored Crisco, along with a stick of regular butter. I went ahead and made it with the butter-flavored Crisco. When I tasted the dough, I felt like something was off. So then I tried a cookie. The off flavor was more subtle, but still there. I started to be worried that I had somehow poisoned the cookies. I checked the dates on my eggs, the butter and the Crisco. I had visions of giving the fire department food poisoning and then someone calling 911 but all the firemen were in the loo! Fortunately they were all good. So, I decided to taste the Crisco straight up. Yep. That was it. Tasted a little bit like evil. So, lesson learned. Butter-flavored anything, probably really doesn't taste like butter. Take that little tidbit and file it away for future reference, and then thank me later. Anyway, I know plenty of people like margarine and things like that in their cookies, so I am hoping the firemen aren't as snobby as I am, and will enjoy them. If not, they'll throw them out and we will be none the wiser--except for when they lock the doors if they see us coming next year.

We had to crush the Cadbury Eggs, so we tried a rolling pin

And moved to a rubber mallet 

Rori's cookie uses the same basic recipe (minus the lesson learned about aforementioned Crisco) except we added dark chocolate and mint chips in place of the Cadbury eggs.Her cookies were AMAZING! They tasted like an Andes Mint or a Mint Meltaway. Lesson learned.

Liam liked his evil cookies

Brendan liked them too. Clearly they do not have their mother's discerning palate 

Rori had zero interest in trying either of them

When Bill got home, we loaded up the car and went to the fire station. We had to be buzzed in and the fireman seemed thrilled that the kids made cookies just for them. He invited us in to see the fire trucks and then he offered to take a picture of us in front of the fire truck.

 Five minutes after we left, I realized that I forgot to get a picture with the kids and the fireman. Argh! I'm seriously irritated about that, but oh well, maybe next time. I am going to blame my tired brain from making two batches of cookies plus I made the dough to roll out another batch of cut outs tonight because we need them to frost on another day. Boy would a Kitchen Aid Professional Series 6 quart mixer help...I'm just sayin'...

I hope my face doesn't freeze like that.