Well cover me in powdered sugar...

At least that's what it feels like!!

So last nite I made a single batch of sugar cookie dough (seriously wondering if it should be a double batch), peanut butter dough, and a double batch of chocolate crinkle dough.

Tonite I baked off all but eight of the chocolate crinkles (froze some raw dough balls for us later), all the peanut butter cookies (we're not loving the Jif recipe), and made a batch of fudge (half plain, half walnut).

Also made this recipe for royal icing - turns out nice! Won't be coloring or using it til tomorrow evening, but I'm excited to give it a try. Has a texture similar to a thin marshmallow fluff maybe?

Then we went out to dinner with Rick and Carolyn - had to hose myself off first, as it seemed I had powdered sugar everywhere. Pancho & Lefty's Mexican was the original plan, but since that's the last thing Carolyn had last week before catching the puke-up-your-guts bug, she requested somewhere different tonite - so we went to Applebees. Still having a taste for ribs after Randy's oh-so-good ones on Memorial day, I got the riblets (with fries, baked beans and coleslaw). Mmmm....loves me some southern food! Would've been perfect if they added fried okra (eh, Peter!?). Brought home half the riblets - was surprised at how much I got.

We stopped off at Giant Eagle on the way home "just for some apple juice" - and came out with apple juice, a red grapefruit, 4 oranges, a clump of bananas, tomatoes (I want to make tabouleh with the mint out back soon), and a jug of Rolaids. Oh, and a rack of ribs!! I'm going to try Randy's recipe - slow cooker for 5 hrs, then grill and sauce - perhaps this weekend?

And then it was back to making cookie stuff. In talking with Rick over dinner, I decided to work a half day from home tomorrow, and then take half the day off. I can work on cookies and peanut brittle with a bit more time to spare, and if that goes as planned and if the weather cooperates, I might even be able to visit the garden. (Not holding my breath - 60% chance of thunderstorms - which is what it started doing about 10 min ago!)

Since I've got more time to spare tomorrow, I decided to just make the snickerdoodle dough and leave it at that. This is Sally Brown's snickerdoodle recipe. Kevin Brown was one of my friends when I was in 9th and 10th grade in South Korea. His mom Sally made THE BEST snickerdoodles - we always said she baked the perfect one and then cloned it. Somehow, even with her recipe, I can't get consistant results - so I'm nervous about making them for money! They can turn out GREAT, or be lead sinkers. Sometimes they seem to taste too much like the baking powder in them - a bit metallic? (Maybe that's when I've bought cheaper brands of baking powder?) What do my baking friends say?

Anyhow, I've also noticed there seem to be two ways to make snickerdoodles out there. One involves the typical creaming of sugar and butter, and maybe has a few more ingredients, and then Sally's is very simple, where you melt a cup of butter slowly on the stovetop, then stir in two eggs and a cup and a half of sugar, then add 2 3/4 cup flour (mixed with a tablespoon of baking powder), and that's it. Chill at least an hour, scoop, roll in cinnamon sugar, and bake.

Oh well - fingers are crossed for the snickerdoodles. And the hopes that my one batch of sugar cookie dough will cover the 24 graduation caps I need to bake and ice. Annnnnnd that if we DO have rainy weather tomorrow that it doesn't affect the making of the peanut brittle - I know some candy recipes don't like humid weather. And I'm a little nervous about the royal icing - I usually just mix powdered sugar, almond extract, vanilla and milk - but the icing never sets up. So this time I'm going with royal icing, which should harden up nicely and be more consistant in it's texture. Wish me luck!

Once all this baking and gardening is over I SERIOUSLY have to buckle down and get some freelance client web work done!!!

Wish I had some fun picks to share... Maybe after all the cookies etc are done! :)