On the Bright Side...

Nothing tastes as sweet as a Vikings victory after a monstrous baking project gone wrong.

It certainly added a much-needed bright spot to the day after I managed to screw up a perfectly good Monster Cookie recipe that I have always had success with before. Looking back on the day, I know it was entirely my fault... but I'll still blame the bird flu.

Now you just gotta know, right?

Went to 8 o'clock church and then shopping "quickly" at Wal-Mart to pick up ingredients for the cookies. Wanted to get them baked today so we can ship a package to our German son Lukas this week for his birthday next week.

Well, I got a bit distracted at the store. They have been moving everything around – and I mean everything – so it is hard enough to find what you need, let alone write a list in order from the back of the store to the front like I usually do. Then throw in visits with at least 3 people and I am there 90 minutes.

Now the thing with the bird flu is that the outbreak this summer led to an egg shortage, higher prices and lower quality eggs (in my experience). The recipe calls for a whole dozens eggs. I told you it is monstrous. The ones labeled "large" looked so small, I move up to extra-large, or "jumbo," they called them. They didn't look that jumbo. They looked more normal to me.

But they were jumbo.

Mixing up the full Monster Cookie recipe requires my two largest bowls – one for dry ingredients, one for wet – which are then combined in my Nesco pan because it is the biggest container I own. It's a lot of work, which explains my major frustration when it didn't go as planned.

Those darn normal-in-my-opinion eggs made my dough a bit soupy. Sort of. Just not firm. So when I baked the first batch, they came out flat and resembling pancakes rather than cookies. I added what oatmeal I had left to the dough but the next pan only showed mild improvements.

Hubby, bless his heart, said he'd run to Wal-Mart to get more as soon as we finished watching the Packers lose. So that plan worked at least. Ha.

The extra dose of oats did, too. And 16 dozen later, I had enough cookies to satisfy all of Bavaria. But since they still didn't measure up to my perfectionism, our boy will get a few dozen and the others will go toward my family cookie exchange. Not that they are getting all rejects. They taste great. They just don't pass my appearance standards.

I was pretty crabby and down about it, though, so the Vikings' win – which unfortunately was not aired on TV here – was perfect timing. Not just for the monstrous melt-down but because the Packers and Vikings play each other next week! We get the lone first-place spot for one week. I think I will enjoy that.

Might just celebrate by putting some of these ugly, crumbly soft cookies in some ice cream. SKOL!