SWEETS: Cookies and the Keebler Elf

The Mister looked me dead in the eye and said, "I don't think I've ever seen you bake this much." Then he called me the Keebler Elf and cried uncle.

I don't know what happened. I only baked for a week, tops. But, it was like my addictive baking tendencies were incubating until the moment before Christmas and then exploded into a feverish beast that could not, would not be satisfied. I needed more butter, jars of jam, roasted nuts, where the hell is the allspice?!?

I sat on the couch the day after Thanksgiving reading Bon Appetit's Holiday Cookie issue from cover to cover. I had big plans to start early. I would take my holiday baking in stride. Plan ahead. All of sudden, I was struck uninspired. Nothing looked good to me and so I browsed the internet and waited. Of course, I had deadlines looming. There was a cookie swap and holiday parties and hungry people I didn't even know. I kept looking and looking and finally, with the pressure of baking for strangers weighing heavily on my mind, I had to make some decisions. Seven of them, to be exact.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
Almond Jam Thimbles via Lottie Doof's 12 Days of Cookies
Salted Dark Chocolate Truffle Cookies
Coco Rocher by Yvette Van Boven from her cookbook, Homemade
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Soft Gingersnap Cookies
Spiced Gingerbread Cakes adapted from this recipe

It didn't start out as seven, honestly. It started as a reasonable four recipes and then, my Twitter feed made me do it. I was coerced by conversations touting this cookie as a tried and true favorite and that cookie which I had all the ingredients for already, so why not? Then all hell broke loose. I couldn't stop. The kitchen was a disaster area and I had no less than four different types of cookie batter swirling in my stomach at one time. It was madness, I tell you. Then came the Christmas miracle....The Mister, the man who never turns down a dessert, cut me off. He said I had reached my baking quota for the year.

I looked around. There were plates on top of the dryer filled with cookies. Two more on the counter top and still more on the dining room table. I had cookies in storage containers, gift tins and still more with no place to go. I had outbaked myself. It was really time to stop. For a season. I'll be back at it next year, I'm sure.

Now it's time to look ahead to a wellness challenge in January. Farewell, dear cookies. Until next year or until my skinny jeans fit again, whichever comes first.