Baking Day, part Two

Finally last night around 7 pm, I left my house after my all-day bake-fest to go out with Kathy to get a bite of dinner. We ran a couple of other errands, had the SLOWEST cashier EVER at Lowes (I used cash, figuring the register will tell her my change. My total was 12.78, I gave her a 20, so change was 7.22. She looked at the register, looked at the cash drawer, looked back at the register, pulled out a five, thought a moment, pulled out two ones, looked BACK at the register, looked back at the cash drawer, pulled out two dimes, hovered over the nickels, then finally grabbed my two pennies. Sheesh.), got a car seat from Adrianne (long story, but Grace's booster seat from my car walked away from a Children's Choir party. I suspect a pre-schooler who thought it was theirs!), and eventually made it home by 9:30 or so.

I was debating between making my Whiskey Balls and decorating my rolled cookies, and had about decided to go with the Whiskey Balls, when what to my wondering eyes did NOT appear but powdered sugar!! I had NO powdered sugar in my pantry! I felt a bit like the Lowe's cashier... I looked in the pantry, it wasn't there, I wandered into the kitchen, went back to the pantry, and it STILL wasn't there. Lather, rinse, repeat! I was absolutely discombobulated by this.

For those who think I'm just nuts, let me explain. I enjoy cooking, but I LOVE to bake. My ex-MIL once teased me that she looked for 30 minutes to find a large, covered skillet (don't have one), but in that 30 minutes she found a half dozen different cake pans (including one that looks like a football stadium) and multiple cookie sheets, muffin tins, cookie cutters, etc. So I pretty much always have the baking staples on hand, and usually know when I'm getting low and get extras so that I never run out. Plus, with things like butter, which will freeze, I'll buy when the store has a good deal and stock up, because I'll use it all eventually (before this baking spree I had 6, repeat SIX, pounds of butter in various places in my fridge/freezer).

So for me to be absolutely, positively OUT of something is just wrong! This doesn't happen to me!

Since the Whiskey Balls were on hold, I decided to decorate my rolled cookies (Santas, stockings, reindeer and angels. The angels are all named Harald!) Now, as much as I love to bake, I feel no need to make icing from scratch, so I always buy the tubes and put decorating tips on them. Well, I did that last night with my red tube, and started to decorate my stockings. It was had to get the icing to come out, which is not unusual; they frequently need some "working". So I squeezed and squeezed... and suddenly had red icing all over my hands. The stupid tube split! I transferred the icing to a sandwich baggie, cut a hole in one corner, and proceeded to try to use that, and IT split open, too!

OK, what is up with this!!!! I should NOT be prone to bad baking karma! I bake well! From scratch, no less! And I give my cookies away!! I'm a NICE baker (and a pretty good one, too)!

I finally thinned the wretched icing with some warm water, found an unused paintbrush upstairs in the playroom, and painted my cookies. It was fun, and they look cool, but I was up till midnight.

Now for the Whiskey Balls -- wonder what will happen with THEM!?!?!?