Snow Day #2

Snow Day #2 was declared "Baking Day". Emily was quite the little helper. She helped roll and cut out the Christmas cookies and even used her own special pan to bake some.

She also liked helping "paint" the melted butter on the cinnamon rolls.

(And yes, she is wearing 3 different outfits in these pictures)

Here are the day's results: 5 dozen chocolate chip cookies, one large loaf of Banana Bread, one batch of Christmas cut-out cookies and two pans of homemade cinnamon rolls (one frosted, one caramel)

I kind of decided what I was going to bake at the last minute and didn't take an inventory of my pantry supplies beforehand. I was doing fine until I discovered I only had half a bag of powdered sugar left. That's why there's one pan of caramel rolls and the cut-out cookies will be frosted at a later date. I was too tired to do it today anyway. ;o)

Most of these items will be given away, which is what brings me the most joy. The corner caramel roll is missing because it got messed up in the flipping process and I decided I better taste-test the pan. ;o) I also have a theory I'm going to test. I'm planning to send both pans of rolls with Austin to work tomorrow. I have sent things in the past and had the pans/containers returned still half full. Now I've worked in an office setting before, and I know for a fact that with only 8 people we could have at least one pan gone by lunch time. Austin has 25-30 people working in his office. My theory is that if you set a full pan of something or a whole cake out in the breakroom no one wants to "mess it up" by being the first person to take a piece. So if I send it already "started" maybe they'll eat more of it. We'll see. I promised a frosted cinnamon roll to Emily for breakfast in the morning.

I also made an appropriate supper: "Perfect Winter Beef Stew". You can find the recipe here.

They've even added slow cooker instructions. It's one of my favorites!