Christmas Cookies in a New Kitchen

I've undergone several kitchen remodels now, and each one has left me exhausted and scarcely interested in ever being in the kitchen again.  In 2003, I made the cinnamon bread recipe from Beard on Bread to help me remember why I wanted to invest so much in a kitchen.  Yesterday, I made Christmas cookies.

Each year, Lutheridge has a Christmas in July week at camp, and people in the residential community bake Christmas cookies for the counselors.  Last year, I couldn't for a variety of reasons--we had just moved, and we were waiting on our stuff to catch up with us, so I didn't have mixing bowls.  I also didn't have an oven.

There have been times this year when I thought I might not be able to participate.  The kitchen renovation has been slow, slow, slow.  Having a stove, but not having countertops or a large enough sink to actually do much in the way of washing anything larger than a small plate, has limited my cooking/baking.

Yesterday, after having a surprisingly successful morning of getting the safety inspections for both cars, I decided to go ahead and get started on my cookie baking project.  I quickly decided I needed two batches of cookies.  The countertops are perfect for rolling out dough.  

I was not as happy with appearance of some of them, so we did a colored drizzle on some of them.  We had a good time decorating cookies--and of course, we had to sample some of them.  I'm happy to report that they taste great, even if they look a bit strange.

Then it was time to clean up.  My spouse actually used the bench scraper on the countertops.  I would not have done that--too much risk of scratching.  And yes, we've had countertop after countertop that has proclaimed that it's scratchproof, and it's not (dark Corian colors particularly).  Hurrah!  These counters seem a bit more indestructible.

We loaded everything into the dishwasher and ran a cycle.  Here's a surprise.  The dishwasher opens its door when it gets to a certain point in the drying cycle.  That was a surprise.  But the dishwasher did a fine job.

I'm looking forward to more cooking/baking adventures.  Next up:  bread for Sunday!