Worlds collide

Let the baking begin! I have begun, officially, my holiday cookie production. OK. OK. Christmas cookies. I have recipes from my mom that she used to make for the holidays, er, I mean Christmas. I grew up watching her prepare all the different recipes, planning my speedy assault on the cache once they were finished and stored in a cool, dry place. I'm sure she knew that I, and my siblings got into the cookies. Knowing my mom, she probably factored those losses into the number of cookies she would make. Anyway, when my dad retired, so did she. It was left to me to make the cookies. There are recipes from both my grandmothers and one from a great-grandmother. That one is my favorite. It's for an oatmeal cookie, frosted with a coffee and cinnamon delicacy that also works well on peanut butter sanwiches. Last year I made just over a thousand cookies. Just to see if I could. This year I'm shooting for 1500. No reason. "More" has always seemed a bit more attractive to me. I have even set up a spreadsheet to tally my inventory as it grows. I haven't yet decided whether to count dozens, or individual cookies. The autosum functions would certainly be easier if I counted individual cookies. I think I'll wait until there are actually some cookies to count, and then decide. I'm starting with Chinese Almond Cookies. The dry ingredients are sifted, the eggs slightly beaten and the almond extract added. I'm just waiting for the butter to soften a bit. Of course, I doubled the recipe. I have a three-ring binder full of recipes. The cookie recipes are all found in the "Heirloom" section. I really should create an index for the book. But then I'd be obligated to include a 504 field should I ever catalog it. Well, I'd better go cut the butter into the dry ingrients "until the mixture resembles cornmeal."