BAKING DAY

One of the things I've missed most about the brief span of time when daughter Alexis lived here with me -- when she first moved back from California -- was baking together. I've hardly baked since, it being a really bad idea to have a whole batch of freshly baked anything lying around the house, when there's no one here to eat it but Hubby and I. Much better to occasionally share one piece of something, at a cafe. But, it being the holidays and all, and with my daughter now living just 30 minutes away, I thought maybe it was time to make an exception to that rule. I sent her a message suggesting a baking day but, since she is still dealing with morning sickness off and on, I told her to just let me know one day if she woke up feeling good.

Saturday was that day.

I had everything set up and ready to go by the time she arrived. Or, so I thought. Turns out I missed that bit about one recipe (her favorite) needing paper liners in the miniature muffin pans. After some debate, we realized it wasn't worth taking a chance on doing it without them, so we decided to make a quick trip into Kiss The Cook to pick some up. Hubby loves Kiss The Cook, even though he doesn't cook, so he decided to go along for the ride. Once there, he kept pointing out cool kitchen gadgets to me, and I kept telling him I didn't need any more kitchen gadgets. I didn't have room for any more kitchen gadgets! Finally he pulled out his cute little pouty-face expression (the one I can never resist) and told me I was making him feel grumpy, and that I was putting a damper on his Christmas spirit. I feel kinda bad about that now.

Of course, by the time we finished browsing that shop (and a few more) it was lunch time, and little-mama-to-be was hungry for some pasta, so we headed over to Marco's for the lasagna lunch special. Eventually we made it home, and actually started baking. The first pan didn't turn out so well, even with the fancy paper liners.

Turns out you really shouldn't fill the pans more than half full.

Thankfully, the rest turned out better, but by then we were all pooped and ready for a nap, so decided not to bother with the second recipe. We split up our meager booty and my half went straight into the freezer, to await the arrival of our guests.

Wondering what they taste like frozen...