cookies

and last night this domestic goddess took on cookie baking (after making 2 big batches of that chex mix that my whole family adores).  it's been years since i retired cookie baking from my list of domestic activities.. so i approached it with high hopes for a good outcome.  and i know that most people don't think of this as difficult and many actually enjoy it.  i don't so much, but on a whim a few years ago when at a Pampered Chef party, i bought one of those cookie presses just because i think they are kind of cool and i'd always wanted one.  so i dug it out of the pantry last night and looked for directions for its use.  there weren't any.  it didn't look complicated, so after the standard pressed cookie dough was made up, i stuffed some into the barrel of the gizmo, put on what looked like a cute design disc, and tried to get the plunger to go down and press the dough.  gotta say, i was feeling quite inept and started thinking thru a list of who i might call at 10pm for advice on cookie making with a press gizmo..... and couldn't think of anyone who wouldn't roll their eyes, sigh and think i'm pretty lame for not figuring that one out.  humility lessons are good for me, i know.. but i wasn't ready to take the lesson that far.  and finally i pushed something on the barrel, the plunger went down, i pressed on it and out came.... nothing.  ok, set it against the cookie sheet and pressed and out came some dough, and it just hung there on the disc, so after another pressing there was a large amount of dough hanging there.  after a few tries (and returning of blobs of dough back into the barrel) success came with pushing the thing hard against the cookie sheet.  finally!  cute little dough shapes.... and they came out of the oven looking like cookies.  most of them did anyway, and the failures got eaten!  they looked awfully plain, and there was no decorative stuff to be found. if any had been found i'm sure it would have been years past the throw away date.  all that came to mind was granulated sugar with a bit of red food dye, dye that was left over from one very depressing winter when i cheered myself up by dyeing wet lambs with koolaid and food dye.  that did totally cheer me up, by the way.  to the point where the sheep all thought i'd gone around the bend as i stood in the barn laughing hysterically at them!  back to the red sugar, which got spooned onto some of the cookies (it wouldn't "sprinkle").  so the cookies look ok, but plain, and taste great.  today i bought frosting and colored sprinkles, applied them and admired the outcome... lookin' good!!  can't decide whether to make another batch or just retire again from cookie making.....