I’ve always loved baking (those who know me know that I was very close to making a career for myself out of baking & pastry arts) but more often than not I end up cooking for my family rather than baking. Until fairly recently baking was something I did for a special occasion or when I got “the itch” to do so. But then I started really looking at ingredient lists and observing how much money we really spent on things I could easily make so much healthier (and much better tasting) at home. So I started baking our bread rather than buying it and started looking into other things to make from scratch. Cookies, of course, are one obvious answer. They are ridiculously priced at the store and chock full of chemicals & other things I don’t want to think about. I have a lot of other things I make from scratch instead of buying now but this post is about cookies so I’ll leave it at that for today. And now that I am making things from scratch more often I’ve also had to do a bit of a schedule overhaul. In addition to Laundry Day and Cleaning Day I now have Baking Days. Since freshly made baked goods (or anything else made at home) don’t last as long- because of shelf life and also the fact that my family likes them so much they don’t sit around for more than a day or two-I have had to schedule 3 Baking Days each week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Now it doesn’t always have to be something baked. It can be fruit salad or something similar or anything really- whatever I want to make from scratch that would normally be bought from the store. I call them “Baking Days” because it’s easy and alot of the things I make are, in fact, baked. I’m trying to keep things simple :.) So now in addition to meals I will also be blogging about things I make on my Baking Days. Here are two recipes from my inaugural Baking Day: Bacon Breakfast Cookies and Pink Milk Cookies. Enjoy!

We’ll do the Bacon Breakfast Cookies first. Yes- I really do feed my children cookies for breakfast. Sometimes if I’ve made a carrot cake or fruit pie or crisp they get that for breakfast too. They don’t get Oreos or chocolate cake; I’m not that lax. But I see no problem with giving them high quality, home made things to eat for breakfast that will fill their tummies and are more nutritious than most store bought cereals. Yes- I’m defensive about it. I’ve come across too many members of the Food Police who act like I’m handing my kids the sugar bowl and bottle of vodka for breakfast if I feed them something other than toast made from store bought bread and cereal that cost $5 a box. Ok. I rest my case. We can move

on…

In the little yellow bowl is half a pound of bacon. Yes, half a pound. It really does cook down to that little amount. Oh well. It’s in there and that’s what counts! The original recipe (which you can find here: http://www.baconcity.com/2008/07/02/bacon-breakfast-cookies/) called for raisins but I used craisins instead and I’m glad I did. They give the cookie a nicely different flavor and raisins would have been too sweet.

And here is a picture of my wonderful little helper. This is my son, Zachariah. He LOVES to help me in the kitchen. We’re

trying to come up with a catchy sidekick nickname for him :.)

You make these cookies just like any other but these will be a bit crumbly because of the corn flakes. It’s ok- they’ll bake up just fine.

When you’re putting the dough on the cookie sheets you can use your hands to pack the dough a bit. Not too much but just enough to make it stay together. This is what you will end up with…

They are SO good! They get fairly crisp after they cool with just a tiny bit of chewiness. The corn flakes give them a good crunch that is different from anything I’ve had.

On to the Pink Milk Cookies. My kids don’t watch much American TV. Well, they don’t watch ANY actual TV. We haven’t had cable or TV since 2006. We watch Netflix & shows on other websites. So I should say the kids don’t watch many American shows. Most of them are stupid and obnoxious (like Spongebob among others). They do watch Disney shows but they also watch BBC kids shows. One of their favorites is Charlie & Lola (find it on Youtube- it’s awesome!). Lola is a little girl who’s favorite drink is pink milk (or strawberry milk to us Yankees). I saw these cookies, originally called Pink Cloud Cookies, made with Strawberry Quick powder and knew I had an instant hit. These do not get eaten for breakfast

but do make a wonderful addition to lunches.

These have a very light strawberry flavor from the drink powder. If you wanted to you could add maybe a scant 1/4 teaspoon of strawberry extract along with the vanilla to give a bit more strawberry oomph. Next time I make them I intend to do exactly that.

When you put these on the cookie sheets make sure you don’t make them too big. They will stay very puffy and thick and if the dough drops are too big they won’t cook properly. Bake them until they are just starting to turn golden around the

edges. You should end up with…

Little pink pillows of yumminess- just like the original name says! These stay soft indefinitely so long as they are in an airtight container.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the first installment of my Baking Days Chronicles. Hopefully many more will come! :.)

1/2 Lb. bacon, diced small

1/2 C butter

3/4 C sugar

1 egg

1 C of flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 C corn flakes (or flake cereal of your choosing)

1/2 C Craisins

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

*Cook bacon until crisp and then drain.

*Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

*Add egg and beat well.

*Combine flour and baking soda; stir into butter mixture.

*Stir in bacon, corn flakes and craisins.

*Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.

*Bake for 15-18 minutes.

*Remove to rack to cool–about 2 minutes, then remove from rack and put into airtight container or zip top bag.

2 C flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 C butter, softened

1/2 C sugar

2 eggs

1/2 C strawberry quick powder

1 tsp vanilla

*Preheat oven to 375 degrees

*In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

*Cream butter and sugar together until light & fluffy.

*Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each.

*Add vanilla and then strawberry quick powder.

*Drop by the tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake 10-12 minutes.

*Remove from cookie sheets immediately and cool completely on a cooling rack before moving to an airtight container or zip top bag.