=)

This past weekend I went and spent some quality time with my cousin Carrie and her nine month old, Hannah Banana. We had a delightful time making Grandma's rock candy until the cinnamon flavoring became too much for our noses...thanks Carrie for laughing at me while I was stuck with the spoon stirring and the cinnamon burning my nose. =) We also whipped up 90+ buckeyes and some sugar cut-out cookies. We experimented with a new recipe for those which called for gobs of powdered sugar and not a large amount (we deemed it "an obscene amount of...") flour. Upon preparing to roll them out, we discovered the dough will absorb the flour used on the surface. The recipe said "Yields 5 dozen." To the recipe writers/creators I say, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" We were luckily to get 3 dozen...and we used small/medium cookie cutters. Carrie had these GI-NORMOUS gingerbread people that would've made a double date... Who figures out the yields for recipes? And seriously--what size cookie cutter were they using?? Anyway...only 3 snowmen were compromised in the baking process...and 2 during the frosting.

All in all, Carrie and I had a blast catching up and then going down memory lane laughing at funny things we had done...or our siblings...

I love spending time with my cousin!! And her daughter is a gem even though the poor thing ended up in the Emergency Room this afternoon because of a double-ear infection. Poor Hannah Banana!!!! Mom, this is why there aren't any photos of our baking extravaganza!