My oven has been greatly neglected these past couple months. I haven’t baked. I haven’t delighted in the smell of vanilla, sugar, and melted butter. I haven’t had sticky egg and flour and sugar granules stuck between my fingers.

So, on today, day three or four of our AC being broken—with a temperature of ninety degrees outside—I decided, what better day to bake than today!

I received this O! Christmas Tree Cookie Mix mason jar at a gift exchange last Christmas. It’s not expired yet, so we’re fine.

I figured, let’s keep the merriment going. Christmas all year round!

After saying that, I feel like dressing as an elf and throwing confetti off a float onto a grinning crowd. Thirty seconds of fantasy, and that has now become a life goal.

These mason jars are a great idea, honestly, and they’re very cool to look at. I love the different layers. Good job, He Who Made This Up.

I started by melting a stick of butter in the microwave because I’m lazy and impatient and I wasn’t going to leave it out to come back when I have Netflix that needs watching.

Two, twenty second sessions in the microwave did it. The butter made a sudden pop-explosion sound, but I didn’t see any mess. Between sessions, I mashed the butter with a fork, then I added my beaten egg, and I choose to add the optional vanilla.

The dry ingredients were kind of fun. No adult can deny the child-like enjoyment that comes from taking something as neatly organized as this jar and dumping out it’s entire contents.

The chocolate chips and sprinkles gave way without a problem. I used a butter knife to break up the brown sugar hold-up and empty the rest of the jar.

The jar had a tag specifically mentioning the brown sugar. Like a “DON’T FREAK OUT, BROWN SUGAR GETS HARD. IT WILL BE OKAY. Breathe. BREATHE!” tag.

I made sure to mash up any extra brown sugar clumps before pouring in the wet ingredients.

Christmas in June!

The directions say to pour the dry ingredients into the wet, but bowls were an issue, and I’m a rebel.

The directions also say that we shouldn’t use a mixer or spoons. It encourages “use your hands!” I usually don’t like to use my hands, but it was obvious I had forgotten how much of a rebel I was.

I didn’t like using my hands. The dough was sticky and refused to form neat little balls, and it wouldn’t come off my hands. And I was making a stink face during the whole process. That can’t be good for future wrinkles.

Before I knew it, my mom put down the camera, grabbed a couple spoons, and began scooping dollops of perfect dough balls onto the cookie sheet.

(She wasn’t using her hands. I’m not tattling on her. I’m just saying. . .)

I washed my hands and resumed my rightful place behind the camera.

They spent about 11 minutes in the oven and were perfect.

If you ever make cookies similar in consistency to these, I would advise waiting at least three minutes before attempting to scrape them off the cookie sheet. They need to harden, or else you’ll end with bits of mushy, broken off, pathetic looking pieces and not the beautiful round disks you dream of.

I’m rather pleased with how they turned out. They’re flat but have a great mushy center and crispy edges.

However, they are incredibly sweet. Maybe the optional vanilla wasn’t that great an idea. I forgot how sweet white chocolate chips were.

You live you learn.

Tonight, we had Christmas chocolate chip cookies, on our Thanksgiving table cloth for Taco Tuesday.

It’s a Koontz thing.

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