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We all have our favorite recipes which are our “Go-To’s”…..

…..my “Go-To” Christmas cookie recipe is (of course) my Grandmother’s “Rum Balls”…..

*****Scan To The Rum Ball Recipe*****

I know I’ve mentioned them before…I wish they weren’t only for yuletide…..

They really should be available year-round…..

…..maybe even a required breakfast staple(?)…a good eye-popper to start the day…..

We are currently in a flurried-frenzy of baking…..

Everything is hazy and seen through a settling cloud of flour dust…..

Irish Wolfhounds are at the ready for ANY unattended food morsel…shortening-coated-paper-towels…left-over butter wrappers…entire tray of cookies…or small children…..

They are incredible opportunists…..

I found myself cheering when I saw one of our younger hounds stick her nose on the edge of a cookie sheet that was right out of the oven…..

Her older/wiser/previously-burned hound superiors goaded her into action & bad-choices…..

…..(I probably shouldn’t have found it both satisfying and funny)…(I probably shouldn’t have)…..

…..but I did…..

It’s part of the Christmas-tradition here…it happens every year)…..

Over time I’ve found some valuable short-cuts and remedial-tricks for “those” ugly things that can arise out of holiday-cheer-exhaustion…..

It’s my B-List…my A-List is filled with all of those fun/polished/easy recipes…..

This is that Down-And-Dirty…Behind-The Scenes List…..

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#1—–“What To Do When You’ve Re-Discovered Very-Old-Food In The Oven”

—–It’s an honest mistake.  Putting food in the oven…to keep it safe (from hounds)…until you get a chance to put the leftovers away………….and much later you locate “that” smell and find all that green/furry/appalling mold (that had once been something edible).  What To Do?………….first…throw out (or bleach thoroughly) the petri-dish of mold…then…I put the oven on 400F…and fire that sucker up.  It kills all that mold.  Maybe there’s some dead/spore-dust floating around…I prefer not to think about it…a simple dish of vinegar is a great oven-smell-improver…..

Easy Peasy…..

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#2—–“Parchment Paper”

—–Who Knew!  I’m sixty-eight…I’ve scrubbed…& chiseled…& thrown out irretrievable cookie sheets…if I’d only realized how kind…& easy…& forgiving Parchment Paper is!  My two suggestions here are #1—USE IT!….and #2—don’t put it too close to the broiler—(or your oven could become a Roman candle)…(not that that has ever happened to me)…..

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#3—–“Hover-Crafts In The Flour”

—–I’m not proud…flour is expensive…I don’t want to throw it out…(keep in mind…the heat from the oven is going to kill all those moths anyway).  But have you ever opened up your flour container and been greeted by a soaring-blanket of moths?

It happens…and you find yourself with some life-choices…toss the flour—OR—modify your approach to the recipe.  Hey…that’s what flour-shifters were made for!  They either remove the flying devils or they “sift” them into oblivion (all the while making your subsequent recipe extra light & fluffy).  My suggestion here would be to add some benign parsley flakes to the recipe to confuse the I.D. of those remaining “whatever” specks.  It’s a protein (of a sort)…isn’t it?…..

There are lots more “hacks”…(like getting rid of ants on the counter)…..

But I have more baking to do…..

 

 

 

 

 

#flourmoths #flourweevils #lard #hacks #ants #rumballs #snickerdoodles