Cookie Project Eve

Tomorrow's the big day! Day One of the cookie project, to be exact. As promised, here's the list (not in chronological order):

1. Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
2. Jelly Pinwheels
3. Christmas Sugar Cookies
4. Oatmeal Lace Cookies
5. Spiced Snaps
6. Rum Balls
7. Key Lime Meltaways
8. Chocolate Truffles
9. Peanut Blossoms
10. Chocolate-dipped Shortbread
11. Raspberry Linzer Tarts
12. Cherry Chocolate Chip
13. Ricotta Cheese Cookies
14. Pumpking Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
15. Meringue
16. Whoopie Pies
17. Pfeffernuesse (love that word!)
18. Pizzelles
19. Lebkuchen
20. Berliner Kranser (Norwegian, for Best Boyfriend)
21. Besitos de Coco (Puerto Rican, for my Grandma [and me])
22. Dutch Chocolate Cookies
23. Sables
24. Graham Crackers
25. Gingerbread!

YUM

The Necessary Background

So, without going too deeply into matters, this past September saw the worst flooding in my area of upstate New York in history. Unfortunately for me, when the waters receded, so too did the national teleservices company for which I worked. They took their soggy flood insurance money and hunkered down in any one of the five other, drier branches they had across the country, and that's all she wrote for my employment. In an area already battling a withered job market, suddenly 200 new jobseekers flooded the market, and me... Well, I accepted my meager disaster unemployment and formulated a plan with Best Boyfriend Ever that involved things like "not taking the first telemarketing/grocery store/Walmart job available" and "working my existing network and skill set to try for something I truly love." One amazing (unpaid) internship later, I have an inbox full of the-position-has-been-filled emails and a growing resentment towards The Man that has "bah, humbug" written all over it.

Fun fact: I am not the Bah-Humbug type.

So, I decided to feed on holiday cheer like a solar panel in the summer time. With not one but two Thanksgiving obligations, I won't be basting a bacon-covered turkey any time soon, but for as much as I love to cook, why not bake? And for as much as I'm completely, utterly broke, why not bake cookies and give them away as gifts? Everyone wins, and I avoid becoming the deadbeat aunt who shows up with a second-hand book for Christmas. Yay!

And with this post, it becomes official. Today is November 14, and I have sixteen days to pick recipes, accumulate supplies, and find a way to not let life get in the way of things.

Wish me luck!