Cookies anyone?

SO our oven is extra HOT and even though the cookie recipe said to bake them for 10-15 minutes...I settled for 8 knowing that our oven is extremely off. As I am cleaning up the flour and sugar from the counters, Scott says, "Is something burning?" I said, "No way...I have definitely done everything to keep these babies from scorching!" Then I take one glance towards the oven and WHHALAAA...smoke is seeping out from the inside! BLAST! My cookies are for ruin! "We can still eat some of them..they aren't that bad", Scott says, trying to console me. Sure WE ate some of the not so burnt ones, but we definitely could not bring these over to our friends house for FHE! Poor cookies...they will never see the light of day, the glory that they could have been. Sorry for making you look ugly and nothing like the picture with thick yummy frosting. They tasted okay...but in the aesthetic department they definitely received an F! I am a determined to never burn my cookies again! Next to buy on the shopping list...an oven thermometer so I know exactally HOW OFF our oven is.




On that note I would like to share a hilarious story....
You are going to love this, especially all of you ladies who bake for church events:

Alice Grayson was to bake a cake for the Baptist Church Ladies' Group inTuscaloosa, but forgot to do it until the last minute. She remembered it the morning of the bake sale and after rummaging through cabinets, found an angel food cake mix & quickly made it while drying her hair, dressing, and helping her son pack up for Scout camp.

When she took the cake from the oven, the center had dropped flat and the cake was horribly disfigured and she exclaimed, "Oh dear, there is not time to bake another cake!" This cake was important to Alice because she did so want to fit in at her new church, and in her new community of friends. So, being inventive, she looked around the house for something to build up the centre of the cake. She found it in the bathroom - a roll of toilet paper. She plunked it in and then covered it with icing. Not only did the finished product look beautiful, it looked perfect. And, before she left the house to drop the cake by the church and head for work, Alice woke her daughter and gave her some money and specific instructions to be at the bake sale the moment it opened at 9:30 and to buy the cake and bring it home.

When the daughter arrived at the sale, she found the attractive, perfect cake had already been sold. Amanda grabbed her cell phone & called her mom. Alice was horrified-she was beside herself! Everyone would know! What would they think? She would be ostracized, talked about, ridiculed! All night, Alice lay awake in bed thinking about people pointing fingers at her and talking about her behind her back.

The next day, Alice promised herself she would try not to think about the cake and would attend the fancy luncheon/bridal shower at the home of a fellow church member and try to have a good time. She did not really want to attend because the hostess was a snob who more than once had looked down her nose at the fact that Alice was a single parent and not from the founding families of Tuscaloosa, but having already RSVP'd , she couldn't think of a believable excuse to stay home. The meal was elegant, the company was definitely upper crust old south and to Alice's horror, the cake in question was presented for dessert!

Alice felt the blood drain from her body when she saw the cake! She started out of her chair to tell the hostess all about it, but before she could get to her feet, the Mayor's wife said, "what a beautiful cake!" Alice, still stunned, sat back in her chair when she heard the hostess (who was a prominent church member) say, "Thank you, I baked it myself."

Alice smiled and thought to herself, "God is good." :)