(Sort of) Taking it Easy Week

Last night, I fed the sourdough starter (I do this a few days after starting it, both to make sure it keeps going and to increase its volume for use). This morning, it was nice and bubbly and smelled sour. It's ready to use, but back in the fridge it went.

For a few reasons, we end up with a lot of various baking mixes in my house. Box Tops for Education, for one (I do have a school-aged niece). Freebies that come when you buy certain items at the grocery store are another. One way or another, there were 2 boxes of cake mix, 3 boxes and one bag of muffin mix, two boxes of cookie mix and a whoopie pie kit in my pantry.

So this week's project is to knock out a couple of them. Today's project was sugar cookies.

I typically don't mind shortcuts, but typically, I don't like making anything without my own special touch. I'm not just talking baking – my lunch the past two days has been Campell's Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup. Yesterday's addition was hot sauce. Today it was a couple strips of bacon left over from last night's dinner and some Parmesan cheese. Totally different than what it's supposed to be. I even add extra dried herbs to frozen pizza.

But today, it was au natural. One stick of butter, one egg and a package of sugar cookie mix. It was almost too easy.

They aren't anything spectacular. To me, they're not anything different than a package of pre-made sugar cookies with more effort. But they were there, and with two down (one hot out of the oven, one mostly cool) and they do hit the spot.

Still, I'm thinking: Didn't I have a package of chocolate chips somewhere?