Rejects

Christmas cookies are a big part of my holiday traditions. They were a big part of our wedding, where each table had a different kind of Christmas cookies. These days I host the annual MOMS Club Cookie Swap, which is my primary reason for baking every holiday season.

My love for cookies comes from my childhood. Growing up, my mom made a couple dozen types of cookies (and still does) to put on plates and give to friends & neighbors. At the beginning of December the types of cookies were decided, ingredients purchased and the process began. A couple weeks of making & freezing dough and then 3-4 days of baking & decorating batches of 20 different kinds of cookies. Finally there was plating the cookies neatly and, of course, delivering them.

Throughout the process there were only a couple of opportunities to eat cookies... when they are considered "rejects"...

1- Sugar cookie dough that had been rolled out too many times to be rolled out again.
2- Broken cookies that have fallen off the tray/spatula
3- Cookies that didn't look "right" - over cooked, deformed, etc.
4- Cookies off a plate that was unsuccessfully delivered (family was away)

Now that I don't live at my parents, we actually get a plate of cookies so I don't have to only eat the rejects. But, when I am baking we still follow the "reject rule".