Day 31: Bake Jumbilee Jumbles (Cookies)

     Today marks the end of the first month of my lil' experiment. 31 days of new experiences, tasks, goals, sights and situations. I've seen some really interesting sights. I remember road tripping to Wyoming to high five the state's welcome sign, and I remember throwing up all night after failing at both the slice of bread and the saltine challenges. My inner elbow area is still sore from donating blood, and my right thigh has the faint ghostly image of what was supposed to be my first "stick n' poke" tattoo. I've defiantly learned a lot about the basics of cooking, and relearned that peeps really suck (a lot). Its been a good month, a fresh, spontaneous month. Lets see how far this project will go.
     I wanted to end this month off with a bang. Something that would make me proud, or, at the very least, remember tonights new thing. I wanted to get a piercing, but not an ear piercing. I don't have too much of a desire to pierce my ears (or nose or eyebrow or lip or whatever else is "in"). I wanted to get my hand pierced. My left hand, on the webbing between the thumb and pointer finger to be exact. Credit for the idea for this goal goes to a dude by the name of Zach Flesher. I saw him give himself that piercing a couple years ago in the cafeteria at school. He sat there on a picnic style table, so painfully determined to impale his hand with a suspect looking needle. My friends and I all watched as he persistently dug into the webbing of his left hand with what must have been a rounded tip needle. After a while, the needle burrowed through the skin and through the other side of his hand. He succeeded in his attempt to mutilate, and that has inspired me ever since. My attempt at piercing was much more short lived. I called a local tattoo shop to ask about the pricing and process of the ordeal. The man on the other end cut me off mid sentence and said "We don't do any kind of piercings other than ear, lip, nose and eyebrow. People don't know how to keep it clean and the next thing ya know, ya got a fungus hand". So that was a bummer, but understandable. Getting stabbed by metal wasn't an option, so I did the next best thing, I made cookies.
     I made cookies, but not just any cookies. My late (and very great) grandmothers Jumbilee Jumbles cookies. They are theses delicious treats that my grandmother would make every year around Christmas. She would make a whole tub for my sister, brother and I, and then she would give my dad his own tub filled with sugary goodness. They were awesome and I loved them. I loved them half as much as I loved my grandma, which is a heapload of love.
     I picked up the ingredients and tossed "this n' that" together. Then I stirred a couple cups of "whatever" into a bowl and added some milk and vanilla. I may have done a couple of food/meal preparing challenges this month, but I was still really nervous with the whole measuring and technical things. I had the batter chill in the fridge for a while and then I started on the burnt butter glaze. It was mostly butter and sugar, which is awesome. Some more boring/tasty steps followed and eventually, I had some cookies. They were warm and delicious. Not nearly as good as grandma's version, but still good. I really liked this challenge cause I love cookies and grandma. Heres to another month of new thangs ya'll.

Here is a link to a blog with the recipe: http://mealplanningwithconnie.blogspot.com/2010/03/mrs-carters-jubilee-jumbles.html