Homemade Cookies

Christmas isn't complete without the smell of homemade cookies coming from an almost ancient oven.

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For as long as I can remember, mum makes cookies twice a year. Once is during Chinese New Year and the other is at Christmas time. We used to help her. We still do. I'm pretty sure we didn't cause her any trouble at all. :)

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This year, because I was super busy with the Christmas Musical, work, etc, I didn't really help out much.

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Eunice and I planned to make biscuits the weekend before Christmas. I only managed to avail myself for a couple of hours on Saturday, but I made sure I kept the whole day free (save for church service in the morning) on Sunday.

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When I went over to my mum's place on Saturday, Eunice was already there, in the midst of baking the 3rd or 4th tray of cookies. I quietly helped her. En was there too and one of the first things she said to me was, "Are you here to help or to cause trouble?" And my!! did she say it ever so sternly. I suppose many people asked her that question when she wanted to help and ended up playing with the dough most of the time. Er... actually, she had been a great help, especially when she wasn't feeling tired and cranky. She was given a specific task as the "oven checker"

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On Sunday I went to my mum's place right after lunch. My sisters, mum, Tusi and Min Chee were also there, making cookies. It was "pineapple tarts" (one of the most tedious cookie to make) day and I've decided long ago that 5 people were needed so that making this cookie won't feel so draggy.

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1 person to roll out the mixture and mould it with a cookie cutter
1 person to put the pineapple onto the nicely shaped dough
2 persons to "pinch" the perimeter of the tart
1 person to check the oven and place the cookies into the container
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MinChee was feeling rather adventurous and volunteered to mix the dough. After a few minutes, mum came into the kitchen and saw the way MinChee was doing it. Mum said that it was wrongly mixed. Poor MinChee, she felt so bad that she mixed it the wrong way. I assured her that it will turn out alright.

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MinChee refused to roll out the mixture and mould the tart. She said that she tried it before and it was difficult. She wanted to do the most mundane job - putting pineapple jam onto the tart. I challenged her to do the most tedious part - to pinch the perimeter of the tart. She told me that she was lousy at it but I urged her to try it out. Secretly I wanted to make sure that there was another person who would help me to pinch the tarts. She tried the first one. It came out err... a little funny. I encouraged her to try a second time. By the 3rd time, she wanted to give up. I told her that for starters, hers wasn't all that ugly. By the 10th try, she was doing it well. :) Behold! I have another person to help me pinch the tarts!! YES!!!!

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En, being her adventurous self, tried rolling and moulding, putting the jam onto the tart, and finally, pinching. Well, the pinchijng part didn't go too well. Even after her 7th try, it still looked weird. But at least she tried her best! She was really disappointed that she couldn't do it well. Perhaps in time, she would perfect the skill.
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We finished making the tarts at 5.30pm and proceeded to make the gingerbread house/man. One of the house parts was almost burnt because the fire was a little too strong. Surprisingly, it was still very soft. The rest were hard like normal crunchy cookies.
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We used icing (which "I" made!!!!) to piece the house together. The one that was soft, couldn't really stand properly and we had to place a pair of chopsticks on the inside so that it wouldn't crumble down. We tried our best in making it stand properly but in the end, it still curved inwards a little.
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When Esther (the icing lady) and I (I held them all together) were finished with the jigsaw and the house was properly up, we got Mae-Z and En to decorate it with marshmallows, almonds and some edible colourful star shaped decoration.


We only (almost) finished decorating it at 12.30am. Both Esther and I were exhausted and sleepy. Towards the last part, we were too tired to hold the trees upright for 10 minutes while the icing hardened.

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Mum came into the dining room and saw the mess we made. There were icing and other stuff all over the table AND floor. Mum was a little mad and started "scolding" us for causing the mess. Esther, by then was cranky too. And thus, a mini civil war began. Sparks flew. I was caught in the middle. Both Rajen and I tried as much as possible to help with transfering bottles of cookies over to Esther's place, while Tusi quietly mopped the floor. The last straw came when mum decided she doesn't want the gingerbread house to be in her house. Well, she didn't exactly say it, but we knew she wanted it to be in Esther's house.
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Rajen was given the task of carrying the gingerbread house to Esther's place, and he did it very slowly, because the house was still quite fragile.
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Finally, it was in Esther's house and the battle of words subsided almost immediately.
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It was really a tiring day for me as I stood most of the time when I was making cookies and decorating the gingerbread house. The soles of my feet were sore and my whole body was badly in need of a good massage.
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Nevertheless, I went back feeling cheerful and contended.