Mule Train Ho!!

Been grabbing supplies for the Thanksgiving feast and cookie baking - wanna know the best deals on flour and sugar?

Aldi's! - whodathunkit?

Even cheaper than the Restaurant Depot.

Book Review: The Christmas Cookie Cookbook by Ann Pearlman

It's coming time for the big Cookie Confab – though once again this year it is going to be downsized. Gail, Debbie and I have no days off in common anymore. It's sad. I love getting together to bake cookies and chew the fat. And drink. And bitch. And eat.

I have been pouring over my cookie books and even asked to review one. So yes – being the cheap chiseling food whore that I am - I got another free book.

The book I requested was The Christmas Cookie Cookbook, from Atria Books. This book is written by Ann Pearlman,  who also authored The Christmas Cookie Club, a book about a group of women who get together every year to trade cookies and share their lives.

Now ya know me – I am not a chick lit kinda gal. My family was filled with evil harridans who smiled nicely at each other in public and cut each other to ribbons with their razor sharp tongues behind closed doors. Family gatherings were not the sappy sweet female bonding experiences that you find in so many books aimed at women. So needless to say I haven't read the novel The Christmas Cookie Club.

But I do love cookies and have been running The Cookie Confab for almost 10 yrs now so I was very intrigued by the premise for this book.

All that being said – I really enjoyed reading The Christmas Cookie Cookbook. Ann talks about how the club got started, about the women involved, and the deep bonds that have developed over the last 20 years – yes 20 years. That is some stamina right there!! Plus, you get concrete advice on how to start your own club, hints on how to make the event a success from setting the date to passing out the goodies.

There are recipes too. Now, do not expect any ground shattering breakthroughs in cookie baking technology. Many of these recipes have seen print elsewhere – including the recipe that I made as a test batch. (In fact, the Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookie is from the Ghiridelli website, modified to make the dough a little easier to handle when shaping into log. I, and my boss, have made a couple other changes which I will share below.)

Other recipes are included for appetizers and buffet dishes to keep everyone on the edge of sobriety, plus cookie making tips.

Oh yeah – and then there are the Rules. The Rules are brilliant. The Rules are awesome. They are the work of someone who understands how to organize and maintain.

This is my snarky non-chick lit interpretations of the rules. If you want the nice friendly PC version, then you will just have to go and buy the book.

1. Cookie variety – no chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin – it's freakin' Christmas so act like it whydoncha?
2. No Goo – cuz too messy is no good...
3. Exclusive membership – No one wants to bake 20 dozen cookies for a party, so no – you don't get to come!
4. Commitment - what?! You came one time and now you wanna back out!!!?? Bitch!
5. Life Membership- well if we can put up with you, you can put up with us every year... or in other words the only way to leave the cookie club is feet first!
6. Packaging – Thou shalt invest in something pretty to hold your cookies – no paper plates ya lazy ho!
7. Share a dish – we need some food to soak up all this booze!
8. Charity – spread the love – and calories – around!
9. More Fun – do things that will be memorable - memorable enough to cut through the alcohol-induced haze.

I think the one thing I would have like to see with the cookie recipes were “keeping instructions” - a consistent addendum to each recipe talking about how long the product would keep, and the proper way to store them. One would assume that these recipes have been made and tested by the ladies who submitted them and those ladies would have some idea of how long these different types of cookies keep. Maybe that is kinda nit-picky but I'm just sayin'...woulda been nice.

Overall, I would say buy this book, especially if you have ever dreamed of running a cookie exchange or even another seasonal event every year. The advice is sound, the tone supportive and if you are lucky enough to have friends and family who actually like each other then I say give it a try!

Now your reward for putting up with my ramblings – the recipe!!!

Here is the recipe for Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookies. They demand something like milk or, even better, the slight bitterness of black coffee.

Here is the recipe as it is written in the book.

Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookies Yield: 24 cookies 12 ounces Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips 11 1/2 ounces 60% Bittersweet Chocolate Chips 6 tablespoon unsalted butter 3 eggs 1 cup sugar 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup chopped walnuts Directions In double boiler over hot water, melt bittersweet chocolate chips and butter. In large bowl, beat eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until thick. Stir in chocolate mixture. Set aside. In small bowl, stir together flour and baking powder. Stir in chocolate mixture. Gently mix in semi-sweet chocolate chips and walnuts (dough will be gooey). Chill for 30 minutes to firm up. On a sheet of plastic wrap, form dough into two logs, each 2 inches in diameter and about 8 inches long. Wrap tightly. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until firm. Shinny Shiny cookies...yummmy.... Pre-heat oven to 375°F. With sharp knife, cut into 3/4-inch slices and place on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake 14 minutes or until shiny crust forms. Cookies should be soft inside. Transfer cookies to rack to cool. Differences from the original recipe on the Ghiridelli sight: The original recipe does not call for the 30 minute chill before shaping. This does make it easier to handle when shaping. The shape of the logs is 2” in diameter and 12” long. Even though the recipe in the book says 8” - the logs did come out about 12” during the test. The original recipe stipulates that you unwrap the logs before cutting. Duh. The original recipe kept the cookies on the pan until cool. These are kinda delicate and I would cut the difference between the two recipes and let the cookies cool for a few minutes before removing them to the rack. The original recipe called for 12-14 minutes. 12 minutes did the trick for me. The original recipe states that these will keep up to one week. I hid a cookie and just pulled it out. A week is kinda pushing it – they were much better the first couple of days, but I still would not turn my nose up at one of these that was a week old. Changes that I made to the recipe: I would say chop the walnuts into medium to small pieces. Larger pieces taste good but are a bitch to cut. Use a serrated knife when cutting the log. This is for two reasons: first, the sawing motion means you do not have to press down as hard on the log so you do not flatten it out or cause the dough to crumble. The second is it will cut through the chocolate chips when they are cold. I also froze one of the logs of dough, then thawed it in the fridge overnight before baking. Turned out just as awesome as the non-frozen dough. Lastly – this can easily be made gluten free! My boss, Melissa, substituted ½ cup of commercial gluten free flour and they turned out fantastic.

My Life of Leisure...




This is all the excitment
that you get at a magic party...

  Yeah - it’s been almost 6 months since I posted. To be truthful, its been entirely selfish. I have been doing and being and not writing about it. And having a wonderful time with it too...
First - I got to go to San Francisco in June. Actually, I got to visit LA and San Fran. Scary part - it was 90+ degrees with 98% humidity in C-bus, but when we rolled off the plane in CA it was a cool 75 degrees with no moisture at all. Heaven!
We flew into LAX with its big spaceship out front and went to the rental car company to pick up our car. We had asked for a full sized model - since we are not compact car kinda folks - and was told they were out. Panic!! The gal at the counter says - we upgraded you to a luxury model. It’s in slot 42.
 Lo and behold - it a was a freakin’ land yacht! A huge caddy with all the bells and whistles. The perrrrrrrfect car for our PCH drive as it turned out. Just don’t try parking in the LA or San Fran though...
 After a night on a hard bed in an overpriced hotel in Hollywood, we hit the road. Being a Mid-west gal, my first impression of California - brown. Even in the middle of a drought here there are still vestiges of green, but even the trees looked dusty and brown on our way North out of LA on State Route 1.


The brown, brown hills of Southern California



The only thing that relives all the brown is the blue blue Pacific Ocean. As you think that all you are going to see are brown rocky hills, you come around a curve and BAM! the ocean hugs the coast and little towns are nestled along the edges. Then back up into the hills.
 The good news about those hills is that they hide little canyons filled with tasty, tasty food.

Where is the HELL is San Margherita, you ask? And why should I go there?

Last time I talked about Charlie and his unerring ability to find good food. This time I am going to tell you about another one of his finds - all the way over in San Margherita on the West side.

What is San Margherita you ask? According to Columbusite (an awesome resource for those of you who have never used it!), San Margherita was an outpost for the Italian laborers who worked the nearby quarries. Now it is home to a lot of people who want upscale condos and strip malls.

Still hiding on McKinley Road is a couple older buildings housing businesses like an auto shop and a carry out called the San Margherita Market. It's the Market we are interested in here.

One afternoon we were heading back from Charlie's house, when he said, "We are goin' someplace good for lunch." And then didn't say another word about where we were going. As he was driving, we were at his mercy.

We pulled up in front of this brick building with an ancient sign. It did not look promising. "Wait till you try one of their sandwiches - they are so damn big you can hardly get 'em in your mouth!"

Up front it looks like your average carry out with an above average selection of beer. As you get toward the back, you see the food section.

The menu reads like this.

Polish Sandwich

Ground Itialian (sic) Sandwich

Meatball Sandwich

Roast Beef Sandwich

Pizza

and

Eggrolls

I am sure there are other items - but I cannot recall... My mind boggles at the sight of the sandwiches...

First - let me tell you that the Polish Sandwich is made out of Polish sausage - and yet - its is not the sausage sandwich that you would expect. It is not the round meaty tube one associates with Polish sausage. It's more like meat spaghetti. The links have been shaved lengthwise so that the meat hangs in long thin strips. This is cooked in some type of liquid. But it's ok - don't be afraid. It is delicious. The owners pile mounds and mounds of this shaved sausage onto a soft white bun (from Audino's - synchronicity at work here folks!), along with cheese, onions, banana peppers and if you wish, yellow mustard and hot sauce.

Here is a picture of the large sub. I have put a King size Snickers next to it for reference. Not a little Snickers. A King size!

The medium is hardly any smaller.

Their meatballs are fantastic as well...tons and tons of them in sauce on the same soft bun...

And then there is the Ground Itialian. Yes - that is how it is spelled on the menu. This is a loose meat sandwich made with Italian sausage instead of hamburger. And yes - they are just as big as the Polish. I love these dearly, but they are a mess to eat. The last time I got one I stopped in a park on the way home and ate it on a bench hunched over so none of the meat would drop down my shirt.

Prices? Well they run like this - $6.25 for a large sandwich, $5.25 for a medium sandwich and a small is only $2.95. Personally, I would get the large even if you think you could not possibly eat it. We dropped off a Polish to our friend Eric who has been home ill for two weeks. He looked at it and said, "I cannot possible eat this big sub." When I got home there was a message on the machine from him. It said, "I called to tell you I can't believe I ate the whole thing."

Last but not least is the egg rolls. Handmade by the owners, they are fried up fresh and served with this fantastic dipping sauce that is sweet, sour and hot. At $1 each, they are a real steal.

So the next time you have a Charlie-sized appetite, or even think you might just want an egg roll - stop into the San Margherita Market and strap on the feedbag.

San Margherita Market

3255 McKinley Ave

Columbus, Ohio

Hot food served from 10 am - 8 pm

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Doughnuts...

I have a soft spot for deep fried dough. I come by it honestly - my parents loved them too and there were always some type of cake doughnuts hanging around the house waiting to be dunked into coffee or a cold glass of milk. Occasionally, the local scout troop or some other fund raiser would bring around Crispy Cremes - and 20 secs in the nuke later we would have sinful glazed goodness.

Roll forward to my college years and its 3 a.m. on Campus and the only thing open was Buckeye Donuts. Staggering home from "the library", all it would take was a hazardous waste container of their strong "varnish remover" and a couple sinkers - man I was ready to tackle that sociology paper due in the morning...

Now in my dotage, it takes a truly magnificent doughnut to turn my head. While Crispy Cremes are good (especially when they just come rolling out of the glaze). Light and sweet - they have their place, but after one or two, they show their shallow nature. And the variety doughnuts they carry - so lacking in character they are not really worth the time it takes to mention them.

So the point of all this you ask?

Meet Rosa Auddino. She is the matriarch of the family owned bakery Audinos. Locals in the food service industry will recognize the name - Auddino's delivers fresh baked buns and breads to customers all over the city. What most people don't know is they have a retail outlet. And inside that retail outlet - they have doughnuts. Good doughnuts. Did I say good? I meant - Fantastic Doughnuts. Well those and other really great baked goods as well.

Let me regale you with the story of how my hubby found Auddino's.

One of Tony's best friends is Charlie. Charlie owns a towing company. One thing you can depend on is that Charlie knows where to find good food - north, south, east or west he can point you to something that is truly delicious. So one day I asked Tony to hunt down some rolls for the Italian Beef I was making and he was having no luck. So he stopped in at Charlie's shop to get his butt whipped at gin and shoot the shit.

"So watcha up to, Tony?" Charlie says as he rolls his big stogie around in his fingers. (Charlie is a big guy - he makes my hubby look like an anorexic dwarf- and his voice rolls over you like a jet engine ready to take off. You know Hagrid the giant from the Harry Potter books and movies? Well Charlie would bitch slap Hagrid and take his lunch.)

"Rose has me running all over the city trying to find these rolls for dinner tonight and I just can't find what she wants. I tell you if she wasn't such a good cook, her ass would be out on the curb!" says Tony as he shuffles the deck and deals.

"Well why don't you go over to Auddino's?" Charlie starts sorting out his cards while chewing the hell out of his half lit cigar.

"Auddino?"

"Yeah, Auddino's. Over by the fairgrounds. We'll go over after I finish takin' all your money. They'll have what you want."

So after finishing the game in which Tony was forced to cough up his stripper tipping cash, they headed over to Auddino's. (He denys it, but why else would a man carry around $30 in ones? All men are dogs...)

And I'll be damned if they didn't have the prefect rolls. Plus a ton of pastries. We ate really good that night. I even forgave Tony for his stripper tipping habits - for the moment.

A week later, I made Tony take me over to the bakery so I could check out their wares for myself.

Underneath an ancient sign reading Auddino's Breads Cakes Donuts and Pastries lay one of the best bakeries in Columbus

Behold their bounty...

Fried Croissant -This is my favorite. Take a plain croissant, throw it in some hot fat, then drench in a glaze. It is sweet, flaky buttery and totally sinful. This is what Krispy Kreme wishes it could be.

Apple Fritter - Soft, with tiny apple pieces and lightly spiced with cinnamon, these are some of the best examples of this fried goodie I have ever found.

Cake Donuts - Paired with coffee or milk, cake donuts are that old fashioned midday treat.

And let's not forget the classic Italian treats!!

Amaretti - These are dense moist very sweet cookies made with almond paste. I had tried for years to make these at home but to no avail. Now - I just stop down and pick up a dozen of these to serve with coffee after dinner. And you have to serve these with coffee. The extreme sweetness make this the perfect accompaniment to a strong espresso or dark roast americano.

Cannoli - The real deal. Crunchy, creamy and sweet - these are a dream.

This is not all they offer, so I recommend you stop in and check it out for yourself ASAP.

In parting, here is some advice concerning your upcoming trip to Auddino's.

1) If you see a really big white pickup sporting a set of truck nuts parked out front, be prepared for gale force winds in the building - this means Charlie is there picking up goodies for his crew.

2) Go early. Their more popular choices sell out quickly and you may miss out.

3) Needing lots and lots of bread and goodies? Call ahead and place an order. They are professionals ya know...

Auddino's Bakery
1490 Clara St
Columbus, OH 43211
(614) 294-2577

If only it were so easy....

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

Some Veggies for Stacy

Before Christmas, I had lunch with my friend Stacy. We were talking about food - as always - and she asked me what I did for veggies in the winter.

Of course, eating local in an Ohio winter is almost impossible unless you've had the good fortune to freeze or can your own. I did get some strawberries and peas frozen but that was about it.

At present, I have been haunting ethnic groceries. Being a poor house owner, I haven't been able to eat out like I used to. So I have been learning a lot about Indian and Asian cooking, which are two of my favorite types of eat out food.

My most recent visit was to CAM grocery over on Bethel Road. They have a great selection of fresh produce, meats and seafood, plus a lot of staple items like soy sauce and rice. The prices of the produce are pretty amazing. I picked up 1.5 pounds of baby Shanghai bok choy for $2.50.

Chinese veggies like baby bok choy are great for quick dinners because they cook so rapidly.

A quick way to make a side dish from baby bok choy:

1. Clean and cut apart the bunches of greens. It's ok if they are not totally dry.
2. Thinly slice a clove or two of garlic and grate a little fresh ginger if you have it (if you don't its not the end of the world)
3. Heat up some oil in a non-stick skillet.
4. When the oil is hot, toss in the garlic and ginger.
5. Now toss in the moist baby bok choy into the pan, and toss until the leaves just start to look wilted.
6. Take out of pan and put onto plates. Hit it with a couple shots of soy or sprinkle with salt. Also, you could toss the warm leaves with a little oyster sauce before plating if you are partial to oyster sauce.
7. Done!

I served it up with sliced roast pork and mashed sweet potatoes. I like the unadorned flavor of greens so a lot of people may find that pretty minimal.

The other thing I did was make "Fabulous Fake Asian Noodle Soup".

I love soups like pho and egg drop soup, so I kinda came up with my own version.

This serves two.

Faux Asian broth

3 cups of homemade no-salt chicken stock (See notes below about commercial broth)

A piece of ginger, cut about 1/4" thick and smashed with back of a knife (you want it kinda beat up to release flavor)

A clove of garlic, smashed

A couple slices of onion, thin

A small dash of five spice powder OR a mixture of star anise, cinnamon bark, Szchuan peppercorns and cloves (I will be truthful and tell you I use just a little piece of cinnamon stick and the peppercorns because my hubby hate anise and cloves!!)

Put all the spices into the broth and simmer for about 30 mins while you are prepping the rest of the soup items. You can also do this ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate the strained broth.

Soup Fixin's

1/2 pound of baby bok choy or other greens, cleaned and blanched

3 or 4 white button mushrooms or any other mild mushroom of choice, thinly sliced

1/4 pound of meat, thinly sliced or diced (I've used shredded leftover chicken and pork roast. The main thing is that the pieces will fit in a spoon.)

1/2 pound of fresh noodles, either Chinese or Italian (Cook according to the instructions)

2 green onions, finely sliced

Soy Sauce

Fish Sauce (if you have it)

Asian sesame oil (if you have it)

Here is how I streamline my prep. If you have it, use a hot pot to get your water to a boil quickly. Put it into a saucepan on the stove over high heat to keep it boiling. Have a bowl with ice water sitting next to the stove. Plunge the greens into boiling water for about a minute (until they look bright green). Using a slotted spoon, fish out and put into the ice water. Let the blanching water return to a boil and throw in the noodles. Cook until finished (I let mine go until they are no longer al dente. I like soft noodles in soup.) Drain and rinse the noodles.

Assembly

Split up the veggies, noodles and meat between two large soup bowls.

Remove the flavoring agents from the broth.

Now here comes the tricky part - the salty part.

I use unsalted broth because I want the salt to come from soy sauce and fish sauce. How much you use of each is fairly subjective - I would estimate about 1 -2 Tablespoons of soy sauce and a teaspoon of fish sauce does it for me. Make sure you taste the broth after you add the minimal amounts of the salty agents and adjust as needed. The flavor should be very light. If you put too much soy sauce it will over whelm the flavor of everything else. If you choose to use low sodium commercial broth, please be very careful as things can go bad very quickly - nothing is worse than too much salt in a soup.

Once you are happy with the broth, ladle over the ingredients in the bowls.

If you have some Asian sesame oil, you can add a couple of drops to each bowl.

This is a very light soup - I usually eat it when I don't want to get filled up. You could add more veggies, meat and noodles to it if you would like to make it more filling. Everything but the cooking of the noodles and the bok choy can be done the day before, so all you have to do is heat up the broth while you finish the noodles and greens. You could even use the stock to cook the noodles, I suppose, and add the bok choy just before you take it off the heat. It might muddy up the broth though... something to think about though...

(Still no camera. My daughter took the pictures of the baby bok choy for me. Thanks Annie!!!)

So what have I been cooking?

So what have I been cooking?

Hmmmmmmm let's see.

Banana Foster pancakes - ham - chicken curry - homemade dinner rolls - pot roast - bean soup - lentil soup - jambalaya - steaks - baked potatoes - a 20 pound turkey - cookies - OH YEAH! The cookies!!!!

So after not seeing each other for almost nine months - I get Debbie and Gail into my new house. Ah, the excitement! Ah, the alcohol!! And we roll and we scoop and we sweat over our cookies and what happens?

Cookie Rustlers!!

Dag Nabit! We turn our backs for one minute and woosh! So if you did not receive you allotment of cookies from me this year - Blame it on the rootin', tootin' varmits!

However, I will not let this dastardly deed crush the spirit of the Cookie Confab.This was a time of togetherness. A time to catch up on the last twelve months and remember what friendship is really about. A time to ooooh and ahhhh over pictures of grandbabies. A time for us to drink pina coladas and Irish coffee while waiting on the timer to ding. But mostly it was a time for us eat all the “broken” cookies and swap recipes.

Who needs elves? Keebler - eat your heart out!

This was a rather rushed affair this year – no pre-Confab planning lunch or shopping trip. Our new work schedules kept us from getting down to that kind of detail this year, but we still managed to coordinate enough that we actually got some baking done.

The cookies weren’t the only thing getting baked!!

We baked some of our old favorites: Gingersnaps, Cut-outs, Pecan Sandies plus few more. Truth be told, I still do not have all my cookbooks unpacked yet, so I was relying on some of my old typed recipes, magazines and Internet sources this year.

Snickerdoodle Roses from Gail

Oh GingerSnaps!

New on this year’s roster was a lemon cut out with pistachio topping. Debbie found the recipe in one of the every present Christmas cookie magazines that start showing up in the checkout lane in October. I think her magazine was from Taste of Home. I was worried they would taste like they had been dipped in Lemon Pledge, but the flavors were just right. Annie kept sneaking in and eating them “to save you from yourselves.” Thank you Annie for throwing yourself on that grenade!

Debbie Cookies

The other recipe I tried was from Better Homes and Gardens. These cookies were supposed to remind you of a certain famous coconut and almond candy bar. The flavor was close, but almost too sweet. The almond flavor was over whelmed by the sweet coconut. The biggest disappointment was the chocolate topping. I melted the bittersweet chocolate as instructed, but it never really set up once it was on the bars. I tucked it into the fridge and the chocolate got so hard you couldn’t cut it without breaking even after setting out for about 30 minutes. I couldn’t help thinking there had to be a better way to do this…maybe something like almond -coconut tassies? More work than a bar cookie, which is one of the reasons I was drawn to this recipe, but the current recipe just isn’t working for me…

However, these were one of the cookies the rustlers favored - so maybe they were worth making a second batch.

Here is the original recipe

Now here is what I did to change it!

Coconut and Almond Bar Cookies - Rosie Style!

Makes 36 bars

ingredients

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1-1/2 cup whole almonds, toasted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup butter, melted
1 14-ounce package flaked coconut
1 14-ounce can (1 1/4 cups) sweetened condensed milk
12 ounces dark chocolate chips

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with foil, leaving enough hanging over the edge to form a cookie sling. Place graham cracker crumbs, 1/2 cup of the almonds, and the brown sugar in a food processor. Cover and process until almonds are finely chopped. Add butter; cover and pulse with four or five on-off turns or until mixture is well combined. Press crumb mixture onto bottom of the ungreased, lined baking pan. Bake in preheated oven for 12 minutes. Allow to cool until just warm to the touch.

2. Combine coconut and sweetened condensed milk in a medium bowl. Spread mixture evenly over crust. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup almonds evenly over coconut layer. Now sprinkle the chocolate pieces on top of the almonds and coconut. Bake for 10 minutes.

3. As soon as you remove the pan from the oven, spread the now-melted chocolate chips evenly over top of baked bars. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. (If desired, chill in the refrigerator until the chocolate is set.) Once cooled, but before the chocolate gets really hard, pull the bars out of the baking dish using the foil sling. Using a long sharp knife,cut into bars. If your chocolate is too hard, score it with a paring knife along your intended paths of destruction to encourage even breaks. And if you try everything and they still come out looking crappy - the taste will be just fine.

To store: Place bars in a single layer in an airtight container; cover. Refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months. Let stand for 30 minutes before serving.

Reasons why I think my version is better:

1. I use one less bowl. Less clean up means more time to drink.
2. I use a single bag of chocolate chips. It means you spend less and you don't have a half bag of chips looking for a use - or ending up as snacks which don't really taste good with pina coldas .
3. The chocolate is thinner and allows for easy cutting.
4. The foil sling lets you liberate your pan for another batch of cookie. I don't know about you, but I only have two 13x9x2-inch pans and they are in constant use during cookie season.
5. I remove a whole step by melting the chocolate on top of the cookies instead of in another bowl. Why is this important? See reason 1.

If anyone would like any of this year's cookie recipes, please let me know. I will be happy to share them with you!