Thinking....

Obviously I've been looking at cookie recipes and gathering the needed supplies to get started but I've also been thinking about the "other" thirty daze's I'm going to be having and what could I do that would be fun and interesting to you. While I do have ideas rolling around, I am open to suggestions.
I've thought about what Thirty Daze REALLY means. There is most always thirty days in a month (most of the time) - what will I do on the months that have 31 days? How about February when it has 28 or 29? These are the questions my kids are throwing at me today. I DON'T KNOW!!! That is my answer. And more off, I DON'T CARE!! I think most everyone gets the jist of what it is I'm doing. I know it takes 21 days to make or break a habit - but 21days was already taken as a blog name. So, that left me with choosing something else. I had the idea to make cookies everyday for the month of November and November has 30 days so that's where it came from.
I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts, experiences, pictures, and opinions with all of you.
I stopped by Trader Joes today to see their baking supplies. They used to carry this awesome product called Vanilla Paste. It was a vanilla extract in the form a thicker type paste product. I really enjoyed using it because I like using extra vanilla in most everything I bake and it allowed me to do that without add extra liquid. I will be looking online tonight to see if they carry it at a different store. I discovered there some pecans that have already been toasted. I'm very excited to try them. I know that toasting the nuts for a recipe brings out more of the nut flavor, but frankly - I'm too lazy to do that step. I just usually dump them right out of the bag - still frozen (you should keep your nuts in the freezer to keep the natural oils from going rancid so quickly). Along the lines of vanilla. I had the idea today to make vanilla sugar. While I think it's as simple as adding a split vanilla bean or two or three to X amount of sugar and letting it sit, thus allowing the essence of the vanilla infuse the sugar. That's another way I can my lovely vanilla flavor without adding the unneeded liquid from the extract. I'll always be sure to let you know if I used my vanilla sugar or just plain sugar. Either way, I'm confident at this point that I will splurge the extra cost fact and be using ultra-fine baking sugar in my recipes. I've recently started using it and I think it has made a big difference in the quality of cookie that I bake. I think the sugar crystals are finer than your standard sugar and they blend more easily during the "creaming" step of cookie making.
I must let you know that I do plan on using top of the line baking ingredients as much as is feasible. Oh no short cutting around here. I will splurge and buy the madagascar vanilla bean (the paste hopefully) - superfine sugar - turbinado sugar, ghiradelli dark chocolate - whatever...I have opinions about ingredients that I will share along the way. Obviously, I don't want to be like Martha Stewart and include ingredients that are not easily accessed. I will try to have NORMAL, EVERYDAY, EVERY STORE ingredients.
So, I sign off tonight with cookies on the brain. This will be a scientific discovery for us all as we watch them cream, mix, blend, fold, puff, bake, possibly burn, and cool down just enough to gobble them up without burning our mouths.
Happy Cookies everyone,
Natalie