Brandi and Miles' NIGHT OF BAKING!

Last night was my big holiday baking night. I made a chocolate peppermint cake and NINE DOZEN Rolo cookies. They were everywhere.

They were both new recipes, and things didn’t get off to a great start. The cake batter was extremely thick, and my hand mixer was struggling. (HINT.) I kept having to pull it out of the bowl, sloooooooooowly, to get the batter back in the bowl. If I pulled it out too fast, batter went everywhere. But it turned out really good, even cleanly coming out of the pans, which never happens. They were pretty. The cookies were a sticky chocolate batter that was wrapped around a Rolo. The recipe said to flour your hands and they weren’t kidding. The first dozen was a real struggle; once again, batter was everywhere. But by the third round I had a system down, and I whipped them out pretty quickly. And can I just say? SO GOOD. Chocolate cookies with caramel centers and chopped pecans on top. Holy pajamas. It was a long, messy night, and I finally made it into bed around 2AM. But all my office Christmas gifts are done, and I’m ready for tomorrow’s Christmas party, so the effort was worth it.

I also watched six episodes of season two of Gilmore Girls, which was totally fun. It’s neat to see the beginnings of Luke/Lorelai, even if I don’t think they’re that great now that they’re together. I ended on the episode where Jess wrecks Rory’s car and Dean realizes he’s lost her. I don’t remember how I felt about it when I watched it originally, but this time around I say good riddance. I never really liked Jess, but Dean was not a good boyfriend for Rory. He pulled the jealous/clingy card QUICK, and that’s no good. I can’t really remember how the Jess thing plays out, but hopefully there will be less Dean and I will like that. So here’s to cookies, Gilmore Girls and stand mixers.