Every once in a while I do a food post, which may give you the impression that I can cook or bake. Sorry to disappoint – but I can’t. I always want to make something new when I go to parties, but usually it doesn’t turn out quite right. I try to make it a little healthier, I fail at substituting ingredients, or I over cook it. So for Christmas at my in-laws’ this weekend, I decided to stick with the basics and make my mother-in-law’s favorite: no bake cookies. For some reason when I’ve made them in the past, they’ve failed to set up. Every. Single. Time. So she gave me her fail-safe recipe and told me to follow it exactly. I followed it to a T: I used real oats and high fat margarine, and I let it boil for 2 minutes. They didn’t set up. Again.

While I retreated to the other room to scream in a pillow, my husband peeled them off the waxed paper and threw the gooey mess in the fridge. After about 30 minutes, they hardened into little mushy clumps.

So after wasting about an hour, I had no choice but to make something new with ingredients I had on hand. I decided to try this pumpkin chip cookie recipe. Since I’d already ate too much batter I didn’t try one of these cookies last night, but they look like they might have turned out. (Although looks can be deceiving.) I suppose this time I should have stuck with the new recipe rather than try something old. But … ya never win.