After being sick at the end of last week (which is actually the worst thing as a teacher – it makes you realize just how much energy you need on a daily basis), I made it up to Massachusetts for the weekend just in time to experience one of those blizzards I’d been hearing so much about. Down in New Jersey, this winter has been very much a story of “There’s a huge blizzard coming our way, everybody panic! Oh wait, it missed us, but it did hit Boston.” Up here, it’s a very different story.As I was driving to my parents’ place, the main roads were to a point where you could just about see the pavement. And this was before we got another foot and a half Saturday night. Snowbanks are taller than any car you might see coming out from behind one. And yesterday morning, there was actually thunder and lightning during the snow storm. I didn’t even know that was possible.

However, most people seem to be sick of the storms to a point where people are carrying on as if it isn’t blizzarding out. We, for example, drove out in the height of it to get to my parents’ new house, which they were supposed to be able to move into this weekend, but again got delayed due to snow. Once there, I finally got to use the new home of SMiLes by Meg: my bake center!Clearly I still have some setting up to do, and since it was a blizzard and all, I had to make something that I already had all of the ingredients for, which brought me to shortbread cookies. They are essentially as basic as it gets in terms of what you need, and are really easy to whip up on short notice. If you have butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and flour, you’re good to go.

However, when you are baking in a brand new place and think a recipe is really easy, you realize which items you have always taken for granted as being on hand. Like plastic wrap. Or a fork. Or cookie cutters.

So I had to improvise a little, but they got our contractor’s seal of approval!

First, cream together the butter and sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed until smooth.

Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine.

Add the flour, about a cup at a time, and switch to the dough hook attachment to mix until the batter really comes together into little pieces.

This was the first part I needed to improvise. What you should do is turn the dough out onto a floured surface and form it into a flat disc, wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill it in the fridge for about half an hour.

I didn’t have plastic wrap. So I found a cake pan (which I figured was close enough to a flat disc, floured it, pressed the dough into it, and put that in the fridge.

Now, keep in mind that while baking yesterday, I was also helping my dad move furniture up from the basement where it had been stored and setting up bedrooms. So my dough was in the fridge for closer to an hour and a half before I got back to my cookies, resulting in a block of cookie dough to turn out onto my new marble work surface (SO COOL!).Fortunately, at this point my dad called to help me with something else in the basement, so it had a little while to soften before I rolled it out. I also cut it into two pieces before rolling to make it easier to get to half an inch thickness.

For a good part of the morning, I spent a lot of time looking at all of the boxes trying to figure out what might have happened to my cookie cutters. I could see them in my mind, and knew where they were at one point, but things had been moved around. Most boxes were labeled things like “Pantry” or “Kitchen”, which meant they really had a whole bunch of places they could be. I mentioned to my dad how much easier it would be if there was a box just labeled “Cookie Cutters”.

Regardless, I decided to go the old fashioned way and just use a knife to cut rectangles out of the dough. Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet and pop them back in the fridge to chill the dough again – that will prevent the edges from spreading on baking.

Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes, or until the edges are golden. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Then, if you are feeling super fancy, you can melt some dark chocolate and dip the edges into it, placing them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper to harden.

You’ll notice that I also got creative enough to make some minnow cookies! That’s because we call the new house The Minnow, and it only seemed fitting that the first thing baked in the new kitchen was minnow-themed.

It was at this stage, though, after I had dipped my cookies in chocolate and taken pictures and tested them, that I was sitting on the floor, laughing at something that my mom had done. On the floor, I looked to my right, and, lo and behold, found a box labeled “cookie cutters”. The joys of moving.

Anyways, the shortbread cookies are great as gifts as they’ll keep in an airtight container for quite awhile.

Enjoy!

Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 pound of butter (3 sticks), softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• dark chocolate, for melting

Directions:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar in a stand mixer on medium speed with the paddle attachment until smooth.
2. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine.
3. Switch to the dough hook. Add the flour, about a cup at a time, stirring on low speed until dough begins to come together.
4. Turn out onto floured surface and form into a flat disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for half an hour.
5. Roll dough out to about half an inch thick. Cut into 1 inch by 3 inch rectangles. Place on cookie sheet and chill for an additional 5 minutes.
6. Bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes, or until edges of cookies are golden brown. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.
7. Melt dark chocolate and dip cookies, placing them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper to harden.