52 Weeks of Cookies

A new adventure begins!  I'm setting out to bake for a year: 52 new cookie recipes, one for every week.

So what would compel me to do this?  It was kind of an accident.  I went to clean up my Pinterest boards one night. I just had too many dessert pins, and I hadn't made enough of them.  So to make my searching easier I thought I'd separate out all the cookie pins to their own board.  Then I thought it'd be fun to try to make them all, and oh what if there were enough for a whole year?  There were about 70 some actually.  Some had broken links, some had weird ingredients that I decided I would never make, some I had already made and needed to go to my success board.  All this organizing got me down to 52!  So it was decided.  I would bake them all, one a week, in a year.

Why did I think it was a great idea?  I love baking, but cookies are my favorite because they are typically the easiest in my opinion.  I love making people happy.  So naturally, making people happy with treats I bake is one of my favorite things.  I'm better at baking than cooking.  I like accomplishing things.  All of these things led me to believe that this was one of my best ideas ever!

So I set out to come up with a plan.  A spreadsheet was necessary; because I love them.  Weeks, dates, events (particularly birthdays), and planned cookie recipes from my "Cookie Monster" Pinterest board appropriate for said people/events.  I have about half the recipes planned already.  I established rules for myself, to keep me accountable and because I want to finish this and I know it'll be hard for me to stick with it that long.  A week will be Monday - Sunday.  I can bake the cookies anytime in that week.  If I have more than one event to bake for, I can only count one as my 52 recipes, the other event(s) will have to be a different treat.  If one week is particularly hectic or if I am traveling, I can make up one week only, no more than one makeup week at a time.  Makeups can only be due to schedule conflicts. I'm planning on not substituting recipes, I already have the 52 recipes set.  That's about it.

Why am I so excited?  It seems serendipitous.  It feels challenging, fun, and fulfilling.  I want to continue to be more thoughtful of others; I want to make a point to do something special for people.  This gives me a reason to force myself to do that through cookies!  I'm starting with cookies for Virginia's birthday.  She's been my friend since elementary school and she's awesome.  She's actually in town for her birthday for the first time in years.  I get to see her, which only happens a few times a year.  We are going to celebrate another friend's amazing accomplishments this weekend.  I've been saving this bottle of wine I'm drinking for several years from one of my best friend's bachelorette parties for a special occasion, never really knowing what that was.  Said friend is also moving to an exciting new home this weekend.  I think the time is now.  I get to use my Jambox to listen to music for the first time in months since I finally have a charger for it again.  Listening to music, drinking wine and baking together is a joyful celebration in itself for me.  This is my time.  I think I'm good at baking, I enjoy it so much, and others can benefit from it.  That means it's something I should do.  If you want to try some, just let me know!  I may just send some your way one week.

Let's do this.
Follow me on instagram or pinterest as that's mainly how I'll be keeping track of this journey.
Alissa's #52weeksofcookies
Commence Week 1 of 52.

P.S. I also plan to up the daily walking...