Aunt Irene's

I invited my friend Angela to guest bake for me today. After perusing the cookbook I realized that this recipe is the one I have been preparing for all along. I had every tool and gadget needed to make this a smooth wonderful experience. If you were not at the signing or do not have Sharon for a mother you may be overwhelmed by some of the instructions.

I mixed the dough on Saturday so Angela and I just had to get up Sunday and get to rolling and filling. I had all of the ingredients needed except for the sweetened condensed milk and 3 oz. cream cheese. At Meijer Gavin and I stood in the aisle not sure what to purchase as far as the condensed milk because I have never used or purchased it before and there were a lot of options. I made the mistake of writing just condensed milk on my list so that's what we bought. As Angela and I are getting ready to mix our filling I realize my mistake and call mom to say there is no substitution for sweetened condensed milk in the book. Off to Hollywood we go to buy sweetened condensed milk.

On our return everything went smoothly, Angela is a natural baker. She had no problems rolling out the dough. Theresa we used the green bands on the rolling pin, no width was stated and those seemed the easiest for us to work with. Mom had purchased the flipping tool Theresa used at the demo and it was invaluable. I enjoyed having my friend over and being able to take action shots of each step. Thanks for doing all of the work Angela.

In my finished product picture my edges of the cookie are not a smooth as Theresa's. Angela was correct I cut them to soon. After letting the next batch cool they turned out just like Theresa's. I figured that it's no fun to show all perfection so I kept the other picture in there.

Just a reminder that Kurt and I will be out of town this week. My friend Sandy also the mother of boys, is going to guest bake on Friday for me. Thanks Sandy, have fun, and happy baking.

Danielle G.