Homemade Holidays

I made shortbread last night. (Hold your applause.)

I started making it at 9:30. Mixing, kneading and rolling out the dough took me about 30 minutes. Then 20 minutes in the fridge. Then 40 minutes to cook. Then 1 hour to cool. I ended up falling asleep during the cooling stage while I was watching The Little Couple.

The Little Couple is a reality show on TLC that follows the lives of 2 little people who are married. They seem like nice people, but they live incredibly boring lives in Houston. If I wanted to watch two people play catch in Herman Park, I could go to Herman Park, but in this particular episode they were house hunting in Rice Village (a really nice part of town) and I wanted to see the inside of the houses they were going to look at. Sadly, the show was sooo boring that I fell asleep sometime during their "pre-house hunting" dinner at CiCi's Pizza. Why were two grown people with no children eating at CiCi's Pizza? Why are they eating there when they live on Allen Parkway, right next to some of the coolest restaurants in town?

Anyway, by the time I tasted the shortbread, it was 1:30 in the morning. I thought the texture was off. The taste, while not bad, felt like I needed to eat it with a beverage (i.e. tea or coffee). It was just a nibble though. I had just woken up. It was 1:30 in the morning and I was also thinking.. crap I have to clean. I am going to taste it again tonight when I have a clear head. The only thing I changed from the recipe was that I sprinkled the top with only 1 Tbs of sugar instead of 2. So something to think about when I taste it... "does it need more sugar next time?" I am already changing the way I cut it. I did wedges as per the instructions, but for giving away purposes, (which is the whole idea behind the shortbread,) I will do squares next time. I plan to give part of this batch to close friends who won't begrudge the odd texture and less sugar. I figure if the second tasting goes well, I'll make it one more time for everyone else.

Something I didn't realize before I made it. Shortbread is basically just flour, butter and sugar. Yum.