There's nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked cookies

Daylight Saving Time started yesterday and I’m so not loving it. Before DST, we were only 4 hours ahead of Malaysian Standard Time. Now, we’re looking at 5 hours. FIVE HOURS. What's the big fuss? Well, that extra hour makes it a tad more difficult to go on skype with family and friends in KK *Sigh*

Daylight saving time (DST; also summer time in British English) is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. DST's occasional clock shifts present some challenges. They complicate timekeeping, and can disrupt meetings, travel and sleep patterns.

  - Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia

Because of the chaos of daylight savings, my sleeping habit is a bit messed up too. Before DST, I normally get up at 8.30 in the morning. Today, I got up at 9.30 a.m. Why did I get up at 9.30 a.m? Because the clock said so!

I guess all these DST-related things take a little bit of getting used to.

Despite all my complaints about DST, I was in a very good mood this morning. I woke up wide-eyed, ready to take on the day. My energy level was up and I suddenly had this unexplainable urge to bake - something I don’t normally do on a regular basis. So in an attempt to fulfill this urge, I decided to bake Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Actually, it wasn’t really a decision. It’s the only recipe I know and thanks to CL and sis, all the ingredients were in my pantry.

So I started. I had this vision of CL’s freshly baked oatmeal cookies, all golden brown and yummy and beautiful. Enthusiastic, I took out the sacred recipe from my hand bag,  measured all the ingredients and followed the instructions conscientiously. There was no agak agak. I even used Alden’s syringe to measure the vanilla essence because I wanted to make sure everything was done according to the recipe. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. I was finally done when it suddenly hit me. I had no raisins! The recipe says Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and now I have to omit the word raisin from this recipe? I panicked. No raisins! No raisins! No raisins! What to do?

After a few minutes of contemplation (should I drive to COUNTDOWN and get the sultanas? or should I just forget about baking?), I decided to continue without the raisins. That was probably the biggest decision I’ve made today.

It took me an hour and 35 minutes to get the batter done. 

This is the first batch. The instruction says, bake for eight to ten minutes until golden brown. I popped them in the oven and waited exactly ten minutes. As you can see, it was a near-disaster...I didn't bother checking the oven.

The second batch wasn't so bad...

 When I was done, my assistant helped me with the scraping.....

 doing a really good job at it...

a lot of licking...

and the verdict is....?

They're yummy! His face says it all...

and this is a hidden Mickey just for Alden

My oatmeal cookies didn't turn out the way I wanted but they were delicious nonetheless. For someone like me whose baking skills are limited, I consider this a huge success :-)

You might want to try this recipe. It's so simple!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients

170g butter

200g white sugar

2 eggs

5ml vanilla extract

155g flour

5g baking soda

3g salt

225g rolled oats/ quick cooking oats

200g raisins

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°c

2. In large bowl, ceam together butter & sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs + vanilla until fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat into butter mixture. Stir in oats and raisins.

3. Drop onto cooking sheets.

4. Bake for 10 minutes in oven until golden brown.

*courtesy of Caroline Lee

Good luck!