I am NO cook!

Okay.  I did my best to make some Christmas goodies this evening.  I decided to make rum balls and bourbon balls.  They don't require baking so I figured the odds of messing up would be a lot lower.  Ha!  First I needed to brown the nuts.  Dump them on a cookie sheet and stick them in the oven for 8 minutes.  Sounds simple enough.  It should have been simple.  But I managed to burn the first sheet with two cups of pecans to a crisp.  The next wasn't completely torched, but it definitely got way too brown.  The third and final batch I finally managed to get out in time -- probably too soon, but at that point I was taking NO chances!

Then I mixed up the cookie mixture.  After that, it was supposed to be refrigerated for a little while, then rolled into balls and dropped into sifted confectioner's sugar.  Okay, no problem.  So I mixed it all together and stuck it in the refrig for a while.  But when I tried to roll it into 1" balls, forget it . . . the stuff just ended up coating my hands until they looked like I had dipped them in some sort of batter.  How the heck are you supposed to roll that stuff into balls without it sticking to your hands?????

So . . . I covered both bowls with foil and stuck them back in the refrigerator.  If someone can tell me tomorrow how the heck that's supposed to be done, fine ... I'll deal with it tomorrow night.  If not, well ... I guess I'll just have to keep it all and eat it "as is" out of the refrigerator!  (Always look on the bright side.)

But for right now, I'm going to bed.  At least as soon as I take the clothes out of the drier I am. 

Tomorrow at work they're giving swine flu vaccinations and I sure don't want to miss mine after all the trouble I went through trying to find someone to give me just a plain old regular flu shot a while back.  And since they're doing it alphabetically, we "C"s need to be there no later than 9.  So time for bed.

If anyone has any idea how to deal with the bourbon/rum ball thing, PLEASE let me know.  (FYI, I already tried putting butter on my hands, but that only worked for a single ball then it was right back to sticking to my hands.)

Let me know ...