Growing up I always would watch my mom cook and help her as much as she allowed me to.  

From the first time she let me stir the pot to the first time I was taught how to use a knife; we would cook varieties of Thai food together, ranging from hot and spicy food that leave an after taste requiring several glasses of milk to sooth the pain, to the sweet alluring smell of dessert after a long stressful day of school. As I grew older, my interest in other hobbies also grew.  

The love I once had for helping my mom cook food started to fade away, as I had to put my time elsewhere.  

However, since this year’s Christmas is rolling by soon, I thought it be nice if I reflected on the past years and bring out the passion for food I once had again for the upcoming new year. So, this led me to take a few hours one day a few weekends ago to spend some time with my grandmother and bake cookies for the holidays.  

Ingredients are as follow:  

1. 1 ½ cups of butter or margarine,  

1. 1 Cup of granulated  

1. 1 Egg 

1. 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla 

1. ½ Teaspoon of almond extract 

1. 4 Cups of sifted all-purpose flour 

1. 1 Teaspoon of baking powder 

On the day me and my grandmother agreed to bake together, I try to make up weak excuses to get out of the situation or move the baking time farther back.  

Giving any reasons I could quickly come up with, after my language arts homework, or when I had my break hour after homework. When my dad heard my reasons for not wanting bake, he came into the room and dragged me out to bake.  

Despite my protest and whine, we began to prep the ingredients together and started baking. As we got more and more into it, I found baking the cookies to be relaxing, completely different than what I imagined it to be. It could even be described as a therapeutic way to destress from a bad day. 

I started off by mixing the butter and sugar together, whisking it in a mixing bowl until creamed. Followed up by adding the egg, vanilla and almond extract into the mixing bowl and then mixed them all well together to form a creamed mixture. Next, I sifted the flour together and added the baking powder into the flour.  

Gradually, add the flour into the creamed mixture bowl; while adding the flour, be sure to stir the cream as the flour mixture is being added until it forms a smooth dough. Do not chill the dough. Once the dough is prepped, force it in a cookie press onto an ungreased cookie. Then proceed to bake the dough in a hot oven, preheated to four hundred degree, for 8 minutes. Finally, once the cookies are done baking, let it cool down and enjoy.