OR over the holidays: baking cookies

I had intended to write a couple of non-OR posts over the holidays.  With holiday travel and various illnesses, my blogging was delayed but not canceled.  I can’t help but use OR to make better decisions throughout my life, so my non-OR posts will actually contain a little OR.

I enjoyed reading Anna Nagurney’s blog about how she uses OR to handle the logistics of Christmas cookie baking.  So do I!  This year, I made all the dough on the same day, refrigerated, and then baked as time permitted.  I was happy with the logistics, which allowed me to bring cookies to friends and relatives before Christmas this year.  Sometimes I rely on baking bar cookies for simplicity, but I wanted to try a few new recipes this year that required shaping.  The picture below is of Dr. Nagurney’s cookies, since I forgot to take pictures of mine.

This year, I baked

• Spritz (both regular and chocolate, which are my favorite)
• Sugar cookies with either key lime or vanilla icing (the key lime cookies were this year’s favorite)
• Peanut butter cookies
• Rum balls
• Almond crescents
• Maple walnut cookies
• Jam-filled cookies