Dad and His Goody-Making Fun

Apparently my most popular posts aren't about running or reading or writing or even cooking. No, they're about my parents. So nothing I can ever do will as be as interesting as what my cute parents do, which I've come to accept. I mean, they are pretty adorable and quirky.

As many of you know, Dad loves loves loves to bake goodies and bring them to all his friends. Because my dad hasn't met someone who isn't a friend—even door-to-door salesmen (true story: I once heard him say to someone at the front door "Give your wife a hug for me!" Turns out that the gentleman he was speaking to was a salesman he'd just met 10 minutes before)—he has to make A LOT of cookies. It's a production. He cleans the kitchen because he needs all surfaces, gets out his buckets (I kid you not, he has a 10 gallon bucket he uses for his cooking projects), and puts on his cooking clothes—usually an apron and jacket because he someone manages to get dough everywhere. He's currently playing with the idea of getting a plastic drop cloth for the floor because, you know, the splatter factor.

Now, depending on whether he's making bread or cookies, his methods differ a little. Cookie dough is too stiff to mix even with his drill and goodie-making cement mixing attachment, so he has to knead in all the nuts and chocolate chips (his "Gary's mix"—it's actually called that in the recipe). So for all you who'd like to see him in action, here's a short video of him preparing the cookie dough:

And because 'tis the season, here's a video of Dad making his pumpkin bread (when he makes it, the entire house smells like magic: autumn and Thanksgiving and Christmas all rolled into one):