
The words “non-GMO” on the package weren’t part of my decision to buy these dates, nor any other word on the package except “medjool.” They were needed for a batch to share of my Date & Walnut Chews, today with a handful of dried cranberries added.

I couple days ago my mother and I set a lunch date on Bainbridge Island for tomorrow, so I had a baking day for a nice cookie selection to take along as a gift, a few of them ready in the freezer for me to bake. All my cookies are her favorites, but some are more favorite than others and the Royal Velvet Lavender Butter Cookies are up quite high on the list. I made the dough a couple days ago, then baked them this afternoon. See the pretty, accidental bit of lavender color when sugars collided?
Here’s a lucky shot for me, a solitary bluebell looking lavender blue:
I asked Mother if she’d like to try a little experiment with one of the cookies I’d be bringing, to put the oven on 350, pop some parchment on a baking sheet, then pop a dozen of my Dough-to-Go, ready-to-bake dough balls into the oven for 12 minutes. Yes! How about the Vanilla Snicks with Rolo Accents? Yes! (Coincidentally, they’re in the freezer.)
I was thinking ahead. Her lifelong history is one of hiding candies and cookies in her own room, not to share. She admits it. There are six kinds of cookies going her way, each in their own containers. Five of them are suitable for storing over a range of days. They are inside metal tins, each labeled. The sixth, in a clear plastic box, will contain uncooked dough by the time it goes from the freezer in Ballard, then a bus and ferry ride to Bainbridge, lunch, then a drive for her to Poulsbo. I want her to “clearly see” the unbaked dough balls so they don’t end up in a dresser drawer.

The cookies: 1. Cinnamon Toast Snicks https://mschefinseattle.com/2016/11/10/js-crookies-chip-snicks-and-cinnamon-toast-snicks/
2. Vanilla Snicks with Lavender Caramel Accents https://mschefinseattle.com/2017/03/05/vanilla-snicks-with-lavender-caramel-accents/
3. Dough to Go, Ready to Bake Vanilla Snicks with Rolo Accents https://mschefinseattle.com/2017/03/18/vanilla-snicks-with-rolos-sprinkles-which-dont-stick/
4. Date & Walnut Chews with Cranberry Surprises
5. Snicks with Kisses: Vanilla Snicks with Hershey’s Mint Truffle Kisses (There are two posts about this cookie, one each with a photo of the dough balls and the baked cookies. In that order: https://mschefinseattle.com/2015/12/26/snicks-with-kisses/ and https://mschefinseattle.com/2016/02/15/valentine-snicks-with-kisses/ Some things have changed in those posts, but not the cookies.)
6. Royal Velvet Lavender Butter Cookies https://mschefinseattle.com/2016/07/06/lavender-butter-cookies/
And some gorgeous flowers get a moment today as I passed by
This photo done quickly for me by one of the gardeners showing spring has sprung: