Adventures in Christmas Baking

In the interest of getting ahead for the holidays, I had two items on my list to get done in the kitchen today: 1) to get cheese biscuits made and in the freezer, and 2) to make up sausage balls and freeze them raw to be cooked closer to Christmas. The first one is done, but I'm not happy with the result, and I almost screwed the second one up too.  And the whole thing took at least 2 1/2 hours longer than it should have.

Unattractive Cheese Biscuits

I don't know what was up with the cheese biscuits, but I couldn't get the dough to be the right consistency.  I've made this things a gazillion times, but I've never had this problem.  The only thing I can imagine is that it's because I used real butter instead of margarine (although I could swear I've used real butter before).  The whole mess was just too soft and sticky. 

Gooey cheese biscuit makings

Balls of cheese biscuit dough

See those balls above?  See how they look all pointy and prickly, instead of smooth and round?  That's because they wouldn't stop sticking to my hands because it wasn't the right consistency.  I added a little extra flour, which helped a bit, but I was afraid to add too much and make them floury tasting.

I finally baked them all, and they're done, but I might break down and make another batch before Christmas actually rolls around.  I had counted on using some of these in gifts for the neighbors, but I'm embarrassed to send these out.

I got the ingredients for the sausage balls in the bowl and mixed up and started rolling the balls.  They didn't seem to be the right consistency either, and I was beginning to wonder if my attempts at holiday preparations were just going to be jinxed completely today.

Looks yummy right?

That's when it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't put in the bisquick.  There's not a lot in the recipe, but it's definitely needed to make everything stick together right.

Bisquick added

So I got the sausage ball mixture done and rolled lots of little balls and put them on cookie sheets.  The plan was to freeze them on the cookie sheets, then once they're good and frozen I put them in a ziploc bag and back in the freezer until I'm ready to cook them.

Yummy sausage balls in the freezer

 Did I mention we had to buy a new refrigerator this summer?  Yeah, well, we did, and the cookie sheet that used to fit on the top shelf of my old freezer still fit just fine, except the door wouldn't shut because of the way the ice maker takes up so much of the door on this fridge.

Grrrrr

Fortunately, a little rearranging fit that cookie sheet on a lower shelf and a smaller cookie sheet on the top shelf left enough room for the door to shut, or I would have lost it by that point.

I've exhausted my Christmas spirit for today.  I just hope this isn't a sign of the next few weeks.