"Life Skills" and a Baking FAIL

I have been keeping a list of chores that need to be done daily beyond the repeated sweeping of the dining room floor and loading/unloading of the dishwasher.  It's time the girls start doing more to earn their keep around here so I have incorporated "life skills" into our homeschool curriculum.

So far, they are enjoying it.  Vacuuming seems to be the most popular and they argue over who gets to vacuum first or more or in the living room or whatever.  Predictably, cleaning the bathrooms lost its luster after week one!

Today we also decided to bake some sesame seed cookies.  We found the recipe in a book that contained ideas for activities, crafts and recipes to go along with our studies of ancient Egypt.  Evidently the Egyptians had a lot of nuts and seeds in their diets so there is a chance they ate something similar to these cookies.

The recipes instructed us to mix the dough with our hands and the girls were agreeable.

Once we achieved the desired consistency, it was time to roll it out.  Notice Ruthie pouting in the background because she was not chosen to go first.

We slathered up the dough with honey and sesame seeds, cut out the cookies and put them into the oven where the girls sat and waited for about 12 minutes.

They smelled good while baking and looked pretty good, though a bit flat, when we took them out.

For some reason, they just did not taste "good."  They weren't bad or off-tasting but just not good.  Not like you would expect something sweetened with and then slathered with honey to taste.  Maybe my shortening was too old?  I don't use shortening that often and was a bit surprised to find it in the pantry but figured it was one of those things that just lasted.  Could have also been the whole wheat flour.  I know it can go rancid after a while but, a: it is younger than the shortening and, b: I store it in the freezer.  Regardless, the girls did not finish theirs and neither did I.

Since Everett is a baby and a male, he devoured his and would have eaten as many as I would have given him!  Again, ignorance is bliss!

Just before I was to click "publish" I researched the shortening issue.  Seems as though everything about the cookies would be normal but they would taste "off" and possibly have an aftertaste.  It says the shelf life should be 2.5 years and I am positive I have not had it for that long but it seems it went bad nonetheless.  Guess we found our culprit.