Fire! Fire!

I know what you must be thinking, "She's burned down the kitchen!" Even though there were multiple fire trucks at our house this week, they were all made out of cookie dough. I did almost burn down my kitchen once though. Many years ago, I made a "romantic dinner" for my now husband. While we were enjoying a picnic on the living room floor, mainly because of the lack of furniture, our kitchen was filled with thick smoke! I had to go sit out on the front porch while he bravely fought the flames! Funny now, not then! Well, maybe a little then too. Currently our kitchen is filled with cookies instead of smoke! I used white-chocolate cookie dough this week. It tasted fantastic when it was still warm and right out of the oven. However by the end of the 1st evening it was hard as a rock! I am not sure what went wrong here! I will make it my sole mission over the next few weeks to perfect the dough, because I just loved the flavor of it! Also, I struggled some with the construction of the truck itself with the corn syrup icing that I use regularly. I think I will also use a mix of corn syrup icing and a royal icing for some future decor issues I my encounter! As a conclusion of the cookie happenings this week, I really would like to redo the whole thing over at some point. I did learn a lot though. And, yes they look unmistaken ably like fire trucks and are somewhat cute. But, I envisioned something much more refined then what I produced this round. No harm done however, I learned a lot about this dough, icing, and myself! So it is all how you measure success right!    

Love for sale! Yummy, yummy cookie love for sale!

And it is here again. Valentines Day! Ahh, the perks of being a lady! My husband has always worked on V Day, being a Chef and all. But we also celebrate a dating anniversary in the same week, so we'll be going out on Friday. He did however have flowers delivered, my favorite yellow roses, along with a very sweet card! I had at first wanted chocolate too, but the sweet tooth was quickly silenced by the massive cookie world that has been recently created in my kitchen! I wanted to attempt a few new techniques this time around! So here we go again with the "ideas"! It always seams so simple on paper, with a pencil, and an eraser! I also took on the world of people,
in particular, children this week! To sum it all up: watched my sister's kids, watched my neighbors kid, had a couple brothers over twice to do laundry and eat dinner, watched the same little girl from the previous week, had a huge family dinner for my Mother-in-law's birthday (and attempted a cake, which we will not discuss!), oh and took care of my sweet, yet high-maintenance husband, two year old, and wiener dog! Whew! Obviously with a slight lack of oxygen to my tired brain, I also screwed up the cookies the 1st time, threw them out and started over! Ahahaha! What else is there at this point but to just laugh! Laugh out loud, loudly! I love laughter; it makes hard easier, sad simpler, and funny fantastic! So once I fished out the cotton from my ears, I made hearts this week, of course! I tried a new thing where you layer in the thinned out icing then draw a toothpick threw it before it dries to give it a feathered effect. Only a few lucky cookies didn't end up in the trash. I was pleased with the look of some of the others though! I think the best ideas sometimes come to us spontaneously and I love that!

Are you ready for some...cookies!

In an ode to the big game, I dedicated me cookie-making creativeness to the event! I tried a new dough and a new icing this week and was Okayed by it. I would change a few things next time with the dough for sure, but thrilled to have the experience! I realized I have little skills in the medium of free-hand tracing! I tried, and tried, and then tried to draw the Saints’ sign for the helmet from a picture I downloaded. It never did quite take on the right shape. Oddly enough I found that I am a rare individual that has to look at a picture, for hours perhaps, and then draw it from memory. It worked! Huh, I guess I have to avoid the pressure of the perfect looking clipart staring me down while I draw! But, pencils in the end seam dull in comparison to icing; much more entertaining to draw with! And definitely more my style! I tried out peanut butter dough for the footballs. They weren't hard enough to break your teeth off, but not what you'd call a "sink your teeth into" sort of cookie either! I think I'll try omitting the ground pecans the recipe calls for or adding more butter to moisten up the dough for the next run! I think id I could perfect this dough, it would be a "teeth sinker" for sure! I used a chocolate frosting to pipe out the lines on the footballs. Then I pursued the task of recreating the two opposing teams helmets, complete with my previous discussed drawing techniques! I think they turned out all right, and not to toot my own horn, but I was pleased with the result! Toot! Toot!