Cookies today and Cookies tomorrow!

I think these girlie cookies of so fantastic! I made them for my sister that owns/work her own salon. I thought the idea when I saw the cookie cutters was fantastic. One trick I really enjoyed doing was painting the mirrors with the silver dust. I first iced them in a white. Then I mixed a pinch of Vodka in with the dust and painted it in. I hope it really does resemble a mirror. Then we have also the hair blow dryer and the round brush. And then I just did a few circles of her salon's name. A success I think!

Freedom!

I made these for the 4th of July celebration this year! I love the 4th. It is one of my favorite holidays. Simply because there is just something surreal about laying on a blanket, barefoot under the stars, snuggling up to a loved one, and watching a huge display of fireworks! I think we should celebrate that way once a month! So for these cookies I looked up a map of the states and then tried; emphasis on the word tied, to draw in the shapes of them. I think I got away with it because of the sheer tiny size of things and so it is not easy to pick up on any mistakes! Oh and on a side note, If you are the fantastic people whom create/sell the multitude of "light-em up toys" for kids at the fireworks. Ie. a light-up band of sword. Do they really need to be so expensive? I about soiled myself when they guy told me $7 for the small one! Of course that didn't stop my from treating my boy to the biggest one! I had to make sure he was cool with the handful of other little boys he was playing with! But now I have to find a way to explain to him that it only lasts for the one night! Guess we have to wait till next year. Maybe by then I will have mastered the art of tracing in the United States of America!

I DO ...love cookies!

I wanted to try a few other wedding ideas that were a little more playful than the cakes I recently did. I thought these designs looked cute. I wish I would have done something similar for favors for my wedding! The wedding dresses took some patience to get the sparkle in just the right spot and no where else! Especially when you have a little boy pulling at you leg and saying "hold you Mommy." So sweet the way kids put things isn't it? I stopped a handful of times to hold him by the way and found out in the end that he was just trying to get close to the cookies and I was just a means to an end! After 2 cookies he walked back int he kitchen covered in icing and told me, "Now that was just delicious!" I love it! 

B.A.B.Y.

Once again I prove to have culinary ADHD! I just love to try new doughs and icings. I am still just looking for "the one!" We'll I may have found the incing that I wanna stick with for a while. I know you've heard this before, but seriously! The dough had some qualities that I liked, but not the last trial with it for sure! I used a fairly thin royal icing with meringue powder instead of egg whites. It dried very quickly and I am thrilled with the finish is has. It is not as shinny as my other icing. I will need some more practice with it before I can be comfortable doing allot of detail. The dough had a bit of brandy in it which made is rich and delicious! Also there was hardly any baking powder so it kept the shape nicely! But, I over-cooked, under-cooked, over-worked the dough all night and so I am surely in the beginner's stage with this dough. If I was more seasoned with it, it would be perfect. Or could it have been the brandy? Anyways, I made a handful of baby stuff for my husband to take to an employee of his that he just found out is expecting! I love things for babies! And hopefully these cookies will be great for her too!

Cookies on the green.

I enjoyed making this week golf themed cookies for a 30th birthday party on the Golf Course. I couldn't find a golf bag cookie cutter anywhere and so I improvised and used a cupid shaped cutter and cut off the arrow on the ends! I t worked great! Hahaa! I also used a few round circles to add a couple golf balls and a few putting greens.  I enjoyed this project because it was easy and still creative and I was happy with the result! So I think I can confidently state that my cookie game is much better than my golf game!

Have your cookie and eat it too!

I got to enjoy the excitement of a "hard core" bakery this week. And by enjoy I mean spending long into the night hours of frustration standing in 90 degree heat and having to throw a whole batch a dough away because it basically just melted when I was rolling it out! Yep that was pure enjoyment! On the upside, after a few screaming sessions, (and a shot :), I made more dough and it baked off just fine. I went to bed late but woke up with a new sense of determination as I returned to the bakery the next morning to decorate the cookies. Only snag in this idea, a 21/2 yr old "helper" that I had to bring along. So son, if you are reading this years from now I want you to know that I am extremely proud of you and how good you were that day! You "iced" your own few cookies and "put them in the oven for a bake!" And you played with your Spiderman under the table for most of the time. However, I would have gotten things done allot faster if I didn't have to stop every few minutes to get you a drink, a snack, take you to the potty, or just to "look Mommy!" Nonetheless I seamed to be able to put out a decent product despite all the previous drama. What were you doing out of your dainty, air-conditioned home kitchen you may ask? I was making wedding cake cookies for a wedding open house at my husbands restaurant. They booked a handful of deals so I think it was successful! Hooray! I had the cookies match in theme and colors to the table designs of the open house.  I used my regular cookie dough and icing. I have tried lots of different variations, but I think that most people prefer the original stuff! And by most people I mean my lovely husband! I was pleased with the taste and result of the cookies. However, every time I make something, I always think about how I could have done it different and/or better. There is not an exception here. I would like to do a bit of a change in color scheme and a thicker icing. And ideally with a peaceful, temperature controlled, child monitored space!

The last Graduation!

Well,  it's official! The last of the 8 children in my family has graduated and we are all so proud of the littlest adult now in our family! I am not gonna lie, I cried like a baby and then I cheered as loud as possible too! And then joked with my parents that they would be "old" the next time they had one of these to go to since the oldest grandchild is only just now 6! At least they will have earned a seat in the front with the other grandparents instead if the far back like where we sat in this graduation! The last row! At least we had awesome cookies to come home and eat! I made graduation hats and matched them to the napkins used for the party. I made 80 cookies! And a quick shout-out to my sister who helped me pipe in the year at the end too! Thanks Katie!And Congrats Little Jonny Jon Jon! I am so Proud of you!

ILL - INI

I was very excited to do these cookies this week. I used a new dough and a new icing. Plus they were three layers high. This was a challenge that I was thrilled to take on! I used a more of a pastry dough than a sugar cookie dough and it was very light and stayed well for a handful of days too! I used for the icing a sort-of buttercream icing. It was a little weird to work with at first and took some time to dry so I could continue the next step. But when finished all together, I really loved the taste of it. I would have done a bit more refining on the decor of the cookie, but this was more about the ingredients this time around! I chose U of I because my lovely sister and her husband work for the sports office at the school. I thought she would like them and think that was fun. And also, if you live in this college town, you are obsessively bombarded with all things orange and blue! It's craziness! So I guess I should jump the band wagon and "Go Illini!"  

Girls just wanna have SHOES!

I seriously love shoes! I always want to buy them and then I always end up only wearing them once or twice! Its a fantastic habit to have when you need a shoe in every color! I thought that a high-heal shoe cookie would be a great cookie for Mother's Day. Of course just like a mother, I was running crazy the morning of and didn't get to finish any detailing to the yummy shoes, so I took only white shoes to my Grandma's house. But I saved a few back so I could beautify them and finally I have! In future shoe cookie endeavors, I want to try making them look like animal print heals using the right icing colors accordingly and piping it out loosely and then pulling a toothpick through them. Similar to the way I made the purple and black butterflies and a few of the baby bottles, but with thinner overall lines of color. Wouldn't that be fun! Oh dear, love of shoes must transfer over to love of cookie shaped shoes! I have a million ideas of ways you could decorate these shoes and then have one of them in every color too!

It's my party...& I'll eat cookies if i want to!

It's official, she's a real adult! Aunt Nicole has made it 21 years in this crazy world! Congrats! It was a fun celebration for my brother's girlfriend's birthday and we are all planing on a fun night on the town this weekend too! Two of my five brothers (and yes, no need to adjust your screen I did say five!) and their girlfriend's; one of which was the birthday girl, joined my husband and I for dinner this week and I brought some cookies along! Guess I really have turned into the cookie lady if I'm caring them around with me huh! LOL! I made little cakes for her and tried a new style of piping to make the "cake" look like it was really frosted. I made the icing very thick so that it would harden quickly and then piped it through the tip.  I will certainly use this cookie cutter again for future birthday's, more realistically for a baby's 1st birthday or something like that! And I will for sure be spending a little more time and a bunch more attention to detail in the decorating another time around! These I'm afraid look a little like we had already started celebrating! Se la vie! They tasted great! I used my Grandma's sugar cookie recipe that has sour cream in it and they were fantastic! Hard enough to decorate but soft enough to keep eating them all night! Happy Birthday my dear sweet Cole!