Spider Webs

Today we had a Halloween party for our playgroup at church. One of my friends and I were in charge of planning the party for the kids and their moms. One of my assignments was to bring cookies. I have been wanting to try these sugar cookies ever since I saw them on Pinterest. Mine definitely DID NOT turn out as good as the ones over at Pacific Thyme, but in order to be fair to myself this was my 2nd time ever decorating sugar cookies with royal icing.



I did however love the recipe. Almost as much as my favorite sugar cookie recipe. However, I used a different royal icing recipe because I did not want to use egg whites and I didn't have meringue powder.

Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 ½ cups flour

Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~24 cookies.

Royal Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp Karo syrup
Milk (enough to make a thin glaze)

Mix thoroughly, color if desired and use to frost sugar cookies!

A Dad's Best Friend

I think every dad I know loves snickerdoodles. They are my dad's favorite dessert. And my father-in-law loves them too. We were able to be with my dad on his birthday this year so we made him snickerdoodles for his birthday dessert. He loved them and they were all gone the very next day. So, we made 3 more batches and he stored a secret stash so that he could eat as many as he wanted.


I like snickerdoodles a lot as well and this recipe is nothing short of amazing. They are also really fast and easy to make. They won't look done when you take them out but they crisp up a bit once they are out of the oven so under cooking them a tad is better than seeing them golden brown in the oven. However, I know from experience that they are still delicious even when they get a little extra crispy.

Snickerdoodles

½ cup shortening

½ cup butter - softened

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2 ¾ cups flour

Topping:

2 tsp cinnamon

4 tbsp granulated sugar

Cream shortening, butter, and sugar. Mix in eggs and then add dry ingredients. Scoop cookies into balls and roll in cinnamon mixture. Bake on ungreased sheet at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Cool on racks.

Baby Shower

I hosted a small baby shower last night for a friend. She is having her third baby but it is the first girl so she definitely needed pink and girly things!

The decorations were super simple. I put together some tissue pom poms to hang from our ceiling fan. And I used my gift (a diaper cake) as the centerpiece for the goodies (sorry the lighting is terrible).

I made chocolate covered strawberries, sugar cookies (previously posted HERE), and my absolute favorite peanut butter cookies with kisses on top.

I did the diaper cake a bit different than I have done in the past. I made 12 cloth diaper burp clothes (previously posted HERE) and used those as the bottom and top layers to add color. I also LOVE the crepe paper roses that I saw HERE and added them around the cake for added cuteness. I think next time around I'll add a tiny little tissue pom pom on top as a cake topper.

Close up of the tissue pom poms.

And the recipe for the cookies:

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup butter – softened 1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar 1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla

2 ¾ cups flour ½ tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda 1 – 12 oz package peanut butter chips

(or chocolate kisses to put on top)

Thoroughly cream butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Stir in peanut butter. Add flour till well blended then add chips. Scoop onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

*If using Hershey's Kisses then skip the "add chips" step and scoop onto cookie sheet. As soon as you pull them out of the oven press 1 Hershey's Kiss into the center of each peanut butter cookie. They will be soft at first but will harden slightly as they cool.

**These are the BEST, MOISTEST peanut butter cookies ever. They do not dry up and crumble after the first day. And I love them!

Almond (Or Lemon) Sugar Cookies

These cookies are seriously the BEST sugar cookies I have ever made (or bought probably). I tried the almond version this time, but am so excited to make the lemon version next time. If you love sugar cookies like I do then you have to try this super easy recipe. I found it over at The Sisters Cafe!

Almond (or Lemon) Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. almond OR lemon extract

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

Glaze: 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp. almond OR lemon extract, 4-5 tsp. milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix butter, sugar and extract in a large bowl. Mix well, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients. Beat 1 to 2 more minutes. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet and flatten balls to 1/4 inch thickness with the bottom of a floured glass dipped in sugar.

Bake at for 7-9 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned. I like mine almost under-baked, remember they stiffen up as they cool. Cool 1 minute.

Stir together glaze ingredients with a wire whisk. Decorate cooled cookies with glaze and sprinkles.

Mint Chip Cookies

I saw THESE yummy mint chip cookies on Picky Palate and thought they would be fun to try out! They are absolutely delicious! And don't worry, the mint flavor is not overbearing. It is absolutely perfect!

Sugar Cookies

For our fun Easter celebration I really wanted to come up with a fun activity we could all do after dinner. I thought about dying eggs but decided that would be too messy with little kids that were coming so we decided to frost sugar cookies instead. There weren't too many adults that frosted cookies (mostly they were just chatting), but the one little three year old we had attending went to town with the frosting. It was a good trial run for me to learn how children react to frosting cookies!

These are just a few of the shapes that we used! Flowers, eggs, bunnies, butterflies & ducks. They turned out really cute on top of tasting delicious.

This recipe for sugar cookies is incredible. They have a little bit of lemon extract in them so they have a subtle lemon flavor. Combined with the frosting from THESE homemade oreo cookies the sugar cookies turned out heavenly! However, I am still searching for a lemon frosting to go with this recipe. I think that would make them the best sugar cookies ever invented. Anyone have a lemon frosting recipe?

Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter – softened

1 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs, beaten

3 ½ cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp lemon extract

½ tsp almond extract

Cream butter, sugar and eggs. Add dry ingredients and extracts. Chill dough one hour, then roll to ¼ inch thick and cut with cutter on floured board. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. When cool, frost or glaze.

Happy Easter!!!

This year we hosted an Easter dinner at our little apartment. It was a lot of fun to gather with friends (since family is too far away) and celebrate Easter with what our friends like to call "Feaster." Everybody brought food to share and it turned out wonderfully!


Our "dining room" is pretty small but our table can expand to seat 10 (possibly even 12 but we've never tried it). So we had this huge table crammed into a tiny little space! Fortunately it all just barely fit long enough for us to enjoy our meal.

To minimize dishes and add color to the table I bought paper plates to put on top of the dinner plates. We used the paper plates for the fruit salad and the veggies with dip. Then we tossed them out and moved on to the main course. We had Boneless BBQ Ribs. I love making them but only do it about once a year. It is the easiest recipe ever! Next time I make it I will remember to take pictures.

And of course we had to have a variety of desserts. I made Homemade Oreos and added some food coloring to the frosting to make them more Eastery. As always they were a huge hit. Some of our friends brought sugar cookie sandwiches with frosting in the middle and a delicious key lime pie. Thanks to everyone who participated and came to celebrate "Feaster" with us! It was a blast!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Homemade Oreos

A huge thanks to my cousin, Megan, for this incredible recipe. After trying these you will never want to eat a store bought oreo again. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Chocolate Cookie:
1 box Devil’s Food Cake mix
3/4 cup shortening
2 eggs

Mix well until blended. Scoop out onto cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool completely on rack. Match two cookies together with the following cream in between:

Cream Between:
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Peanut Butter Cookies

I love, love, love these creamy peanut butter cookies! They are very moist and absolutely delicious! They are also good with chocolate chips, but I prefer them with peanut butter chips!

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup butter – softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 ¾ cups flour

½ tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

1 – 12 oz package peanut butter chips (or chocolate chips)

Thoroughly cream butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Stir in peanut butter. Add flour till well blended then add chips. Scoop onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.