A little woo hoo!

I've been down the past couple days. It happens to everyone, but I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I allowed it to continue as long as I did. Today I took a little extra time to get up and moving and it appears to have worked in my favor.

So, to celebrate, here's a list of things I'm thankful for PLUS a really killer cookie recipe!

1. The internet. I did about 95% of my shopping online this year and I am so glad I did! Things are starting to roll in now and I don't feel that panic that I won't be able to find what I need. And, even better, the cupcake and cookie boxes that I ordered arrived today, which is gonna make the rest of my baking much easier!

2. My job. I am loving my new gig! And it's nice that, on mornings like this one where I need a little extra time, I have both the time necessary AND really kind and considerate supervisors and co-workers. So it's not major.

3. My heatherns. My kids are older so Christmas isn't necessarily that magical time that it used to be. But, instead, it's a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to Christmas morning and that time of just lounging and playing.

4. Power and water. The big storm that hit over the weekend knocked out the power, water, and phone for much of my family. I have a family of survivors so I knew they'd be ok, and they are, but now the discussions are all about WHERE to have Christmas since all the usual places are without power and water. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

5. Fire alarms. So the day everyone comes back from the big storm filled weekend isn't exactly the best time to make a few buildings' worth of state employees stand out in the snow, but it does give some state employees the opportunity to talk to the chick that makes cupcakes about ordering some for their kid's birthday right after New Years. And that makes the cupcake chick happy!

Alright that's gonna do it for now! I better do some actual work despite the fact that I'm just DYING to go home and start filling up those cupcake boxes!

So now for the recipe! Over the weekend I made shortbread for the first time and it was perfect! I cut mine into hearts and snowmen, so you don't have to stick to the simple squares. But here's the recipe!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups butter 1 cup packed brown sugar

4 cups all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2.	Cream butter and brown sugar. Add 4 cups flour gradually. Mix well.
3.	Roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into 3x1 inch strips. Prick with fork and place on ungreased baking sheets.
4.	Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

More cookies and such...

So I totally wish I had spent my weekend like this...

But, unfortunately, it was a somewhat busy one since I finally started my holiday baking in earnest. I mentioned my first batch of sugar cookies yesterday, but today I wanna talk icing. Those who know me, or have at least heard me mention it here, know that I have a pretty bad shake. It's an inherited thing, which is irritating but livable. So, when it comes to pretty edibles, I do my best to compensate.

Sugar cookies are one of my favorite things to do at Christmas. But I only do them at Christmas. They are just too much work to do any other time. I've learned exactly what I can do to keep my shakiness from resulting in crappy cookies, but every year I hope to try a little something different. Anyway, here's what works for me.

First off, pick a recipe. I've used a zillion different ones. But these, these, and the ones in my last post, have been successful for me. Once the dough has been refrigerated overnight, roll them out between two sheets of either parchment paper or wax paper. Doing that keeps you from having to add flour, which will eventually lead to brittle dry cookies. You can bake them right on the parchment paper, but not the wax paper. Trust me on this one. The wax paper smokes like hell!

Yes, my beautiful little geek girl decorated them like power stars from Mario Bros.

Once they're baked, let them cool completely, then ice them. I like icing that dries hard so that I can stack them. The standard icing for that is Royal Icing. But I don't like using it because it has raw egg whites in it. So the one that I use, which still dries nice and hard and shiny, is this one. To actually ice them, you can use a million different methods. Some people thin the icing out (just add milk) and paint it on the cookies with a paintbrush. Some pipe a thicker frosting (just add more powdered sugar) around the edge, then use a thinner version and just pour it, letting the thicker edges keep the thin icing inside the lines. I simply put the frosting in a bowl, turn the cookie upside down, dip it so that the top and sides are completely covered, try to let the excess drip off, then put it on wax paper to dry. Now there will still be a lot of excess icing that will run off as the cookies dry but, once completely dry, you can just break off the excess.

Anyway, that's what works for me. I'm gonna try some new decorations this year (like the little stars on top of the trees) and have tried some new recipes. I'm working on some chocolate cut-outs and, if they're successful, I'm sure you'll be seeing them soon!

A cookie kind of weekend...

So Friday was all about finally getting the television. I think I mentioned before that my Mother-In-Law told us to pick out a tv and she would get it for us as a family Christmas gift. Well Rex had been studying what was available and we braved the crowds to go to Target to pick out our tv. Once we got there, the 36 in tv we wanted wasn't there. But there was a great deal on a 42 inch tv, which made it the same price as the smaller set we wanted, so now I am sitting here watching Monty Python on a HUGE screen!

Saturday was a party day. The Father-In-Law's job has a big Christmas party for the kids of the employees and we went with the whole family. So we had a ball, despite Rena being involved in the race tracks first head-on collision between a car running on the track and a car that wasn't racing yet (it was a bizarre situation that involved Rena sitting in a car waiting for her turn and another kid getting turned around, hitting the gas instead of the brake, and the other car ended up sitting on top of Rena's).

Now the rest of the weekend is all about cookies. Every year I make a zillion Christmas cookies. This year, I'm going to cut back because there will be cupcakes too. But I love my cut out sugar cookies. Especially since I discovered last year that, if I cut out and bake the cookies and then cover them in royal icing, I can give the kids those food coloring based markers and let them decorate the cookies. I'm really excited to do that again this year. Plus, since I've been working more with piping on the cupcakes, I'm hoping I can maybe really do some decorating on some, but that may go to the wayside once time gets tight!

Luckily I had more than one rolling pin...

But anyway, here's the first recipe I'm trying for the sugar cookies (from allrecipes.com of course). I will warn you that an hour of refrigeration will not cut it. Let it sit in the fridge overnight. I tried to roll them out the first time after about 2 hrs and the result was just pure frustration. But then I tried again this morning and all was lovely! And, since the rolling out process sucked last night, we got to eat the mistakes and they were definitely tasty!

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.