Mr. Potato Head

I had just been DYING to make these cookies but because of orders and all of the colors involved, I decided to put it off until my most recent craft fair. Since I learned at the last fair I didn't need to make 100 cookies, I only made 3 designs and less than 20 to sell. I had a slide show up that showcased some of my work and so I figured all I really wanted to do was get my name out. Although I was tired from the Christmas party the night before, I had a nice time talking to the people around me and giving out my business cards that my beautiful mom and Marin gave me. I had to hand cut all of the pieces to this cookie set because there were no cutters that would work. It took extra time, but at least I got them looking juuuuust the way I wanted.

I don't know why but as a kid I always turned his nose vertically. There are so many other parts to be done!

Christmas Party

We had a great but BUSY weekend! Last Friday we had a Christmas party at the Hard Rock Casino with Joe's co-workers. I thought I was so cool because I won $55 off the slot machines with my free $25 play money. Joe totally showed me up when he won twice that on a slot machine. I don't gamble because I don't like the idea of just giving my money away for nothing, but since it was free money I was all about it! The best part of the event was that we got to dress up. I'm getting to know a lot of the other wives (I'm the only girlfriend) and so each time we all get together it's more and more fun! We totally lost track of time and before we knew it... we got in the car to go home and it was 2:30 am!!!!! I had to get up at 7 to go to a craft fair where I was selling my cookies as a vendor. Needless to say, I was tired the next day. It was all totally worth it though. 

Santa Cookies

I would love to take credit for the idea of turning a cupcake cutter into Santa, but unfortunately I can't. Wasn't my idea. Boo. That being said, my Santa does differ from the one I saw, so I guess you could say it is inspired and I'm ok with that one! I finally had time and the inspiration yesterday to make Christmas cookies and so I did! Joe requested that I make snowmen so he got to decorate all of them!

It's been a while!

I feel like I have hardly been posting on here. I have been doing cookies but they are all cookies you've seen, so there is no point in posting! I think I'm going to get my Xmas kicks out tomorrow, though, when Joe goes to do "guy stuff" with dudes at work. I started my new job working for Farmer's Insurance and so far it's pretty good. Obviously I have a huge learning curve to get around but all in all it's not bad. Last weekend Joe and I went to an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party with people he works with. It was a great time. 

Joe, Jett, and I went to Goodwill to find some clothes. Joe found a pair of red pants (grandma style)... no offense, grandma, an itchy green sweater, and a pair of women's gold shoes. I found a red turtleneck and got creative in the vest section and found a great snowman vest. I was pretty pumped about my find. After we checked out and got home, Joe decided to try on my vest (with no shirt) and decided that HE wanted it. Being the loving girlfriend I am, I obliged him and doned his SUPER itchy sweater that... let's face it... wasn't even that Christmas-y. There was a "prize" for whoever had the ugliest outfit. I wasn't going for ugly. I was going for ugly-cute and Joe stole my look. I had no chance of winning. Joe promised, "I'll share my prize with you if I win."

Yes, Joe did win the contest. I think it's mostly because he was wearing all women's clothing from head to toe. Honestly, I would have never won in that sweater vest.

 If you'll notice... I'm not wearing my red turtleneck either. I gave it to Jett.... so I wore 0% of my Goodwill purchase.

The prize, you ask? Oh... it's so grand. At this moment it is standing proudly in front of our fireplace...

I just let Joe keep the prize for himself.....

Thanksgiving Break

I call it Thanksgiving "Break" because that's the only kind of Thanksgiving I've ever had. It doesn't really count as a break this year because I've been (cough) unemployed for about 6 months. Well... technically 3. So for me it was just a chance to get home and eat delicious food and visit all of the people I have been missing for the past 6 months. I got to see almost everyone I wanted to, the only thing I could have wished for was having more time with each and every one of them! Unfortunately I have no Thanksgiving cookies to post. For some reason, that just really didn't entice me. I did make horse cookies and purse cookies.... as well as tractors/pigs/and Haule trucks for a couple orders but NO turkeys. And really, I was ok with that. I don't really like how turkey tastes and I'm not crazy about brown. Fortunately enough I am super excited for Christmas! I have been pinning away Christmas cookie ideas and thinking of some on my own. I was am so ready for the holiday that when I got home from the airport Joe and I immediately went out and bought a tree and lights! Christmas cookies will be up soon... :)

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ok... so I toiled with the idea of putting my recipe on here for a while and finally decided that I needed to. I thought "pay it forward". It's not like I came up with this recipe on my own or that it's a family secret I'm not allowed to share (which by the way it drives me CRAZY when someone says they won't share their "secret" recipe or "secret" ingredient). I don't think I'll ever be like that. Now.. I did have to tweak this because of the high altitude but it should work for you. This dough is awesome to work with and if you're like me... when you want to get something done you need to do it at exactly the time you feel like doing it. So the beauty of this recipe is that there's no waiting... you don't even have to refrigerate it AND it doesn't get all sticky to you or your countertop! Perfect! This recipe is DOUBLED so if you don't need to make this many cookies then 1/2 everything!!!! This recipe will make 4-5 dozen cookies depending on size.

4 sticks softened butter

3 cups powdered sugar

2 eggs

6 tsp flavoring (I use 4 almond and 2 vanilla)

6 cups flour (this is where high altitude changes it. I made it with 4 1/5 cups before I moved)

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder (this is also something I had to adjust. The original recipe uses 3-4 tsp!)

 

 

 

 

Add your butter and powdered sugar to the mixing bowl... START OUT SLOW. I cut my butter and then pulse the mixer on and off several times until they start to become more incorporated... otherwise powdered sugar is going to fly everywhere... just trust me on this one!

 

Combine until nice and creamy

 

In a separate bowl combine eggs and flavoring

 

Thoroughly mix and add to butter mixture. Mix until batter looks like this...

 

 In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Stir and slowly add to butter mixture. When you're adding flour spoonful by spoonful because your mixture doesn't have a very large opening, do you ever get impatient and just dump 1/2 the flour in? Yeah... me either.

 

 

Your mixer is probably going to have to work pretty hard to get everything combined so I always crank mine on high after a while .... especially when I have doubled the recipe.

 

When everything is combined, your dough shouldn't be very sticky. You should be able to press your fingers into the dough and not have any stick to your fingers. If it is sticking to you, just add more flour until it doesn't stick. Start with 1/8- 1/4 cup more.

 

While your dough is setting up go ahead and wash the dishes, get your supplies ready, and line your baking sheets with parchment paper. It is much easier to scrape your dough off of parchment paper than it is the counter... feels more sanitary too

 

Dough will be sticky enough that it will cling to your roling pin without some flour on top! Sugar cookie dough is meant to take on more flour, so don't worry! Also... After I have rolled out my dough and cut shapes from it 2-3 times I add fresh dough to the dough that has been folded and floured several times.

Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness (this is where those handy-dandy yellow spacers on my rolling pin come in handy)

 

See? The dough pulls right away and you have a nice clean edge! (Don't forget to flour your cookie cutter initially or the dough will stick to it and ruin your shape.

 

 

Bake at a 400 degrees (slightly higher for high altitude) for 4-5 minutes (this is getting really picky but I bake mine for 4 min and 15 seconds for normal sizes of 2-3 inches). Of course you know your oven. You really shouldn't have a lot of browning on the cookie. Of course... longer for bigger cookies and shorter for smaller cookies. EXPERIMENT! That's how everyone perfects a recipe.





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Cutter? No Problem!

I recently got an order for 5 dozen cookies in the shape of a number 1. Simple enough, right? Well... it turns out that most stores around here only have that number in a very small size. I have two and they are both only about 1-1.5" tall. The order was for numbers that were 3-4 inches long. I scoped out amazon and found the perfect cutter there for $13. But I needed it for this order within a day. The shipping plus the cutter would have been almost $50! That's when I decided that I needed to get creative. I went to Walmart and bought a large piece of oak tag paper, drew out a number 1... FREEHAND because I don't have a printer... and ta-da! I had to hand cut 60 cookies. It took a couple hours to complete the process but I had my good friend, Lauren, on the phone and so she helped the time pass. To cut out the cookie this way all I had to do was line the counter with wax paper, lay the oak tag one on my rolled out dough, and take a small knife and cut along the line. Here's how they turned out!

Very simple, but this was a blessing since I had to do 60 of them. It really didn't take long! In the order my customer requested fushcia and a "curry" yellow from the paper source, They were pretty close!