The Stockings were hung. . .

  The third and final cookie I made to complete my big order were stockings. I knew I wanted to do a traditional red and white stocking, but when I started to pipe my white lines I decided I didn't like just doing a straight edge. I decided to give them a scalloped edge. When I went to flood in my red, I discovered I had created a lot more work for myself. I had to very carefully and slowly ease my icing in between all my little scallops. A little frustrating, but turned out cute. That night we also had more rain than we have seen in awhile. My cookies were sitting out to dry, but I think the humidity had an adverse effect on how my white icing dried. It was a little funny, but actually ended up looking a little fluffy like a real stocking.
  These would be great to personalize for place cards or a cute, edible gift tag.

Holly Leaves

   On Tuesday, I completed my large Christmas cookie order. I ended up making 170 decorated sugar cookies. Fun? Yes! Do I want to do another order that big right now? No, but maybe next week : ).
   The polka dotted trees were the first to be made, then these holly leaves. I actually had planned on making holly leaves way back in the summer while I was planning my cookie calendar. Yes, a cookie calendar. I'm a nerd.
   I enjoyed making these and they looked so pretty finished. A coworker of my husband's said they looked like someones art. They are, they are my art, my creative outlet. These will definitely be made again.

   Enjoy the beginning of this Christmas season!

Apple and Pear Crisp

  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Ours was very nice. We have a lot to be thankful for this year and it was a blessing to have time to reflect on those things.
  I made two desserts for Thanksgiving. This post is about the apple/pear crisp.
Yum! Truly was a hit. This is an Ina Garten recipe. Not too labor intensive, but peeling and coring apples and pears is never really fun. There is an interesting , good interesting, flavor to this from orange and lemon zest. The topping is plentiful and perfectly crunchy. We served this warm with vanilla ice cream ( shouldn't be any other way ). I already have requests to make this again for Christmas.
  I apologize for the not so appetizing picture that follows. But, seriously, this is all that is left and that was yesterday (Friday) midday.

Will the baking never end?!

   OK, I love baking. I do. but it seems to have gotten out of hand lately. It started with that big order for my mom, which should be completed tomorrow. But biscuits worked their way in there. We had some buttermilk left over from another recipe and we hate to waste things, so we decided I should try buttermilk biscuits. I have only made biscuits once and they were not good! My grandmother always made good biscuits, but i don't know, they scared me a little. So, I made them and they were good! We froze them and had biscuits to pull out for breakfast. So we ate them all and my penny, pinching husband decided I should make more because they cost way less than the bagels or other breakfast breads we usually buy. So today I made 40+ buttermilk biscuits! They are really quick and easy to make. The trick is to not roll them out or work the dough too much. But, really, 40?!
   Not to mention the 90+ sugar cookies I baked yesterday afternoon! Already have 75 frozen. I have already made Christmas trees, which i will post pictures of today. But today I will be working on holly leaves (excited about these) and stockings. I really am pleased with how my trees turned out.
I had grand plans of making turkey and acorn cookies, but that, I think, would drive me to insanity. This week for Thanksgiving I am making a pumpkin cheesecake, an apple and pear crisp, and yeast rolls. I will post about these as soon as I can.
   I wonder if after Christmas I will ever want to bake again : ).

P.S. Check out the biscuit pictures. Do they look different? New (to me) camera! So much better!

Pumpkins

   This week, I got an order for pumpkins. They were being given to some much appreciated teachers. I absolutely love making the pumpkin cookies. They always seem to bake nicely, ice nicely, and just look cute. Maybe they seem easy because I love autumn and pumpkins say autumn to me.
   Coming up, I have another order for pumpkins and leaves. Yay ! I love getting orders : ). Then I have a giant order I have to start baking now to fill. It is for my mom's Christmas piano recital. So you will probably start seeing Christmas cookies before the Thanksgiving ones. For my mom's order, I got to trade for clothes and publicity. Awesome for me!

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet, Give Me Something Good to Eat

     Let's skip the feet part and go right to the "good to eat" part. I cannot believe we are in the second half of October and so close to Halloween. Time is flying! Today fall really arrived for me. It was in the 60's all day and I absolutely loved it!
    Last year I did not make Halloween cookies per say. I made fall cookies, but with a child in the house now Halloween seems fun again.
    I made spider web cookies and candy corn cookies. It was really fun to make cookies I've never made before, but a little nerve wracking too. I was a little impatient with my icing, so it is not as smooth as usual. But, oh well, you live, you learn. My little one kept licking his lips saying, "mmmm." Sorry, kiddo, but no cookies yet. I look forward to the days that my sweetie gets these for his Halloween treat.

   

Muffins for Moms

    This week I had a great excuse to bake. I am part of a mom's group through church and it was our table's turn to bring food for breakfast. I knew I wanted to bake muffins, but not sure what kind. Then it hit me, pumpkin cream cheese muffins, like those from that super popular coffee chain everyone knows.
   Sure enough, when searching for a recipe, there are a few out there. There was one in particular everyone raved about, so I decided on this one.
   I love anything pumpkin and anything that reminds me of fall. Oh yeah, and i love anything with sugar : ).  these turned out so well and were delicious! Good thing i had a place to take them or we might have a sugar coma over here. Happy Fall!
  Next week back to cookies: candy corn and spider webs.

Writing, Reading, Arithmetic...

     I know school has been in session for about a month, but August doesn't say school to me. September does. So the kids are hitting the books again and the teacher's are back to work. What screams school more than crisp apples and new, sharpened pencils? So, I made some cookie versions for my own students. The pencils need something, I know. They are missing their little metal things (did you know it's called a ferrule?). But i did not have anything to make gray or silver icing. I'm sure they still taste good. : )
     These would be great for an after school treat or a lunchbox surprise, great for teacher gifts ( tucked into one of those Pinterest teacher survival kits), for a test day... any of the above.
      Happy Back to School!

I'm Ba-ack!

     Wow! I am finally back to the blog. What a few months it has been. We moved, so even before the move there was no room or baking supplies to bake and definitely no time to bake. We are moved in and I am ready to start creating again.
    My first order of business was for a wonderful friend's birthday. Last year I discovered these great marshmallow sandwich cookies. Call them moon pies, smores, whatever, but no matter what they are called they are yummy! They consist of homemade graham crackers, which are really quite easy to make. These are slightly sweet, crunchy, a little salty, and cinnamony. The crackers are coated in semi-sweet chocolate and sandwiched around giant marshmallows. Homemade marshmallows. Have you ever had homemade marshmallows? So much better than store bought, so much! They are giant and and look really cute packaged. My friend said they would be great later when my son has bake sales. Good idea.
   Coming soon will be some September themed cookies. Let me know if you would ever like to order some or if you know of anyone else who would. I'm always game.

P.S. I know I need to change the blog surround. All in good time : )

Sunshine Day

I had a request for suns to go into goodie bags for a sweet little girl's birthday. The theme was from an old song, Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows. What a cute and creative theme! I can't wait to see pictures! the cookies went well, but when I finished flooding them I felt like they were missing something. In steps my husband. Again. Do you see a pattern? He said what is that orange sparkly stuff in the cabinet? In the end, they got orange edible glitter and yellow sanding sugar. It dressed them up and gave them the sparkle that every little girl (and big girl) loves.        

                   

                                                                         

Triple Lemon Blueberry Cake

Decorated sugar cookies are my forte right now, but I love to bake period. I am actually a cake girl, it's one of my favorite desserts, alongside cobblers and crisps. my cakes taste great, however they never look the way I imagine I want them to look. Alas, the pains of a perfectionist, Type A personality. On Food Buzz one day this cake showed up and I knew I had to make it. Besides my love of cake, my husband's two favorite items in dessert are blueberries and lemons, so perfect choice! It was not a hard cake to make just some time consuming steps. it turned out rather well and I have to admit it was probably the prettiest cake I have ever made. Three layers of lemon,blueberry cake, filled with lemon curd, and frosted with lemon buttercream. It was a hit!

Monkeying Around?

Not me. I've been working! I had a request for monkey cookies for a baby shower this past weekend. I got all my supplies and began my work. These cookies were smaller than others I have attempted and with more detail. First almost completed batch- FAIL!!! I was not happy with them and how they represented my work. After a late night crying phone call to my husband at work, he came home and made me a template to help with my design. What a sweetheart! Not just for the template, but for putting up with all the projects I get myself into. Second batch, much better and I was pleased. The monkey cookies went to their baby shower and I must say, I was not sad to see them go.

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Does that still work if it is an apple cookie? I'm going to go ahead and declare yes. This batch of cookies is for my first order due to the blog. I made cookies for a friend's open house in the fall, so this is technically my second order. Exciting for me, but I'm a nerd and get excited about lots of little things. A friend wanted to send along some much needed appreciation and sugar to some well deserving teachers during the TAKS test week. She requested the traditional apple, but in cookie form. Finding an apple cookie cutter was not hard, but finding one with a leaf was. So my husband bought me an apple cutter and a small leaf cutter and said, "see what you can do with this." This was my first time "splicing" two shapes together. It went really well! I was a little apprehensive about the whole red food coloring thing. However, the new brand I am using tastes a hundred times better than the other well known brand that shall remain nameless. Someday these will make great teacher gifts for my child's teacher. How 'bout them apples?

Mama Needed Chocolate

No this is not a cookie, but I needed chocolate and I like to bake anything. For awhile I have wanted to tackle cake balls, but have never gotten around to it. The desire for chocolate made this a reality. I made homemade chocolate cake and homemade chocolate buttercream frosting then dipped in semi-sweet chocolate to coat. Yum! I had some trial and error going on in the kitchen that day. I discovered that only taking a few balls out of the freezer at a time worked much better than the others quickly coming to room temperature while sitting out waiting for their chocolate bath. I also discovered that dunking the balls in a deeper container was much better at coating than a shallower container (thanks to my husband!). All in all they turned out great. I already have new and exciting combinations floating around in my head. I have a plan for Easter which you will just have to wait to find out about. These would be great for parties. They make quite a few and are so rich people would not need more than a couple. Anyway, I am a sleep deprived mom and need the chocolate and extra calories, right?

Upsy Daisy!

To welcome the arrival of Spring, I made flower cookies. They were supposed to be made during Spring Break at my mom's, but alas, it did not happen. Too much playing! So I made them when I got home and made them into daisies in my mom's honor. Daisies are one of her favorite flowers. Plus, I needed a batch of cookies to test mail for a possible order. Yippee!!! After the winter we had and being stuck inside with a brand new baby, bring on the Spring! 

Be My Belated Valentine

I know, I know...early St. Patrick's Day, late Valentine's Day. I really do know when my holidays are. Because I did not get the blog up and running until this week, I was not able to post the Valentine's Day cookies I made on or around the actual day. So today I figured I would go ahead and post them. This was my first batch of valentine cookies and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. Did not like how my red food coloring tasted, but now know the one I need to use next time. Being a stay at home mom we are definitely on a budget, so valentine's gifts were cards and cookies this year. My husband liked the cookies, but not the calories! Without further ado, they are already incredibly late. . .

Forgive the shoddy photos. We need a better camera. At least that's my excuse!

Shamrocks and Shenanigans

This weekend I made shamrock cookies. I know that St. Patrick's Day is over a week away, but their intended recipients will be on spring break then. Last year shamrocks were the very first cookie I made and decorated with royal icing. I am liking my green much better this year! Maybe if I keep a green cookie in my hand I won't get pinched!

Last year's model...