Gordon Biersch Cookies

On the First Day of Christmas Cookies...

I have been baking Christmas cookies since early October. They are for my mom's Christmas piano recitals. I did this last year as well. They will just have to be shipped this year. But seriously, it feels like it should be in song how many darn cookies I have decorated. Have you ever heard the math behind the 12 days of Christmas. It is pretty funny and this is exactly what it feels like. Like it just kept going on and on and on and... And they kept expanding and expanding.
I like all of them. I added a few new ones this year. I learned some lessons about trying to double my dough recipes. Don't! My fingers have been in various shades of red and green more often than they have been their natural color. And my hand somewhat resembles a claw from piping. Remember that episode of Friends where Chandler continuously plays Ms. Pac Man? It is like that. I love Friends.
I also, because I actually used my brain, made sure there were extras of each to give away when it came time and some for us to set out or leave for Santa. I just freeze those and pull out when needed. That way I do not have to bake more cookies in December. I am planning other holiday baking and gingerbread boys and snowflakes with my munchkin, but think the decorated Christmas cookies are done for the year.

However, there is another equally large project going on. On top of the close to 200 for my mom, I am making 200 for Matt's store opening! yes, I am insane. And if I wasn't before, I am now : ). This is definitely good for me if I want to get my name out there and sell more. They will be for the VIP party with all the Gordon Beirsch execs and the mall execs, the Chamber of Commerce, etc, etc. No pressure right?! I am doing beer mugs and the Gordon Biersch logo. Hopefully they are a hit. Or do i really want them to be a hit? Just kidding. Maybe. It might be one of those things where I ask myself what were you thinking? Or one of those, be careful what you wish for, instances. Well, time will tell. In the meantime, enjoy some virtual cookies!

Thanksgiving Cookies

Halloween and Fall Cookies

I did a batch of cookies that I could deliberately split between Halloween and fall. I am much happier with my Halloween cookies this year. More practice, I guess. And I always like my fall cookies, but like my deep red leaves this year. And I got my orange very close to actual pumpkin color, which made me happy! In a perfect world, I would have tinted my candy corn orange differently, but couldn't see spending more time on that. If it was an order, that would have been different story. These were just to give away, but I have a few orders I am working on now and will be posting soon. Lots of cookies in my future! Good thing I love doing it : ).

Back to School Cookies

 Our new friend Tracy and her husband, are both in education. They liked the cookies I made for Kindermusik, but I told them that although I made these with lemon due to fear of allergies, which by the way were delicious with lemon zest and juice, I usually do an almond sugar cookie. They wanted to try those and offered to buy them, but I decided to make a back to school gift of them. So, of course, I made red apples and no. 2 pencils. My pencils got all their appropriate embellishments this time. Last time I got overwhelmed and lazy. The apples are great and I like my pencils but they need a little more practice. Hope everyone has a great back to school and those going to school for the first time ( good luck Ellis!)

Zoo Train Cookies

Tomorrow is our last Kindermusik Zoo Train class. I know we will miss going each week. We have had so much fun, in class and with the take home materials.
I had already planned on making cookies for the last class, but then Ms. Amy invited us to bring stuff for a little party. I have a monkey cutter, an elephant cutter, and a lion cutter. I've only made the monkeys, but knew these would be perfect!
These three cookies required a lot of different colors of icing, which was a little bit of a pain and a lot of mess. I am pretty happy with how they turned out, but there are things I wished were different. Maybe a little cleaner lines, better piped details, etc. But all in all, I bet the kids will like them, my little one sure does and is asking to eat elephant cookies.

Ignore the ugly plate ; )

Birthday and Test Ship Cookies

I made cookies to send to my parents for their birthdays. Both have birthdays in August. As a matter of fact, there are a ton of people we are related to that have August birthdays. November must be a fun month ; ).
I love these!!! I looked at pictures for ideas for both the packages and the cupcakes and was so excited to make these. I did change up my original color plan to match the sprinkles Matt picked up and eliminated an additional color for the gifts. But they still turned out great and seemed so easy to make. These could easily be changed to match anyone's birthday. And they can be adjusted for holidays too; Christmas packages, Valentine's cupcakes etc.
I was also making these to test ship. My parents agreed to be the guinea pigs to see how well the cookies handled shipping. I know people do ship them, because it's their business, but I want to see if it's feasible for me. I guess we will see.

Happy 4th of July!

Blueberry Muffins

Friday I used part of our 6 pounds of blueberries to make blueberry muffins. Blueberry muffins are an absolute favorite of Matt's, so I knew it was a must.
I tried a recipe from Our Best Bites. I picked it, not only because it sounded good, but because it used up some refrigerator items that needed to be used.
The recipe was fairly simple and turned out very well. The muffins are tasty! Not too sweet, with a touch of lemon zest, and a touch of buttermilk. I upped the blueberries, so they are full of fresh blueberries.
The recipe calls for a streusel topping. I like streusel toppings, but Matt can sometimes like things with less sugar, so I made a batch with and a batch without. I put most in the freezer to pull out as we need breakfast breads. Our freezer is full right now!
I would definitely make this version again and Matt would eat it : ).