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 : ).

Strawberry Freezer Jam

With 3 quarts of strawberries left, we needed recipes. We thought about jam, but I wasn't looking forward to the cooking and the sterilizing of jars. Then I ran across several things about freezer jam. Maybe I'm out of the loop, but did not know this existed.
Freezer jam does not require cooking, but you have to store the jam in the fridge or freezer. You simply use the Sure Jell pectin recipe. It is so simple! And it turned out yummy. This jam will be a softer set than cooked, but has a brighter, fresh picked flavor than the traditional method.
I ate some on toast this morning and Matt tried some tonight. We agreed it is tasty, as Mitchell says. The recipe made 5, 8 oz containers. You can keep one in the fridge for 3 weeks and freeze the others for up to a year.
So if you find a good fruit deal and like jam, make this!

A certain someone trying to steal the jam.

Strawberry Scones

Well, one quart down, 3 to go! I was looking for strawberry recipes and stumbled onto a strawberry scone. Scones were on my "bucket list," so I killed two birds with one stone. These scones were super simple and turned out moist and not too dry like scones can be. My great grandmother's rosebud china seemed fitting. Wish the other pieces (plates) were not so hard to get to.

 

Summer Cookie Trio

 I can tell you that I truly missed decorating cookies. I know because it didn't feel like work at all. I had fun. I am a crafty, artistic person by nature. If I don't do something like this for awhile I get withdrawals.
I knew I wanted a summery theme for this batch of cookies. I had a big flower cutter I had never used and sunflower popped into my head. What's funny is, right after I decided this, several blogs I look at did sunflowers. I guess we were on the same wavelength. I saw some ladybugs that were cute and then leaves seemed like a nice accent. I don't have a ladybug cutter per say. I was just going to use my round and work from there. But as I was digging around, I saw the monkey head cutter I have. I looked at it and realized if I just cut off one ear it would work really well. I love using a cookie cutter for a totally unexpected shape. There's a reindeer cookie Martha Stewart did with a gingerbread boy cutter. Too cute!
Baking the cookies went really well as you know and then Saturday it was time for icing. I use royal icing and probably my least favorite part of decorating cookies is trying to tint my icing just right. And then I have multi hued fingers and icing everywhere.
Decorating went smoothly. I was very relaxed and didn't rush and this always leads to me being much happier with my cookies. Sometimes when I'm making them for an order, I get nervous.
I really like how they turned out and how they look together. I think they would be cute for a girl's summer birthday. So much fun. Looking forward to some 4th of July cookies.