So it begins....

That time of the year. The time of the year I wait for on baited breath until that first chill of air rushes in from the Arctic and I grin...Fall has arrived, kids are in school and for me that means....

Halloween!!!!

You see, for my family, it just isn't a day of candy. It is bigger for us than Christmas. For many many reason, from heritage to just refusing to grow up, it is our most favorite time of the year! And so it started, the first Halloween Cookies. Trust me, there will be many more to come!

Read More

Happy Thanksgiving

Well it is that time of the year here in the US. A time for gathering with all your family and friends, cooking for 18 hours straight, yelling at each other till you want to throw the turkey out the window, eating the meal in 12 minutes, blaming your tummy ache on someone else for not stopping you on your 15th helping and them falling into a food induced coma....All in the name of being grateful.

 That's right, it's Thanksgiving! The air is cool and crisp in most of the US. Some of us are still dealing with a summer heat while others are plowing snow to get to their in-laws. Today you will feast on not only Turkey but dressing, stuffing, casseroles and ham. Not to mention all the sweets!

 Oh the sweets, those glorious sweets! It is the time of years when Granny and Auntie pull out their most prized recipes to make. Those treasures of the family that are such a pain in the butt to make they only get made once, maybe twice a year. Everything from cakes to pies to cookies will all contribute to the clogging of many an artery today.

 But let us not forget those that are so far away from now. Soldiers are still holding the front line. Police are still on the beat. Doctors and nurses are still in the hospitals. Not to mention the firefighters and EMT that are on call today to run over to your house because you forgot to thaw the turkey before you deep fried it. Yeah, I'm looking at you.

 So, give thanks today. For your family, all those crazed relatives that contributed to the mess you are today. You know you love them. For your friends, the ones that helped you through all the crazed messes your family drove you to. For our soldiers, police, doctors, nurse, firefights and emt. For healing us and protecting us time and time again.

 Just be thankful because remember, no matter how bad it is, it can get worse and we should all...In every country, every where....Take a moment here and there to give thanks, for all we have had, for all we have and all we will have.

 Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Maple Sugar Cookies:

• 2.5 Cups Unsalted Butter, room temp
• 2 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 2 Large Egg
• 5 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 2.5 Teaspoon Maple Extract
• 5 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 3 Tablespoon Cocoa Powder

1. In a bowl sift together the flour and salt. Set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl combine the butter and sugar on slow speed until just creamed. 
3. Add in the eggs and extracts.
4. Mix until just combined.
5. Fold in the flour mixture until everything comes together. Be careful not to over mix the dough or get too much air into it. You don't want these to rise or lose shape.
6. Take the dough, sprinkle it with the cocoa powder and roll it out between 2 pieces of parchment paper until .75-1 cm thick. I use dowel rods on each side to rest my rolling pin on. This gives me the perfect equal thickness for each cookie. 
7. Place the rolled out dough into your refrigerator for 3 hours. 
8. Remove and cut out shapes. Arrange on cookie sheet 1-2 inches apart. Return to refrigerator for another hour. 
9. Repeat steps 6-8 till all the scraps are used up and chilling.
10. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Make sure oven is to temp before baking.
11. Remove each cookie sheet from the refrigerator 1 at a time and bake for 12 minutes. 
12. Remove from oven. Allow to cool for 2 minutes before placing on wire rack to cool fully.
13. Decorate!
14. Serve and Enjoy!

Read More

Turkey Time

Been a little bit since the last post and sorry about that. It has been one heck of a long week that I personally cannot wait to be over. Thankfully it ends tomorrow evening for this family, lol. I have been working all week on a Star Wars Birthday Cake as well as a little side project for my sons 1st grade class.

They are having their Thanksgiving Feast today instead of the last day of school before holiday due to some scheduling conflicts. Needless to say that threw me off a little since I thought I would have all weekend and half the week to do their treat and could just focus on the cake but hey, things happen. This is an example of why I am the queen of multitasking.

Finished up the treat for the kids last night, have most of the cake done minus the figures. I will be working on those all day today. Got some of of the base done but still gotta long way to go. Thankfully that is pretty much all I have to worry about today.

Anywho, it is still very early and my coffee has yet to kick in. So, enjoy the pictures because it is Turkey Time!

Cookies: Maple Butter Cookie Pops
Icing: Vanilla Royal
Beak: Candy Corn
Body: Rice Krispy Treat with Chocolate Fondant

Read More

Fall is here

With the temperatures dropping quickly around the US, there is one thing that is certain...Fall is here. For some it hit us months ago when the first cold snap hit, for others it is just now settling in. The leaves are falling from the trees and people are having to grab a coat as they run out the door in the mornings. Depending on where you are you might just need that hat and gloves as well, or even need to let the car warm up in the mornings. I know a few of you are having to deal with the snow already, it looks to be a crazy end of year for all those around. More so than normal!

Halloween has come and gone, leaving us with tons of candy to help fuel those days out raking the leaves and preparing for Thanksgiving. It is only a couple weeks away but families and friends are already sending out invites and dividing up who will be cooking what this year. Are you bringing your grandmothers cranberry sauce? Who is taking care of the pumpkin pie! Does anyone know how long to cook a 20lb turkey! And the list goes on and on.

Sadly, for us out here, we are far away from our friends and family this holiday season. The Hubby and I are used to him working on Thanksgiving but then having one heck of a gathering later on for all our friends. We end up cooking for days straight and having everyone over to just stuff their faces.

Honestly, I don't know if we know how to cook for just us, LOL. But we are gonna try! Looks like this year the hubby might actually be off for Thanksgiving! YAY! Though I do wish we had all our friends around us like we have had in the past. Holidays just aren't the same without the crew flopped on our couch eating everything they can and then some......I really miss it.

Anywho, here is the first batch of Fall Cookies! Nothing spectacular or spritacious! But I do love them. They look all warm and inviting. There will be many more cookies to come for fall and Thanksgiving before I start on the ~insert holiday here~ cookies, LOL. (Yes I am still refusing to say that word till Black Friday.)

See you later!

Read More

Happy Halloween Charlie Brown!

Finally, just walked in the door. I was not expecting a cake drop off to turn into 3 hours at school but it did.

Turns out the class was a bit short on the parental volunteers today. So instead of me just dropping off a cake and running, leaving Jason to carve pumpkins with the kidos, I ended up staying as well. Jack in tow. lol.

Was a lot of fun in all honesty but I am beat. I do not know how teachers do this kind of thing day in and day out. I would go positively mad!Don't get me wrong, love the kids but being around that many kids that young all excited like that....Ugh, no thank you!

Karin, my hat is off to you! 

On the non pumpkin carving side of things, all the sweets went over swimmingly! The kids just adored all the cookies, especially the ones with their names on them.... Not to mention the cake! It was a smash hit!!!!!

God I am so relieved! With all the royal icing transfers breaking and me having to fall back to a back up, back up plan I was not expecting it to turn out as well as it did but hey! The look on those kids faces when they walked into class and saw the cake was evidence enough that it was going to be a good day. 

And now that is all taken care of, more to do! We still have trick or treating this evening and from what I am hearing all over town it is HUGE here! 

Rhi has a Zombie School and Dance on Friday, the churchs did their stuff this weekend, the highschool is doing a haunted house tonight, all the businesses on the Square will be open handing out candy, the neighborhood around the school is just decked out to no end and our neighborhood is sure to be a hot spot! (And then I find out from others just a little bit ago that there are even more places to hit! Oh yeah!)

Now it is time for us to get dinner together, well Jason is doing dinner for me (yay!), and then it will be time to Trick Or Treat! So on that note, gonna leave you with pictures of the cake and dart off. 

Happy Halloween!

Read More

Monster Cookies

First off - Happy Halloween!

Now, I will post pictures of the cake later on today but these are just too adorable, in a gross way, not to post about.

I had a few cookies left over from the last batch that I didn't want to go to waste but there wasn't enough to do the next series I have planned. So, I started scouring through all the wonderful blogs I read and saw something just perfect!

Eyeball Cookies By Sweet Sugar Belle <---Those! Perfect! (Sugar Belle is just wonderful and comes up with the most creative ways to make cookies!)

So, a little bit of green, some extra cookies and a little bit later I have my very own. Granted hers are much better but hey! I love mine! Jack devoured one already, Rhi grabbed one and ran out the door to catch the bus.

Happy Halloween everyone! Be back later with the cake pictures!

Read More

Halloween Cookies - 1st Grade Class

That took a lot longer than I expected but oh well! Finally I am done with the cookies! Okay, let me rephrase that. I am done with the cookies for Alex's 1st grade class. All 60 are baked, decorated, cooled, bagged, tagged and tied. 

Each student will receive 1 decorative cookie and one other cookie with their name on it, all tied up in a little bag with ribbon. They turned out rather good for only my 2nd real attempt at decorating sugar cookies, so happy with that. That being said I have a long way to go and will be starting another batch tomorrow in another theme. I need as much practice as I can get. 

So, not gonna make this one long. Here is a shot of the completed cookies! (Coffins, tombstones, witch legs, Bride Of Frankenstein, Spider Webs, Candy Corn, Cauldrons, Jack-O-Lanterns, Witches, and last but not least, as Jack likes to call them, Fire Cats.)

Night!

Read More

Witch Legs Cookie - Walk Through

As many know I cook and I cook a LOT. All things but what usually gets peoples attention is the baked goods, cakes mostly for me. But I want to branch out. I have been reading one heck of a blog - Sweetopia! (The hostess is just amazing! What she can do with a cookie will blog your mind!)

So after reading her blog I used some of the techniques to make the royal icing transfers. So happy with the results! Granted I do have a long way to go but that comes with practice. Anywho...back to wanting to branch out.

Since we now live on the other side of the country, no one can eat my sweets! Ugh! (For most not an issue but I love baking for people.) I read her article, Marian from Sweetopia, on how to ship cookies. Well hot damn! Perfect idea!

Now I gotta learn to decorate cookies. I have before, last year, for Christmas...They sucked! Okay, they weren't that bad. In fact they were pretty good for someone that never had before but you know me, I never want to settle! More reading and time to break out the cookie cutters and icing. (Had plenty of royal left over from the transfers, might as well put it to good use. At least that is what I keep telling myself. This decorating thing isn't an obsession! I...yeah I need help.)

Did the usual stuff, witch head, cauldron, cat, spiders web and so forth but I wanted something W O W! I start seeing the cutest cookie - Witch Legs! I want to make that! That looks cool! Son of A....Don't have the right cookie cutters...Don't even have anything close....~pouts~ Well that just blo.....Wait a minute! ~grabs her notebook, some colored pencils and her cookie cutters~ So I start tracing all my cookie cutters to see what would work. And what do I find? That my large candy corn one works great! So here we are girls, and guys, a witch leg cookie! (Not the best and not exactly like I had drawn but I am damned proud of this cookie! )

If you make one, let me know! I wanna show it off!!!

Read More