Halloween Sugar Cookies

They might not be perfect (I would definitely do the jack-o-lanterns a little differently), but these cute Halloween cookies just might be showing up in a couple of mailboxes this week!  Doing cookies this way takes a lot of time, but I love doing it.  Wish I didn't have to work.  Maybe with more practice the jack-o-lanterns would look better.  But hey - they still taste wonderful!

Cookies I made for the 4th

They aren't spectacular - and if you look really close (so don't please, ok!) - you can tell that the red icing was too thick....it looks stiff and dry.  But I learned - it was the first color I did.  The rest look much better - don't you think?

Flower Sugar Cookies & Memorial Day

I made some sugar cookies a couple of weeks ago - actually about three weeks ago.  Wow!  Where does the time go.  Some of them aren't very pretty - I was in a hurry.  Nonetheless - I thought I'd share.  I made Texas Sheetcake Cupcakes yesterday for a cookout tomorrow.  They are quite yummy!  See - don't you think so too?  I'm also going to make a Snickers Salad.  There is meat in the freezer - I wonder what we'll grill - burgers or steak?  I'm feeling like burgers!

What are you doing tomorrow - Memorial Day?  Growing up we would always go to the cemetery in the morning with flowers - hopefully lilacs and tulips and peonies from our own yard.  Sometimes in southeastern Idaho they wouldn't be in bloom yet.  Then we would have to pull out the fake flowers.  There was something very therapeutic about gathering all the flowers and cemetery vases and buckets to get water from the creek right by the cemetery.  We would drive the short distance to the cemetery.  We would pull out all the flowers and lay them out on the grass by the car and make pretty arrangements, then place them on the grave sites of our loved ones who had passed on.  And we would visit.  It was a time for friends and family to gather - pay respects and renew acquaintances.  Sometimes family would gather for a picnic afterwards with more visiting and somehow as kids we managed to make our own entertainment!  You realize this was pre- any electronic games!

For 25 years we have lived far enough away from 'home' that participating in this tradition has not been possible.   So this year Amanda, Dustin and Emma made the pilgrimage to the cemetery.  They went a week early.  But they took flowers.  They wandered around the cemetery and found family names.  They called to ask questions about some of the family.  And they remembered.  Really - isn't that what it's all about?  Remembering?  Remembering the veterans who fought for freedoms.  Remembering our ancestors and family members who have gone before - whose example and lives have helped to shape our own.  Remembering that we don't walk this life alone.

 
                                                                                       

Snowball Kiss Cookies

I quite love these cookies.  They are made with Hershey's Kisses - but on this particular day when I was craving them, my stash of kisses was gone!  I had to have one of these cookies, and I didn't want to get appropriately dressed to make the 1/2 mile dash to WalMart!  (pathetic, I know!)  Milk chocolate chips would just have to be a substitute on this particular night!   So - where you see individual chocolate chips - imagine a Hershey's Kiss!

Snowball Kiss Cookies

1 cup butter, softened 

1/2 c. sugar

2 c. flour

Hershey's Kisses         

Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy.  Slowly add flour and mix well.  Cover and chill for 2 hours.  Remove 1 Tablespoon of dough and flatten out some in the palm of your hand.  Put an unwrapped kiss in the middle of the dough and wrap the dough around it, pinching together the edges and roll in the palm of your hand until it is in a ball shape.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  These cookies don't need to brown - remove from the oven as soon as they are set up - let sit for a minute or two on the cookie sheet then transfer to a cooling rack.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

I made a large batch of 'fall' decorated cookies for a friend (I decided to go strictly with pumpkins). After I finished her order I experimented a little.
First a little polka dot cookie with a lace look....

Then one with some stripes and lace.

I'm still learning - but I do like how these turned out.
Happy Fall!