Thursday, July 14, 2011

Cookie Capers - A Reflection

Here are my thoughts about making cookies:

1. Royal Icing is not cool. It takes a long time to make and has to be just right and it doesn't even taste good. I mean, what's the point if the icing doesn't taste good!?!?!

2. Making cookies requires lots of supplies - plenty of bags and icing tips (probably the ones you don't have) and lots of toothpicks

3. Making cookies requires space. I've dealt with less counter space before, but I'm pretty sure there are no one bedroom apartments with kitchens designed for the cookie making process.

4. Polka dots are fun! I probably will make more fancy cookies in the future, if only to make more polka dots. It's really neat to see them melt into the semi-set first layer of icing. It's hard to tell because my colors are so similar, but in real life they looked awesome.

5. I made these for Leo's six month birthday, but he didn't even get to eat them. Next time I'll make them for an older audience. ;)

That's all of my cookie capering for this summer. We'll see what free time I have in the fall. (haha!)

Cookie Capers Part 2

Again I will direct you to bakeat350.blogspot.com for tips because I am NOT an expert in the field of cookie making.

Step 1 - Make some super tasty cookies

Step 2 - Mix up some royal icing and dye it.
I needed two shades of yellow, a little pink, and a little black.

Step 3 - Outline the design on the cookie with the darker yellow.
Can you tell what it is yet?

Step 4 - Thin the icing so you can flood the cookie. I can tell that this is a process that takes many attempts to perfect. I had only two attempts so mine wasn't quite thin enough to flood nicely, but I still made it work.

Step 5 - Flood the mane with the darker yellow on a few cookies. Flood the face with the lighter yellow on a few cookies. Do a few more manes, then stop to go back and add darker yellow drops to make ears on the first few faces. (Side note: Don't accidentally mix up the colors. Side note #2: Polka-dotted cookies are my new favorite thing!)

Step 6 - Let everything sit for a few hours. (Or a few days if your life suddenly gets really busy like mine did.)

Step 7 - Use pink to make the nose and black for the eyes, mouth, and whiskers. Again this is is few days later and I was not in the mood to make more royal icing, so I cheated and bought the bottled Wilton's stuff from the grocery store. It worked great, but I realized that I did not have the right size tip. This would have been good to know when I was at the baking store looking at all the icing tips!

Step 8 - Take lots of pictures and savor the accomplishment!
...and choose to ignore the flaws ;)

Summer 2011

Summer’s over! Well, not really, but as soon as I return from Peru it will be time to get back into the groove of school. The kids may not show up until the end of August, but my job starts when I get the key to my classroom.

Here’s what I’ve been up to:
working on Peru stuff
swimming
house-sitting
dog-sitting
watching New Moon (Alamo pancake style)
eating snow cones
waiting in line for the last Harry Potter (well…I will tonight)
organizing and packing Peru supplies
creating English camp
finishing two grad school classes
hanging out with friends
touring Blue Bell in Brenham
making tough life choices
more Peru packing/organizing
baking delicious treats
eating those treats
sleeping in
reading lots of Kindle books
hanging with my friends

Here’s what I have NOT been doing:
working on school stuff (yay for a break!)
updating my blog regularly (sorry about that)
working out

There are still a few more things on the summer to-do list, but they’ll have to wait until later. For now I’ve got orphans to love on and the Amazon to experience. Lots of pictures and stories to come! :)