It's fun; calling again

 

Lemon Leaf Macrame

Dear Fun-Seeking,

Oh boy, have I got a list of suggested funs for you this week!  Run, don't walk, to these funs!

Invisibility cloak (make your own!).

Dance track.

Cookies, fast and slow.

Craft.

Try new things.

Until the next fun!

cookies

 

Arlos Cookies

Dear Cookie Jar,

I made some for you today, and they are pretty nifty: Neapolitan Sugar Cookies; but, look at this amazingness!  These mushrooms are so delightful!  Check out also the cacti cookies on the Arlos Cookies website.  

Christmas Cookies

Dear Holidays,

Well, it's time.  Or maybe it isn't, because I stopped making glorious boxes of holiday cookies some years ago.  I stopped because people seemed a bit poisoned by my cookies, all full of gluten, sugar, fat, salt, and love.  I didn't want to give people something they thought was killing them, or making them ill.

In the last ten years, we have been given cookies just once, so I know I am not the only one who has given up on giving cookies. 

So what am I giving you this year?  A kale smoothie, of course!  Nah, just kidding.  I am giving you this gorgeously filmed video of a woman making very, very beautiful cookies, which I secretly hope will give you a pang, a little teeny tiny sense of regret at what your stringent health consciousness has wrought.  Go ahead and watch it twice; there aren't any calories or sodium at all!

Sugar Snake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Heart-Shaped World,

Today's project is to make sugar cookies with your pals- you might object, suggest that summer is not the time for sugar cookies, counter that we wait until the holidays of winter to decorate cookies.  Well, ok, wait if you must, but I met a man about a week ago who was practicing already for the dessert he plans to make at Christmas time:  Croquembouche.  It is a far more ambitious dessert than sugar cookies; Croquembouche is architectural, sophisticated, baroque, and glorious. 

 

 

Actually, sugar cookies are pretty glorious too.  Let's make some while we consider our holiday pastry choices....

 

Sugar Cookies (adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Book)

2 cups butter

3 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

5 cups flour

 

Cream the butter with the sugar.  Add vanilla and salt.  Add eggs.  Add flour.  Refrigerate the dough for a few hours, or overnight. Roll it 1/4 inch thick and cut our shapes.  Bake your cookies at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.  Decorate them with the following glaze icing and colored sugar and sprinkles.

 

Icing Glaze (adapted from King Arthur Flour website)

 

2 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

a pinch of salt

2- 3 tablespoons milk.

 

Sift the sugar into a bowl, add corn syrup, vanilla, & salt:  Add milk until you get the consistency you desire.