cookies

Busyness – weddings, a decorating install, tractor high dive, and a honey harvest musings

| Rene'

Friday evening- My wedding dress proto type fitting is complete. I love it! Can’t wait to see the real thing done.

Late Friday night- preparing and packing for a decorating installation

Late Friday night- make dessert for Sunday lunch, it involved these cookies

Saturday morning- a  small decorating installation (pictures to come)

Saturday afternoon- last-minute shopping for my sister’s wedding next Saturday

Saturday evening- bridesmaid’s dinner for my sister’s wedding next Saturday

Sunday morning-church

Sunday lunch- dinner with the family

Sunday evening- much-needed rest

  When I start to complain about how busy life is right now, I have just started reminding myself that there will be a time when life will slow down again, and I will wish for some excitement. And there was a time when we thought we might not get to enjoy all the wedding festivities together. The busyness starts to seem like a blessing. A sign of life.

And in the years since my dad was diagnosed with cancer and the economy tanked, there seems to be more of an attitude in my family to really enjoy the simple things, like a Sunday lunch after church with lots of laughter.

Simple things on a Sunday afternoon like:

My brother James and soon to be brother-in-law decided they would do a little swimming in the pond.

Tractor High Dive

And because my mom had nothing else going on (insert sarcastic tone), my dad decided that honey needed to be harvested too. My mom said my dad’s mid-life crisis involves bees. We have lots of family jokes involving my dad and his bees. This was Sunday afternoon’s harvest.

This stuff on biscuits=seriously amazing.

Happy Monday!

Lemon-Lime Sugar Cookies

| Rene'

I ♥ citrus desserts. Mmmm.

Lemon squares, Key Lime pie, lemon butter cookies.

Yum.

And this weekend I had the hankering for a citrus dessert but all I had was one stick of butter, an egg and a couple of boxes of Krusteaz sugar cookie mixes leftover from Christmas.

I took some inspiration from these two recipes, Lemon Blossoms and Citrus Butter Cookies and got to work.

Disclaimer: I am not usually a “just buy the mix” kind of girl. I love making things from scratch.

I appreciate the time, thought and labor that goes into well made food.

But I am also (somewhat) realistic. And sometimes a box mix just fits the bill.

Yes, that is a (new, clean)candle stick I was using as a rolling-pin. That’s what happens when you make a pie at your boyfriend’s house and then forget to bring your rolling-pin home. Yes, I know I am crazy. Why do you ask?:)

These cookies were quick and yummy. Here is the recipe I came up with:

Cookie Dough

  • 1/2 cup butter, at room temp
  • 1 egg
  • Juice of one lime
  • Juice of one lemon
  • zest from a lemon and a lime
  • 1 box Krusteaz sugar cookie
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (you may have to add a little more depending on how juicy you citrus fruit is)
  • dash of salt

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

In a mixer, beat the butter, juices and egg until well mixed. Slowly add the cookie mix, flour, and salt into the egg mixture until dough forms.

At this point, you can refrigerate the ball of dough for a couple of hours(or the freezer for 45 min), but I didn’t want to wait. Patience is not a virtue I possess. (but it’s much better to refrigerate them).

On a well floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/8″ or so. Flour a cookie cutter and cut out cookies. (This dough is pretty sticky if you did not refrigerate it so a simple shaped cutter is best.) Using a floured spatula, place the cookies on a baking sheet about 1″ apart.

Bake at 375ºF for 8-11 min depending on the size of the cookie. Don’t let the cookies brown. When finished baking, carefully transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

Glaze (this glaze does not harden) For perfect hardened decorating icing see this post.

  • 1 1/2  cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 4-6 tbsp milk
  • 2 squirts of yellow food coloring

In a small bowl combine the sugar and juices. Using a small whisk (or fork) slowly mix in the milk until you reach a smooth but slightly thick glaze. Add food coloring and mix well.

Once the cookies are cool on the racks, top them with glaze. Let the glaze set-up on the cookies for at least an hour (if you can wait that long before tasting them). Enjoy!

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Common Sense note: I used gel coloring hence the squirting. If you use the liquid coloring, 2-3 drops is probably sufficient. You don’t want cookies that look like they were iced with a highlighter marker. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good highlighter, just not in my food:)