But first, let's talk lunch. Yesterday's lunch took just a couple minutes to throw together and was pretty darn delicious :)
First I steamed some broccolini in a bowl with a tablespoon of water and saran wrap over the top, keeping one corner uncovered.
Then I added some leftover Harvest Grains Blend and already opened alfredo sauce.
I microwaved this for a minute or two then added some shredded smoked cheese blend, stirred and enjoyed :)
To be honest, the best part of this lunch was that it only dirtied one dish and sometimes that counts for a lot!
Now on to the sweet stuff:
Halloween Sugar Cookies!!
I used this No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe from Lovin From the Oven. I've used a few of her recipes before and she always delivers! Her Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies are still Matt's favorite cookies I've ever made.
I used a new technique of rolling out my dough between two sheets of parchment paper with a bottle of wine since I didn't have a rolling pin.
This worked really well! Especially since before I would flour the surface and rolling pin and everything would STILL stick and the cookie dough would end up too crumbly by the end from too much incorporated flour. I will definitely be using the parchment paper technique from now on.
I lightly floured my cookie cutters so that they wouldn't stick. I used a washed out PB jar lid for a circle since I didn't have a circular cutter.
Even though I halfed the recipe, check out how many cookies I made!
To decorate, I made a thick slurry of powdered sugar and milk that I piped out of the tip of a ziplock bag and outlined all of my cookies with it so that the next layer of icing wouldn't drip over the edges.
Next, I mixed up a more liquid version by using more milk to make white, yellow, orange and red icing.
The next step was pretty messy and I kind of did it in a hurry. I attempted to color in the lines. Clearly my cookie decorating skills need some work, hahaha!
What a delicious mess! I used the leftover parchment paper from rolling the dough out to spread the cookies on for decorating to make clean up a breeze. We had friends over last night before going out and the cookies were a hit! I'm not looking forward to the four miles I have to run today :/ But I AM looking forward to the West Hollywood Halloween Parade!!! I'll try to take some good pictures to post.
awesome! try using paint brushes to decorate, you might like that better. you can paint the whole thing white, then paint colors over top of it after it's dry.
ReplyDeleteyour sugar cookie dough looked awesome; mine always puffs up beyond recognition while baking :(
The trick is if you use pre-made dough at the grocery store you need to add plenty of flour to it to the point where it's almost TOO crumbly. If you're making from scratch, this is a great recipe! But definitely the extra flour is what helps them keep their shape. I'll definitely try paint brushes, thanks for the tip :) Working on my decorating skillz is just an excuse to bake more cookies!!!
ReplyDeleteLooking at those cookies, I'm sure that no matter how many you made, they would be gone in a hurry! Can't wait to see the halloween pix....had to have been a blast!
ReplyDeleteNot to minimize it, lunch looked great as well. Something healthy and nutritious to make you feel less guilty about dessert:)
i love all holiday cookies! hope you had fun @ the parade!
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