Homeschool, Birthdays, and Cookies

No, this is not some sort of weird April Fool's Day joke. You really are viewing an actual blog post from me! :)

I mentioned before that we've had a lot of changes hit recently, and that we are homeschooling our 9 year old Munchkin. We've been on that adventure for a little over a month and it is going quite well! It is definitely a work in progress and we are certainly learning as we go, but for the most part we are all enjoying it.

During the last month, the Sprout turned 3. Three years old!! Can you believe it? We had his party at home, a Toy Story 3 theme of course.

I had all these grand Martha Stewart-ish plans, but forgot that I'm me, and ran out of time to get them all done. However, I did get some "3" cookies made and decorated and was pretty proud of myself. It was something new for me -- I'd never decorated cookies like that before. I'd always wanted to, I just never had! They may not look perfect, but at least you can tell what they are supposed to be. ;)

The Munchkin even got in on the act. He should have been in bed asleep, but after I discovered him standing there asking if he could help decorate them, how could I turn him down? (this photo was taken with the ipod; it was the closest camera I could find!)

I used the cookie and royal icing recipes from Bridget of Bake at 350. She's got some absolutely amazing cookies on her blog if you haven't checked them out.

We'll be celebrating Squirt's first birthday later this month, and I'm still trying to figure out what theme we'll do for his party.

I've missed blogging, and even though I haven't been around much lately, I do promise that I'm not going anywhere. As soon as we get more of a routine figured out, so I can get in some regularly scheduled baking and writing time, I hope to be back more often! And that's no joke. :)

Comments

Anne said…

Your cookies are perfect (I am still working on the patience to make pretty sugar cookies!) Those cupcakes are so pretty though with the star sprinkles, I love it!

April 4, 2011 at 6:33 PM

Thick and Chewy Snickerdoodles

I admit, I love snickerdoodles. Cinnamon and vanilla? Yes, please. What’s funny is that I never really had them much as a kid, just occasionally in the school cafeteria. I know, ew. Anyway, snickerdoodles were one of the first cookies that the Munchkin helped make when he was little. He could help dump everything in the mixer (or “loud noise” as he would call it!) and then it was fun for him to roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar before putting them on the baking sheet. Even since then, my go-to recipe for snickerdoodles has been this one by Emeril. It’s a great recipe, baking up a thin, crispy cookie (at least when I make them!). However, I was looking for something different this time, something thicker and chewier. I found this recipe from the blog How Sweet it Is . I decided to try it, and while I did keep the ingredient list the same I changed up the method a bit to suit me better. ...

Homemade Cinnamon Dolce Latte

I recently professed my love of coffee and fancy coffee drinks. After the success of the Peppermint Mocha , I decided to tackle the Cinnamon Dolce Latte, another one of my favorites. According to the Starbucks website, it has flavors of "cinnamon, butter and brown sugar". Well, I covered the cinnamon and brown sugar components, but left out the butter. And you know what, I think it turned out quite well, if I do say so myself! I honestly wasn't sure if the cinnamon flavor in the syrup was going to be strong enough, but it was. I will admit to being impatient and not letting it steep for very long, so the cinnamon flavor might develop more if you do actually let it sit and cool off first. If you wanted it to be even stronger, you could always add a tiny bit of cinnamon oil to it as well. But be careful -- a little of that goes a long way! How much to make depends on how much you'll actually use. I just made a single batch this f...

Hello Dolly Cookie Bars

Several years ago, my mom gave me an old cookbook, it was hers but I'm not sure she ever used it, Favorite Recipes from Southern Kitchens: Desserts . I love this cookbook! I thought it would be great to go through it and pick a recipe or two to use for this year's 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats series. For this week, I chose a super easy one, Hello Dolly Cookies. I have absolutely no idea where the name came from. I'm really not sure I've ever eaten one before, though the ladies I shared the finished product with knew about them! I did an internet search too, and it seems they go by a lot of names, including Magic Layer Bars. Honestly, they are so easy to make. There's no mixing required. Kids could absolutely help with these. The cookies smelled divine while they were baking, and I barely waited for them to cool before trying one. At first I thought "these taste almost like German chocolate cake", then "or d...

Alphabet Soup

Search This Blog