Jackpot: Best Sugar Cookie Recipe!

UPDATE: I found an even better recipe.  While this one is awesome, the new one I found is so much better. http://dimock.blogspot.com/2012/02/seriously-best-sugar-cookie.html


When I want to find a good recipe of something, like sugar cookies, I just google "best ______ recipe."  It gets the job done.  I found the best sugar cookie recipe on ourbestbites.com.

The problem with sugar cookies are that sometimes they are really dry or crunchy or hard or way, way too soft and crumbly.

This recipe is the best and it does not have a lot of ingredients.  You can find a detailed recipe on the link above, but I will share a shorter version here.

Sugar Cookies
recipe from ourbestbites.com



1 C real butter (no substitutions!)

1 C sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 t almond extract (you could use vanilla instead)

3 C flour

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt



Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes. Add in eggs and extract and mix to incorporate.
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.

Shape the dough into 2 flat disks and wrap in waxed paper and place in the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours. If you want your cookies to hold their shape well, the dough needs to be chilled properly. A great tip to speed things up is to immediately roll dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper and place on a flat surface in the fridge. It will chill super fast and be ready to go in no time.

When you're ready to roll out dough lightly sprinkle flour onto your work surface and roll out dough with a rolling pin.

Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes. The baking time really depends on how you like them. If you like them really soft under-bake them. In my oven, about 8 minutes does it. However if you're making large cookies, or ones with small parts or heavy frosting, you might want to be careful because they might break when they're super soft.

About 8 minutes will get you a really soft cookie, a few minutes longer (when they start to just brown around the edges) and you'll get just a little crispiness around the edges and then a soft center, bake even longer (and roll thinner) and you'll get a buttery, crispy cookie that will just melt in your mouth. Any way you do it, they'll taste good. Remove onto cooling racks when you're done and let cool completely. I honestly think these even taste better the second day.

***A change I made to it was that I dropped dough by spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet and pressed them down with my fingers.  This was a lot easier than cutting out shapes.

For the frosting, I mixed powdered sugar and water together to make a glaze that I dunked the top of the cookie into.  I put them on a drying rack to drip the excess frosting off of and topped with sprinkles.

Enjoy!!

Waiting to be Booed

I was reading The Meanest Mom's latest blog entry about being booed and I have to say, I completely have a different outlook on the whole 'booing' tradition.

'Booing' someone is when you leave a sign and instructions on your neighbor's doorstep with a special halloween treat.  The instructions tell the neighbor to make a a couple copies and do the same thing to more neighbors. 

I am a fan of this tradition because I like giving things to people, I like being neighborly, and I like to come home and see if anyone else has their 'booed' signs up.  It is really cool when every house on the street gets booed and everyone has the signs on their doors.

So, I went out and booed my neighbors.  I got the sheet off the internet, got some little containers from the dollar store, and filled them with candy and toy eye balls.  Three neighbors were given these four days ago. 

Since then, one has put their sign up and none of them have booed anyone else.  FAIL.

Ugh.  This happens every year.  I have tried booing my neighbors since we got married.  That is four years of unsuccessful booing. FOUR!

In high school, our neighbors all got booed and had their signs on their doors.  Everyone in our area of the street had been booed but our house.  This was not okay with me.  I want to be included!!  So, one night my sister, Makenna, and I went out with a Sharpie and changed all the signs that read "BOO" into "BOOB." 

This made us feel better, but it still wasn't the same as being booed.

I am going to give my neighbors the benefit of the doubt and wait a little longer to see if they put their signs up or boo anyone else.  Then I am thinking of trying it again with other neighbors.

I mean, I even chose people that had pumpkins and halloween decorations out.  I thought this year would be different.

Duh!

You know when you come across something that makes so much sense and you can't believe you've never thought of that? Well, I had  food version of that happen to me.  See what I mean?:

That's not my hand, I found this online.  I did try it though and it was amazing and everyone loved it.  Fill the inside of strawberries with cheesecake filling.  Then dip the top in graham cracker crumbs.  Wal-Mart sells cheesecake filling already made, but I just made some up on my own by tasting it until it was right.

Enjoy!

Random Funnies

Sometimes I save random pictures on my computer that I thought were cute or funny and then I forget about them.  Well, I just found a few that I thought I would share.

Enjoy!

Rain Boots

One thing that all kids look cute in is boots.  I have been on the look-out for boots for Griffey, but there are always at least 6 options of girl boots everywhere and usually only one or zero types of boy boots.  And they are usually camo-not my fav.

Well, we found these awesome rain boots at St. Vincent de Paul's today and we came right home and played in the puddles outside our house.

Also, I have been lusting after Hunter boots since last year and after seeing them in the movie, P.S. I Love You, I want them even more.  I can't decide what color yet and since they are kind of spendy, I don't want to make the wrong choice.  Any suggestions? I am between blue, black, and green.

I like the red ones too, but they wouldn't go with as much stuff.

Despicable Me Cupcakes

 Today was my friend, Brittany's, birthday and she loves the movie Despicable Me.  When I found these cupcakes on Pinterest from http://www.pluckymomo.com/. I knew I needed to recreate them for her!  I think they turned out pretty well.

The only thing I changed is that I only used one color of frosting for the goggles.  Also, I just drew the eyes on the smarties with Sharpie because the frosting on the smartie looked sloppy.  Oh, and I put the frosting on the back of the smarties and then pushed them onto the Twinkies so the dark frosting oozed out around the eyes to be the rims of the goggles.  You can compare strategies on the original blog here.

Fireplace Decoration

I have been really into grey and yellow lately, which is why we were wearing yellow, grey, and navy in our family pictures.

When I saw this canvas painting on Pinterest, I loved it immediately and created my own version.

I enlarged one of our family pics at Costco (super inexpensive!) and put it in a white frame to match my mirror and bull pitcher (garage sale finds).  I thought all the white and large items helped take away a little from the huge dark brown wood wall.  I really like the way it turned out!

Yes, that is a dirty mirror!

This mirror is another craft project of mine.  It was a beautiful gold framed mirror but it needed a little color in our living room. So, now it is a beautiful blue. Painting stuff us so much fun!

Birthday Bandolier

I really love Pinterest right now.  I have found some awesome ideas on there.  For instance, this bandolier:

 It has many little rings on it to slip toy cars and action figures into and a little pocket at the bottom.  At first, Griffey did not like it, but now he does.  He slips all sorts of little toys into it.  Look at that happy place.

This was right after Little Bear got a new bow.  The old bow ripped off.

I found the pattern for the bandolier on Pinterest, but the original idea was here on whipstitchfabrics.com.

Bath Time!

Griffey has a love-hate relationship with baths.  He doesn't like getting in, but once he is in, he loves it--except when his hair is getting washed.

This particular day, Little Bear/ White Bear was waiting for Griff to be done.

He decided to join Griffey in the bath.

Bear getting wet kind of freaked Griffey out and he threw him out of the bath quickly.

Bear Little Bear.

Also, for Griffey's birthday, we got him these Crayola bath dropz which turn the water different colors.  Now Griffey likes to get in the bath because he gets to choose which color of bath he wants.

Is 2 too young for chores?

Actually, I think we started giving Griff chores before he turned 2.  We make it a game and it really doesn't cut out me having to pick up after him, but at least it teaches him about cleaning up after himself.

We make little lists and I read them to Griff.

First up: flashcards go in the box.

check!

Next, the books.

check!

Finally, the crayons have their own box.

check!

Yay! All done, big star!

Great Balls of Fire!

Adam is a champ.  He partook in the Great Balls of Fire Challenge at Salvador Molly's in Portland a few months ago and I just found the pictures.

He let me plan a trip to Portland where I got to do any weird thing I wanted to, including watch him do this challenge which was on the Food Network's Man v. Food.

Adam did not know what he was getting into.  Those fire balls of fire were made up of some seriously spicy peppers and the sauce was even hotter.

If you can accomplish the challenge, then your picture ends up here.

They look delicious, but those things were hazardous.

almost done!

See that sweat? He drank this whole pitcher plus three glasses of milk.

He was hating his life at this point.

Way to power through! By the way, my bbq pulled pork slider was delicious and I fully recommend eating at one of their two locations in Portland.

Put it on the wall!