Fire Department Bust

Happy December!  I’m almost ready to start wrapping up my Christmas shopping and am looking forward to decorating the house! (When I’ll find time to do both is another question.)  I haven’t made any sales on my Etsy site for 2 months! and have been just as lazy about blogging my craft and sewing projects!  It’s fun to have a break!

Yesterday, I set up a table at a local Fire Department’s craft fair.  I shared a table with a friend (she’s a Thirty-one consultant,) and marked down everything I had to rock bottom prices hoping for lots of sales.  She assured my that she’d seen the fair advertised everywhere.  Apparently, she was the only one.  I didn’t make a single sale, and it seemed that the vendors (about 50 of us) were the primary patrons to the other vendors.  Total bust.

The day wasn’t a total loss.  I made Smucker’s Jewel Box Cookies for dessert.  A simple butter cookie with jam will turn any frown upside down!

Campfire Cookies

You’re looking at some award winning cookies!  These delicious little bites of cookie, chocolate and marshmallow took the prize for “Most Creative Cookie” at yesterday’s 2nd Annual Cookie Contest at work!  My prize: two movie passes!

I’m very proud of my cookies and their accomplishment, and of course I’ll eat up an chance I get dubbed as “creative.”  Literally, in this case!  Don’t forget to check out the recipe and make some campy cookies for yourself!

More than a Hill of Beans: Sewing Machine Cookies

I apologize for not piling up the beans for the first time last week, but fear not!  I've got a peace offering of cookies this week...well, sort of:

Earlier this week, while perusing the website of one of my favorite local fabric shops, Spool, I found this adorable sewing machine cookie cutter.  Such a perfect shape for those of us sewing inclined, and these cookies must be "sew" much fun to decorate, not to mention eat!  I'll surely be picking up one of these the next time I'm over there!

Onion Cookies

Unlike some of my friends who have somehow recently managed to eat too many cookies, I'm going through cookie withdrawal.  I only made two kinds of cookies this holiday season, and since I love to bake, I've desperate just to make more.

So tonight, I'm making my favorite: Onion Cookies.  Well, they're actually Hershey's Toffee Bits Cookies, but they've been affectionately named "Onion Cookies" by my sister who once was making them and renamed them to prevent me from indulging.  Although I hate onions, the name failed to detour me.  I know better than to think my fellow onion-hating sister would add the foul vegetable into cookies!  Now they're my favorite!

Here's a cookie baking tip:  I always use parchment paper.  It helps the cookies keep their shape and makes cleaning the cookie sheets a cinch!

Also, I've recently stopped eating dairy because of an allergy, so I substituted the butter with Crisco butter flavored shortening.  The cookies still tasted great!

PB&J Cookies

Start your week off right by spoiling your friends, family and yourself with peanut butter and jelly cookies!  And make sure you've got enough ingredients to make two batches; the first probably won't make it to tomorrow!

PB&J Cookies
yield: 46 cookies

3/4      cup natural smooth peanut butter, mixed well
4         ounces of unsalted butter, softened
1/3+    cup of granulated sugar
1/3      cup of packed light brown sugar
1         large egg
1         teaspoon of vanilla extract
1         cup of all-purpose flour
1/2      teaspoon of baking powder
1/2      teaspoon of baking soda
1/2      teaspoon of salt
           seedless raspberry jam

1.  In a mixer, combine peanut butter and butter until smooth.  Preheat oven to 350°.
2.  Add sugars.  Mix until uniform and fuffy, then fold in egg and vanilla.  Mixer on low, add flour, powder, soda and salt until well combined.
3.  Rolling with your hands, form even balls of dough into 1" diameters.  Coat each ball with granulated sugar, then place on a cookie sheet (I always line mine with parchment first) with about a 2" spacing.  (These cookies don't spread very far.)
4.  Bake cookies for 10 minutes until they've puffed up.  Remove from oven.  Using a 1/4" teaspoon, press a small well in the middle of each cookie.  Spoon a rounded 1/4" teaspoon of jam into each cookie, then return to the oven.  Bake for an additional 6 minutes or until golden in color.
5.  Transfer to wire racks and try your best to wait to sample a cookie once they've cooled.