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!

Chef Jack's Little Apron

Wrapping paper coffee, anyone? 

I didn't think so.  As a preventative measure, just don't let a two-year-old, juiced up on Christmas presents make the coffee!  But do encourage them to be help out, supervised, of course!

Last year, at my sister's request,  I stitched together a two-year-old sized apron for my nephew as a Christmas present.  A super, inexpensive gift idea for a crafty sister!  It's cute and adorable, and he still uses it while helping out  in the kitchen!

At the request, I googled away and found a great free apron pattern online.  (I was still able to find the pattern a year later, and you might even be interested in checking out MB's witty, supafine blog!)  All I purchased to make the apron was one yard of fabric, and I think I still have enough leftover to make a second!

This apron definitely goes in the file as a simple sewing project, and it went together almost too easy to have become such a quality Christmas gift.  Though, never happy with completely following a pattern, I made two apron strings at the top, and two at the sides.  This allows for the apron to be tied with a bow around the neck and the waist for complete adjustment to height and girth.  I also embroidered in the adorable words "Chef Jack" to personalize it for my nephew.  That way, little brother won't try to borrow it.  Another tip, make sure the strings are secure from little tugging hands with some extra stitching.

Don't tell, but I think the next nephew is due for one this Christmas...

Martha's Blueberry Scones

If my favorite thing to do is sew, then my next favorite is to eat cookies...which leads me to my third favorite thing to do, bake.

During my thesis year of college, my morning routine consisted of a stop at a small coffee shop on my way (slightly out of the way) to campus. That's where I fell in love with coffee and scones (and oat fudge bars and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. God, if they only shipped their goodies!)

All this sewing has really ramped up my appetite, and now that the leaves are falling, I'm reminded of heading back to class, and grabbing a scone on the way! So really, I have no other choice then to make some scones!

Being a mild fan of Martha Stewart, (and maybe a bigger fan of her daughter Alexis,) I tried her recipe for Blueberry Scones. I have never made scones before, but this recipe seemed simple, and I was intrigued by the addition of the lemon zest.



I bought frozen blueberries and gave the recipe a whirl.  Somewhere between steps 1 and 4, I made a rather large mess. Some triangular looking blobs made it onto the pan, and having gotten that far, I put them in the oven.

After twenty minutes, my first floor smelled sweetly of baking blueberries and some tasting looking treats came out of the oven.  Although they didn't look perfect, they tasted perfect! So perfect, I only ate three... The rest perfectly reheat in the toaster oven. Yum!

Also, check out Park Lane Design's blog!  Lisa featured one of my Etsy items today on her Fab 5 Friday Finds!