Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

Forrest Gump totally had it right.  Life IS like a box of chocolates.

Especially when they are sugar cookies made to look like chocolates.  Right?

I'd rather eat the cookie version than the chocolate ones.  Yes, I know...you're gasping.  How can I not like chocolate?  I'm sorry.  I just don't.  I'd pick vanilla over chocolate EVERY time.  My mom and I argue over birthday cake every year, white cake with white frosting just can't be beat.  I don't care what you say, mom.

However, I do think she'd still like these box of chocolate cookies.

It all started with the idea of making Valentines cookies - and I wanted to do something different but easier. Ha! Easier is NEVER the case when making sugar cookies but I like to pretend.  It makes me feel better.  

After searching online I ordered boxes from BRP Box Shop.  It is literally the BEST place to buy boxes. They are my mecca.  My jam.  The place where I like to donate money to. I want to buy all types of boxes from them, for things I don't even make. Like macaroon boxes.  Or cupcake box carriers.  Heck, even cake pops (and the last time I tried to make cake pops I about threw everything out of my kitchen...it went that well...).

I found these 4x4 inch boxes and knew they'd be perfect.

Aren't they perfect?  And cute.  Cute perfect small boxes.

Perfect for "chocolate" sugar cookies.

The surprise just keeps getting better and better once you open up the cute perfect small box.  It fit three cupcake liners perfectly.  

Originally I had in mind four cupcake liners per box but after struggling to shove them in without completely looking mangled I settled for three.  Except they could each hold 2 cookies so it went from being a 4-piece gift box to a 6-piece.  Boom...the buyer wins again.

Now doesn't that make you want to dig in and eat the entire box?

How can you resist?

Best part is that I have some extra sets available - while they last for pickup in Omaha only!  So if you've forgotten to get a gift or slack like some individuals...here's your perfect solution.  At only $5.00 per box you can't beat it.

And maybe your Valentine will share.  Or maybe they won't.

Either way this Valentine's Day will be just like a box of chocolates.  Cookie chocolates that is.

Things I forgot to Post

I'm a horrible cookie blogger. 

I guess that's better than being a horrible cookie maker.  Right?

So I may have a few photos to show. I promise it's not that many.  Really.

Here we go...

 

 

Ok...so maybe I lied about it just being a few pictures.

 

But at least it beats listening to me rambling.

 

Happy Cookies!

 

 

January: Cookie of the Month

I made it by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.

They were delivered yesterday.

Nothing like five days to spare.

So what did I make?

Well, it's kinda weird.

To outsiders.

I made toast, cheese and eggs.

Yes, really.

Why?

I was sick of making snowflakes and anything "winter" related.  Thus I thought I'd do something funny.

You see, my grandma is a wonderful cook.  Still is.  Even though she claims she's not.

But since my grandfather passes away over four years ago - she doesn't cook much and eats "whatever is in her fridge." I could tell many funny stories about that. 

She and my grandfather used to go out to eat dinner most evenings.  It was something fun they enjoyed doing and had favorite places to eat.  She still does.

But many times she eats whatever is in her fridge.  And when I ask "so, what'd you do for dinner last night" many of her meals center around toast, eggs (in some form) and cheese.

Hence, nothing better to make her than cookie replicas of her "favorite foods" or I should probably say "most frequent!"

Complete they look pretty great. And I think they taste even better than the real thing.

The sugar version is always better.  Right?

What Went With the Wine Glasses

My husband asked me last week if I'd make cookies to take to someone at his work.  Specifically Wendy - who in Dave's eye's is not only amazing but puts up with him and the other guys at the office all while keeping everything running smoothly and not letting them burn down the office each day.

It was her birthday Tuesday - so he wanted me to make cookies.

And after asking him what Wendy liked or what hobbies she had - all he could come up with was that she was in a wine group with a bunch of women.  So we settled on making some grapes and glasses of wine.

Perfect.

Away I baked.

And made a dozen grape cookies and eight wine glass cookies.

Then I whipped up some burgundy colored wine - so it'd at least look realistic - and away I went.

Pretty good start huh?

Apparently Brooke our Chesapeake Bay Retriever thought so too...

The wine cookies now reside in her belly. 

Thankfully the grape cookies were nowhere in her reach.  Though I'm now convinced she has a go-go gadget neck...but that's a side story for another day.

I told Dave as I was working on the grapes that he'd have to explain to Wendy why she was just getting a bunch of grapes for her birthday.  Or else she'd think I was rather crazy.

Thankfully he did - and I heard she loved them. 

They ended up looking pretty nifty if I do say so myself.

They just would have been that much better with the wine glasses.

Harrumph.  Darn you Brooke.

It's In the Can

Last weekend I learned how to can.

Can food.

Specifically mustard pickles.

They are a family tradition.  We (well some of us) salivate for them.  My grandma made them apparently when my dad and his siblings were little and continued on the tradition as they all grew up, got married and had kids of their own. 

I can remember going out to the farm in Western Nebraska and coming home with at least one, hopefully more, jars of mustard pickles and some homemade cinnamon rolls.  The trips where we didn't come home with any were sad.  Very sad.

My aunt started making the mustard pickles since Grandma is a little too old to do it now.  This weekend I found out that my Grandma never ate the mustard pickles them but always made them because my Grandpa loved them. 

So I drove all the way to Colorado to make mustard pickles.  With my aunt and cousins.

And in turn I knew I'd have to bring goodies.  Bribery we'll call it.

So I made these... (pardon the cell phone photos...I was too tired to get my big camera)

All because we slaved away and canned 52 jars of mustard pickles.  And if you'll notice you can see the golden ears of corn in the right side of the photo.  Yes, that's right...we also did sweet corn.

And dill pickles.

And then we called it quits.

And ate some cookies.

A Tale of Two Cherry Pies

My father loves cherry pie.

So much that he'll go buy a cherry pie at Village Inn or from the grocery store randomly, even if there isn't a special occasion.

He prefers it over cake.

Over pretty much any other sweets.  Except for vanilla ice cream and raisins.  Yes, he eats that.  We choose to ignore it.

So I decided that instead of attempting to make him a real cherry pie for Father's Day I'd give him the second best thing, a sugar cookie made to look like a cherry pie.

A circle cookie cutter and some sugar cookie dough makes the perfect base for a cherry pie cookie.

Using my thick frosting in a piping bag I outlined circles (rather sloppy I might add) on the cookies.  I've yet to perfect circles - mine tend to be a little jagged.  Luckily the edges of the circles will be covered up...

Then away I went with flooding the cookies.  For flood frosting I like putting it into "ketchup bottles." The frosting pours out much easier and all the tips have caps to easily store extra frosting.  Not to mention these beauties were purchased at Wally World for roughly $1.00 each...pretty reasonable when I own about 20.

Flood.  Flooding. Floody.

Filling in some of the spots - so it's all evened out. 

Magic.

I wasn't sure how I wanted to add cherries.  So as the red circles were drying I decided to use the thick red frosting and pipe on red dots a.k.a. cherries.

It ended up not being what I wanted....so I just left it knowing the rest of the details would cover it up.  Should I make them again I'd add the cherries as the last detail and do them all over.

I used a Wilton Tip #103 for the "crust."

I started with making the lattice over the top part of the "pie."

It required a lot of thinking...something I wasn't prepared to do.

I thought that most cherry pies I'd ever had also had a sugary top - with the Turbinado Sugar I had at home I quickly spread it over the top of the wet frosting. 

Now here's the messy part.  And where the title of this post comes into play.  I ran out of the light tan frosting...and also didn't have enough white extra frosting to make more.  I had to use the dark brown frosting that was on hand...and it was runny.  Enough that it looked like the pie crust was burned.

But I ended up giving him both the pretty looking cookies and the "burned "version.  They still taste the same...unlike a real burned pie.

I'd like to revisit this cookie "Cherry Pie" attempt because I'd give this a B-. 

I'm looking to get an A+.



I linked this up to:
LilaLoa