I intended to get up at 5:15 to complete the project but Maya started making noise at 4:50 this morning. I went to grab her up before she woke Ella (they share a room) and sure enough she was talking in her sleep and I was up for the day. Great, a jump start on the 3 dozen heart-shaped sugar cookies awaiting my frosting expertise for Maya's school Valentine's party.
I head downstairs, build a fire in the wood stove, whip together some frosting, put the kettle on for tea and Ella wakes up. Perfect. "What can I do? Can I watch TV? Well if I can't what am I supposed to do?" Maya woke up 15 minutes later. Sandi got Maya breakfast and I went to toast Ella a bagel and wondered why it took 5 minutes to toast only to find out I hadn't pushed the lever down.
I begin the artistic process (I am not artistic so making Minnie Mouse cookies requires all the artistic talent I possess) of decorating the cookies. I get interrupted about 5,000 times. I needed to leave the house with Ella, Maya and Skyler at 8 am. In that 3 hours I decorated cookies, emptied the dish drain and dishwasher (from the mountain of dishes created by Sandi's and my cooking binge yesterday), made Ella's lunch, got the girls dressed, hair combed and teeth brushed, filled the pellet stove, packed my gym bag, ate my oatmeal standing up, filled out Ella's school forms, packed her backpack, packed Maya's backpack, put chocolates on Maya's valentines to take to school. This process was made much smoother by having Maya alongside me HELPING me frost the cookies, having her throw her toothbrush on the floor mid brushing, slip out of her clothes into her Belle dress-up gown while upstairs, and Ella dumping a box full of her Valentine candy "Nerds" I let her eat after breakfast all over the floor. The cat went in and out 3 times. The dog as well.
Did I mention that I am ALSO trying to frost cookies?
So as I am trying not to blow my stack through all the commotion of the morning (and wondering how it is that 3 hours really isn't enough to add cookie frosting to my morning achievement list) I looked at the volunteer sign-up sheet for Ella's school winter festival on Friday.
I stood in my kitchen, amidst the chaos, and said aloud to myself: "Good grief, Suzanne, get a grip. You cannot do it all" and threw it in the fire.
Good girl. Then I dropped all the kids off and did my 6 mile run instead of blowing my stack.
Below is the recipe for the polka dot Minnie cookies. The others I just made up.
Minnie's Polka-Dot Cookies
By Cindy Littlefield
Inspired by the character: Minnie Mouse
You will need:
Heart-shaped cookie cutter
Batch of chilled sugar cookie dough (homemade or store bought)
2 cups powdered sugar
Small mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
Toothpick
Small plastic bag
Red food coloring
Directions
Cut heart shapes from the sugar cookie dough and bake them according to the recipe or package directions. Allow the cookies to thoroughly cool.
Prepare the cookie icing by sifting the powdered sugar into a small mixing bowl and then stirring in the milk. Add the corn syrup and stir until the mixture is smooth.
Use the toothpick to poke a small hole in the corner of the plastic bag. Then spoon a third of the icing into the bag. Set the bag aside for now.
Stir drops of red food coloring into the remaining icing in the bowl until you have the desired shade.
Cover your working surface with a sheet of waxed paper. Working with one cookie at a time, spread the tops with the colored icing and immediately use the icing-filled plastic bag to pipe on white dots. (If you do this while the tinted frosting is still fluid, the dots will spread nicely to the same level.) To keep the dots as round as possible, lift the bag straight up from the cookie after you've piped the icing. You can practice the technique beforehand by piping a few dots onto a piece of waxed paper.
1 comment:
I'm tired just reading your morning line-up... Way to go, lady. You rock!!
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