Frosted Butter Cookies

Normally this blog would be used to talk about highlights in Charlie's life, but today I will be telling everyone how I make my frosted butter cookies step by step.

A Goose!

Butter Cookies (you can double this if you want)

1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar (aka: Confectioners sugar or icing sugar)

1 cup softened butter

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour (sifted)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tarter 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1) Melt the butter until just softened (if you remember to leave the butter out over night so that it gets soft and then you won't have to melt it.)

2) Cream together butter and sifted powdered sugar until well combined

3) Add the egg and vanilla and combine

4) In a separate bowl combine the sifted flour, baking soda, cream of tarter and salt (now for the salt I never add the amount the recipe calls for, really salt is used to enhance flavors and any amount is ok. I usually just sprinkle a few shakes in) mix ingredients together

5)Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet

6) mix the ingredients until all the dry is well combined in the dough

7) Refrigerate the dough for about an hour. 

8) preheat oven to 375 degrees F 

While the dough is in the fridge I suggest cleaning up! Then prepare an area to cut the cookies out. I use a silicon pastry mat, but a large cutting board, or an untiled counter works as well. Flour the surface, this step is important otherwise the dough will stick! You will also need ungreased cookie sheets. Now take the dough from the fridge and grab a nice size portion. I tend to squish the dough together to make sure there is no loose dough that might fall out. Place it on surface and begin to roll! I usually roll until the dough is about 1/4 inch thick. So I am really bad at math and don't actually know what 1/4 inch looks like in dough so just go ahead and roll them out so the dough is about as thick as a pencil eraser is high (hope this makes sense!). Then take your cookie cutters (if you don't have any then you should buy some before you make these cookies, they are relatively inexpensive and can be found at most cooking stores.) Cut out your shapes and then place the dough on your cookie sheets. I sometimes use a spatula/ pie server to get the cookies of the mat so that I don't make any indents. Continue to roll out dough and cut the shapes out until all the dough is gone. Once you are done or have run out of space on your cookie sheets place the cookie sheets into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

They should look like this when they are ready.

Once out of the oven let the cookies cool for 2 minutes and then remove them from the cookie sheet to a place so they can cool more. If you still have dough left over and need to make some more shapes wait until the cookie sheets are completely cool to the touch. Failure to do so will result in the cookie dough melting on the too hot cookie sheet and then your cookie will turn out wonky. Once your cookies are completely cool to the touch you are ready to frost!

There are two types of frosting that I use. I use one to outline the shapes as I find it easier to frost them when there is an outline to contain the frosting. I also use this frosting to add decoration to the cookie. This frosting dries hard which makes it really nice to use. You can also use it to frost the entire cookie if you want. I don't because my parents don't care for it as much as the second frosting. 

Royal Icing

4 cups sifted powdered sugar

3 tablespoons meringue powder*

6 tablespoons water (more can be added until your desired consistency is reached)

Meringue powder isn't easy to find here. It is just powdered egg white with cornstarch to make sure it doesn't clump. I just researched online and it looks like those reading this in England can find a powdered egg white at Tesco (at least you can online!) so possibly can in other supermarkets as well. 

So mix all these ingredients together until well combined (so it really doesn't make that much frosting so you might want to make more). If you need to add a teeny tiny bit more water at a time to reach desired consistency. For tracing you want a thick consistency, usually 6 tablespoons is enough, but if you use this for frosting you want a thinner consistency so add a bit more water. Now separate your icing into bowls. You will want to color your icing to decorate your cookie so use as many bowls as the colors you choose. Add the food coloring to each bowl of frosting and mix. I use a gel food coloring as a liquid one changes the consistency while gel doesn't. Once you have mixed your colors place into plastic ziplock bags to trace (you can use pastry bags or squeeze bottles if you want) and cut a tiny piece off the end. Begin to trace your cookies. If you choose to use this frosting to frost as well you can just leave some in the bowl in a thinner consistency and once you trace and let the tracing frosting dry until hardish you can frost the inside. Now it might seem gross but I use my finger to frost the inside of the cookie! I find it easier to scoop the frosting out of the bowl and to spread it then if I use a knife! Of course my finger is clean so nothing to worry about! If you don't want to do that then spoon some frosting into the middle and use a toothpick or small spoon to spread it. Just keep in mind that this frosting does harden and become crunchy. If you want to decorate let the cookies dry for an hour or so others the decorating frosting will seep. 

Buttercream frosting

1/2-1 cup softened butter

5 cups sifted powder sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (you can usually find a clear version instead of a brown, if not you are coloring frosting anyway so that's ok) 

add as much milk you need to reach a thinnish consistency

Mix all the ingredients together. The frosting should be thin enough that you can easily spread it but not too thin that it is a soupy mess! Once again divide the frosting into separate bowls and add the coloring. At this point your traced cookies (if you have decided not to use the royal icing to frost with) should be dry enough that you can easily spread the frosting without messing up the tracing. Once again you can use your finger or use the toothpick or spoon. This frosting does not dry hard, its does dry some, but it is soft to the touch. Do let this frosting dry some before you decorate. 

If you don't feel comfortable making your own frosting you can always use store bought, it just doesn't taste as good! Also, I didn't make a video of me making the frosting, but if you would like me to just let me know and I would be more than happy to!

When you are all done your cookies will looks something like this, but different shapes! Keep in mind that it does take some practice to really do a good job decorating the cookies (or you could be naturally talented!)! It took me a good 5 years to get to the point that I am at now. If you use the royal frosting it is a lot easier to make the cookies look nice because the frosting dries so nicely. 

This is one I did in 2011 as you can see I have come a long way!

Another I did in 2011 (these were the first ones that I actually ever did this way! Got me into decorating cookies) This is Charlie looking out a window

another from 2011, i'm not sure what it is!

Once again 2011

Hope you enjoy making frosted butter cookies as much as I do!

This and That

It has been awhile! I always think about blogging, but of course it never actually happens. It also doesn't help that most of my pictures are on my iPhone and not my computer making it just a little bit more time consuming to have some pictures for my readers to enjoy! Anyway, it is well into summer here in Washington. The sun has been shining, more or less and it has been pretty warm like summer should be. I have had a pretty busy summer so far. I went to Leavenworth with a friend in June which was fun. It was just a one day, two night getaway, but it was relaxing and fun! The weather had yet to turn nice here, so going over the mountains, further away from the ocean current and having nice sunny, warm weather made the trip even better! Then in early July my family went to a wedding for a friend of my brother's. It was a pretty good wedding. I didn't stay all that long as it was getting late and we had some dogs that needed to be taken care of. The food at the wedding was pretty good too. There was mashed potatoes, pretzel rolls, filet mignon, etc. The cake was pretty good too (although I didn't have any of that until today! haha!), then just this past Sunday I went to my really good childhood friends wedding. I had such a fun time! It was at a quaint little old factory building in SOHO, really close to the stadiums (for those not familiar with the area, it was in Seattle :P) It was a really fun wedding as I knew a lot more people at this wedding then the first (I had a fun time at the first one despite that), there were really yummy appetizers, such as some steak thingy on a thin piece of bread (don't know what it was call, but it was yummy), a chicken, onion, basil mixture on a piece of lettuce, that was yummy, but the lettuce was somewhat bitter. There was also a small table with bread, cheese, fruit, different spreads (like Pesto), some fruit spreads, and asian cracker mix. All that I had from that table was really good. Then dinner was a typical wedding spread (or so it seems) with salad, bread, yukon gold potatoes, roasted and seasoned vegetables, halibut, and steak. I had some bread, salad, steak, and potatoes. I didn't take any vegetables because I am not a big fan of cooked vegetables. Everything was very yummy, I only had a few bites of steak as I am not a big meat eater, unless I have steak sauce. :P The potatoes were very yummy, especially with salt and pepper added. The best part came shortly after dinner. First there was the toast by the fathers, best man, and maid of honor, then the cake was cut! The cake wasn't a traditional wedding cake, there were actually a bunch of different types, like seven! I had the red velvet and oreo cookie cake! They were both really yummy, but I was sure full after that! Then came the dancing, not good on a full stomach! I had such bad stomach cramps, but I kept dancing because it was so fun! My parents left before I was ready to leave, so luckily I was able to hitch a ride with some friends! We have another wedding to go to on Friday that I hope is just as fun!
Today my brother, his girlfriend and I went to Wild Waves. It was pretty fun, but I don't think it was worth the money. We were only able to go on two of the water rides as the lines were so long and really disorganized. We did, however, go on quiet a few of the non water rides. The best ones were the Kang-a-bounce, the log flume, pirate ship, and hang glider. The best was really the kang-a-bounce! That thing bounced you more then expected! I had a good time, though I got a head ache towards the end from not drinking enough and it being pretty hot. I also got sun burned on my face, kinda forgot the sun screen. :P

Now for an update on Charlie. Nothing much has changed for him. His 7th birthday is coming up though....I don't want him to get any older!!!! This does, however, give me an excuse to go and get him a bunch of birthday presents! I will try to update a little more frequently, but that just depends on if I have done anything exciting. I don't think that my readers want to read about the boring stuff I do on a daily basis, like eat lunch and go outside to read my book. That just isn't very exciting. Now I leave you with some pictures! 

The Kang-a-bounce. I didn't take this picture, it is from the internet.  

Charlie after having some frozen yogurt from Yogurtland! He loved it! Yes he did get his own! 

Is it already March?

I started a blog post the other day, but completely forgot about it! I was going to finish it later that day, but got busy with other things!
Anyway, where has the time gone! I seriously cannot believe that it is already March! Despite my liking of cold weather, I am seriously looking forward to some warmer weather and being able to wear my spring clothes instead of winter! Not much has been going on around here. We had a busy February with the doggy guests who included: Mina, Joe, Bruno, Chester, Daisy, and Daphne! It's weird how the amount of dogs we have varies from month to month! This month we will be getting Velcro and Chucu only! Charlie tolerates the doggy guests very well. Sometimes he does get annoyed at them, especially when he is tired! He does a better job tolerating them then I do! Some of the dogs we have will NOT leave me alone and have to constantly be by my side. I try to go to my room to get some peace and quiet, but they just sit outside my bedroom door and whine until I open it up for them! UGH!

Earlier last month I went to the allergist. I have been having trouble breathing for awhile now (really it has been probably about nine years where I have had trouble breathing, but more recently has gotten worse). Anyway, my mom and I suspected it might be asthma caused by allergies. Before this I had never had a formal allergy test, just knew I was allergic to a select few things (grass and cats). Well this test really explained why I couldn't breath! I am allergic to grass, weeds, dust mites, alder, birch, juniper, and cottonwood trees, and cats and dogs! When I found out I was allergic to dogs a little of me died inside. If any of you know me well enough, I LOVE dogs! Knowing that I am allergic to them is difficult to come to terms with. Of course that won't stop me from cuddling Charlie or any of the doggy guests that like to cuddle. :) I was glad that I finally pinpointed my breathing problem as it was hindering my ability to exercise! I couldn't breath when I was playing Kinect, I couldn't walk up hills without feeling faint, and I couldn't do any cardio machines without getting winded! It was horrible! How was I to stay in shape when I couldn't work out! Luckily, I got things sorted out and I am back to working out (though having not done it much since August, getting the motivation to actually work out again is difficult!)

Now on to Charlie...well Charlie is just Charlie. He needs a haircut though, so he is a very furry Charlie! He has been very loving lately. My brother, John was gone for the past month to Europe and you could tell Charlie knew someone was missing because he clung to me a lot. He would follow me everywhere! I would be in the Media Room, there Charlie would be, I would be on the Elliptical and sure enough Charlie would be near by, laying down! During the weekends he kept coming up to the couch where I sit on my computer to give me kisses! What a crazy dog! He also recently (about a month and a half ago) got a new toy. It's a little elephant that squeaks very easily. He loves it and can play with it for ages!

Joe being Joe....

Daisy in her sleeping bag. Yes she has a sleeping bag!

He just came in from outside where it was pouring rain!

Mina the Westie!

It is hard to see, but Charlie's elephant is between the cabinet and the wall! It wasn't put there purposely, John threw it and it bounced there!

Snow!!

As many of you are probably aware of, it snowed! So I am a little late on the whole blogging about it thing, but what can you say! I was having fun outside!! Charlie LOVES the snow. He hates getting cold, but he doesn't mind going out in it, getting wet, and all over having a blast. He tends to get what my family calls "air on the brain", that is when he just runs wildly around without a care in the world, and without paying any attention to what he is actually doing except running in circles.
He also just likes to go on walks in the snow. He wears his sweater to stay warm, but I let him lead the way and he will just walk and walk. If he looks up at you he usually has snow around his mouth and nose because his snout is always sniffing the ground! It is cute! You might think he would be a hard dog to keep track of in the snow, being white and all, but he isn't. He is usually wearing his darker sweater, but the times he isn't, his fur turns a creamish white against the blinding white of the snow. I like to take him out in the snow. He even likes to go sledding!
There really isn't much else going on considering I have been house bound for pretty much the past 6 days. I did go out with my brother, my friend Molly, and her sister Bridget in their dad's Jeep. It was fun! We went to the store because they needed to get snacks and I needed to get fruit. I ran out and I don't like PCC fruit, so I was kinda stuck in a rut with no fruit for a few days! Ended up eating canned pineapple most of the time....On Wednesday I went and hung out with my friend, Bri. We haven't hung out for the better part of a year because of our schooling and work schedules. They always seemed to clash when we wanted to hang out. It was fun! She lives within walking distance of my house, being in the same development and all so I didn't have far to go. We started out with sledding, then we sat in the snow and talked for about 20 minutes, but we were getting cold after that so we went to her house. We ended up playing The Adventures of Tin Tin on xbox. It is a FUN game! I haven't had much time to play games recently because of school. I start a game and will play for hours, so I tend to avoid games when I have something to do for school.
The rain has finally come after almost a week of snow. :) It has been fun and I am glad that we actually got some this winter as I was worried we weren't going to! That would have not been good! I should be blogging more as I have found my camera charger so I don't have to take pictures with my phone and email them to myself! That is just too much hassle!

Not very happy with having to wear a sweater!

First day of worthwhile snow (snow that covers the cement)

Not listening to me to come!

Shouldn't the person be in the sleigh and the dog pulling it? Naw this is Charlie style of dog sledding!

Christmas!

So this post is a few days late, but I've been busy playing with some new games I got for Christmas! My Christmas was great! It sure snuck up quickly though. I doesn't seem like it should almost be 2012!
Anyway, Christmas Eve we had my mom's sister and her family over. This included three of my cousins and uncle as well. We normally would have my mom's other sister over as well, but she decided to go to Spokane with her husband to spend Christmas with my grandparents. We had our traditional chicken noodle soup for dinner, all homemade (except the chicken which was bought from costco). The noodles are even homemade! In years past it was my Grandma that made the noodles, but for the past few years my grandparents haven't made it over for Christmas so the job fell to my uncle.
After everyone left we opened presents. We always open presents Christmas Eve. It has been this way for as long as I can remember! I got most everything I asked for! The games I mentioned early are the Sims 3 pets and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 for xbox. I also got part 2, but want to play in order. The next morning, Christmas, we opened our Santa Stockings. These are just small little gifts and candy. Later that day, my dad's side of the family came over. Again it was a small gathering. Normally we have his brother and wife, his sister and husband, his nephew and his wife and two children, and my nana, his mom. This year we only had the latter two. My uncle and his wife went to Arizona to have Christmas with his daughter and her family and my Aunt and her husband stayed home because they had to take my cousin and her family to the airport at the same time as dinner. For dinner we had some beef thing with gravy and potatoes. We always have that for Christmas dinner. I don't really like it to be honest...i'm not really a meat and potatoes kind of person, although I do enjoy a good steak every now and then (as long as it has no fat...because that grosses me out.) Unfortunately, I have no pictures from Christmas. I meant to look for my camera charger, but forgot and didn't really want to have to email photos from my phone to my computer, to much effort. :P I am already looking forward to next Christmas! I really hope that it snows next year though, I missed that these past few years, it just hasn't been cold enough (I like to say I am going to buy a winter home in Alaska instead of the typical Florida or Arizona because I like the cold that much!)

Well, I hope that everyone has a really happy New Year!!! Stay safe and don't drink too much!

Busy!!

It's been such a busy two days!!! Yesterday, Sunday, I spent 5 hours making and frosting cookies!!! For some really smart reason I decided to double the cookie recipe. Let me tell you, having to roll out dough, cut out shapes, and then later frost them! Hard work!!! I took a break right after the cookies all came out of the oven, about ten minutes probably, and then started on the frosting. I started the frosting at 3:30-3:35. My mom helped some, but not much. :P After 2 1/2 hours of frosting I took about a 15 minute break to eat dinner. After dinner it was right back to frosting where I eventually finished at 7:11!!! (that was the actual time I finished, I remember!)
At one point, between the after dinner frosting and finishing the Santa Fire Truck came through the neighborhood!! For those who are not familiar with the Santa Fire Truck, it is an old fire truck that goes around the neighborhoods of Redmond with Santa on the back. When they see you, Santa gets off the truck and gives you a candy cane!!! You can also donate to Hopelink, but as we already did shortly after Thanksgiving, we didn't again. One year, when the Santa Fire Truck came by I even got a stuffed animal!! It was a bear in purple pajamas with stars and moons on it that glowed in the dark!
I was glad when I finally finished the cookies! I already made a batch of Sugar cookies last week!

Today, I made some more cookies. I think I must be crazy because this isn't the end of the baking! Still going to make Spritz cookies, oreo balls, and fudge!! I made shortbread with Chocolate chips in the middle, as well as some popsika (a polish cinnamon sugar type mixture that goes in Kolaches, which are polish pastries!). These cookies only took about an 45 minutes (25 of which was the baking part!).

After completing the cookies I wrapped presents!!! I wrapped my presents to my brother and dad and then wrapped the presents to my dad that my mom got him. She doesn't have the time to wrap the presents because of work, so I wrap them for her every year.

What would a post be without any mention of dogs!!! Right now we have Bolt, Harry, and Teddy, in addition to Charlie! We have had all these dogs before and we like them all. Harry is a bit of a grump, I think he is actually bipolar because he is happy and wanting pets one minute and literally a second later will snap at you! Teddy is a terror! All he wants to do is play with the other dogs, but the other dogs won't play with him. He also has to wear a diaper because he can't resist lifting his leg. Bolt is a cutie. He is small and has an underbite. He loves to sit with me and be anywhere I might be. Charlie had been really good lately though is getting a bit tired of the other dogs.

I hope to have some more to blog about after Christmas!!! I just need to find my camera charger so that I can actually take pictures at Christmas time and not with my iPhone.

Santa Squirrel! 

I attempted to make a nativity scene, but it is hard to make wise men!

My attempt at Jesus in cookie form. :) (baby Jesus that is)

I had to cut out wings with the dough, they are a bit big. 

This is a Camel Ho. I made it, and another, to go along with the Penguin Pimps I made my brother and his friend. I don't have a picture of the Penguin pimps though! 

Squirrels!! I was low on the brown frosting to had to improvise for the one in the yellow and green. 

Santa Penguin!

Santa Camel!!

Joseph and Mary!

Penguin! I don't know quite how I got the black frosting....

Bolt!

Charlie attempting to be a Hipster. 

Harry, though he is hairier now!

I don't have a picture of Teddy, but will get one soon!

That Time of Year

Well, it's that time of year again! I'm not talking about the busy shopping time, or the time coming to spend with family, no I am talking about that time of year when we have dogs coming out of our ears! We have had a dog at our house since the 9th of November and we won't get a break from dogs until the 28th of November. After that we get until the 9th of December before another dog comes and then it isn't until next year that we get another break! Wow!

At this moment we have four dogs besides Charlie at our house. We have Bolt, Lucy, Lucy, and Georgie. Tomorrow we get Zenith the Schnauzer. It isn't really that bad having all these dogs though. This group is pretty mellow, which is really nice. One of the Lucy's is a 13 year old Miniature Poodle (black). She can't see well or hear well, so she basically ignores everything, but of course not by choice!! We do, however, have the barkers. Georgie the....I don't know what kind of dog she is, but she is fat, is the instegater. Once she starts to bark, the other Lucy, a Toy poodle...also black! and Bolt, a little white Maltese join in, along with Charlie of course!

Speaking of Charlie, he is handeling all these doggies really well. You can usually tell when he is ready for a break, but because these dogs just keep to themselves for the most part and don't bother him, he is ok. The other day, Saturday, Charlie went to Molbaks with us. They were having a take your picture with "Santa Paws" thing and I wanted to get one with Santa, Charlie, and I. It was hosted by the Humane Society or something, and with a small donation you got your picture taken. My gosh! There were a lot of people with their dogs there!!! The line to get your picture taken was a little bit too long and my family didn't really want to wait, so I decided that I would skip it. Besides, I have a picture with Charlie and Santa from a couple years ago.

I don't know about you, but I am sure looking forward to Thanksgiving! I love the holidays, especially at this time of year because of the colors, the weather, and the type of food that is served. I don't however, like Turkey....I can't wait to see my family and have jello, mashed potatoes, rolls, pie, etc! My family has three Thanksgiving dinners! We have the typical Turkey dinner on Thursday, then we have a ham dinner on Friday, which I LOVE because I LOVE ham! and then Saturday we have another dinner, which is usually chicken or something. It is really fun, but boy are you stuffed and fat afterwards! This coming Sunday is also my mom's birthday, so we will be doing something fun that day as well!

I hope that you all have a great Thanksgiving (If you celebrate it)!

This is big Lucy

Bolt. Don't you just love his teeth!

Charlie wearing my hat!

Georgie

Little Lucy