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For the last 3 years I’ve made “take-away” cookies for the party guests at Owen’s birthday parties.  This year was the “Planet” theme so I had seen rocket ships & astronauts on Pinterest. I loved the idea of using a gingerbread man cookie cutter and since I had one of those and not a rocket ship cutter, it was a no brainer.  I always use the sugar cookie recipe below from Sandra Lee. They are easy to make and are not super sweet. One tip . . . when I roll out the cookies I use a mixture of flour & powdered sugar on the counter – adds just a bit of sweet to them. Once I had all the bodies done I let them set up overnight (uncovered – they won’t get stale). Next I painted on the silver flake and then piped the lines – my icing was a tad bit runny.  I used a #4 tip to do the bodies and a #1 to pipe.

Cookies

17.5 oz. Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teas. vanilla
1 c. all-purpose flour
(variation: may add 1/4 c. cocoa & 3/4 c. flour)

Combine cookie mix w/cream cheese until crumbly. Mix in the eggs & vanilla until well combined. Add flour to make a firm dough. Refrigerate for 15 min.  Lightly flour/powder sugar board and roll out dough to 1/4 in. Bake cookies for 8 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Royal Icing

5 Tablespoons Meringue Powder (purchase at Joanne’s/Michaels/Hobby Lobby)

3 Cups Confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla – add after water

 

Mix meringue and sugar together. Start adding water a little bit at a time. Once the dry ingredients are wet, add the vanilla. The key is getting the icing to the right consistency (still don’t have it quite perfect). There’s a fine line between thin enough to pipe and too thick to pipe. I’m usually a tad bit thin.

Yes, Pinterest has struck again. Seriously I don’t know what I ever did before Pinterest!!  I thought these were so adorable and I had company for dinner last night so I thought I’d whip them up.  I just happened to have some orange “Wilton Candy Melts” (purchase at Michaels or Joanne’s) so I picked up some strawberries at the grocery store.  I like to use the stove-top for the melting process.  I use a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water.

Just add 1 cup of candy melts to glass bowl, bring pot to a boil then turn down to medium.  Once they get fairly melted, add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (1 TBLS of oil to every cup of candy melts).  This will keep the candy silky and shiny. When completed melted remove from heat.  I inserted a skewer into the green top, easier to hold.  Then you can dip & roll the strawberries or use a spoon and pour over them.  Let them cool on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.  Once cooled you can drizzle extra over the tops – pretty cute. There suppose to look like carrots – think I will do these again for Easter.

One cup of candy melts w/oil will cover about 12 strawberries.

I found this recipe this weekend (not on Pinterest) and just happened to have all the ingredients. I was thinking “ohhhhh tuna casserole, hmmm”.  Well I was pleasantly surprised. Adding the fresh lemon and capers to the Alfredo sauce was really good and changed the whole flavor of the Alfredo. This isn’t a great picture but I had some fresh mushrooms so I sautéed them and added them at the end. YUM!!!! Maybe next time I’ll add some broccoli or fresh asparagus.  Here’s the recipe & link – I actually halved this recipe.   http://alturl.com/eddxs

Ingredients