Ice, ice baby!

I am grateful for the Phone call I got early this morning because

obviously, icing cookies in my Dreams was getting me nowhere!

So after the call, I wandered downstairs to begin the day

and my Cookie icing project. I was excited to use my new

stand mixer too... Now that I've forgiven Martha for

featuring it on her show and Making me buy one!

The first step to Perfect royal icing is to sift the powdered

sugar. Unless you sift, no Royal icing can be perfect!

No one Sneeze!

I love my New mixer. Very much!

Powdered sugar, meringue powder, a tiny bit of water,

and 12 minutes later... Royal icing! Who knew?

Outlining my cookie Shapes now. And, may I just say... I was a registered Dental assistant

for Five years, and I've typed since I was in the Fourth grade - But it took only

twenty minutes of this for me to feel the Burn of carpel tunnel syndrome! 

I'm doing it... but Ow!

Could be that my icing was too Stiff because the second mix piped a lot

easier. It's a good thing too, because I was on my way to Never doing this again!

Obviously, Brandon's on my mind... I can hear him saying, Rangers Lead the Way, Mom!

He just sent a text Message to say they won't be getting the weekend off, like he

expected. Instead, Cadre has them cleaning weapons all day. I can't wait to see him Friday! 

Now that my Shapes are outlined it's time to thin the icing

to Flood with color. Not so hard... Just think syrup! 

It's nine o'clock on Saturday morning and

all I can think about is Fresh squeezed...

Orange juice!

Let's Flood!

I should have given my cookie Designs more thought. But I didn't think they

would turn out this well! I mean, I thought this was just going to be a test run...

Had I known I wasn't going to Burn all the cookies and that my icing would actually

work, I would have thought More about what I wanted these to look like in the end!

Looking back, I wish I had filled the center

of my Orange daisies with pink icing!

Still, this isn't so bad!

I did Dot the pink daisies with the orange

icing! Can you tell I'm winging this?

Pretty, not-so-horrible for a First time cookie decorator! Huh?

The woman no member of our Family wants to live

without is having a Birthday this Friday... So I think I'll send

along some of my Cookies in the package I'm putting together!

Oh, No! Does this mean I'm turning into one of those people... You know,

the ones that give Baked goods and crafts as gifts? Surely not!

I also experimented with (flood) icing the cookies first and adding the Border

later. And, I played around a little with dots and drawing Hearts too!

This wasn't difficult. Still, it is Easier to flood into a dry icing outline

I experimented with a #6 tip here... I don't recommend it. #6 is clearly

too wide. Makes the outline look messy, which is not the look I was going for!

All wrapped up and ready to go!

I hope you enjoy Monterey as much as I do...

Okay! My 2-day cookie decorating experiment is Over and I'm pretty

pleased with my results. And, so is my Taste-tester! He said these are the

best Sugar cookies he's ever tasted. And, I agree! Bridget's vanilla-almond

recipe makes a delicious, and oh-so-Tender cookie! The Dutch sugar cookie

recipe is good, but it's Nothing special. I love anything Almond flavored;

therefore, Bridget's cookies win - hands down and Every time! 

Taste-tester just asked me when I plan to put the Cookie business

away and get back to my Serious cooking because he doesn't want

cookies for dinner. I hope these NY strips from Costco are serious

enough for him because I'm going to Rub them down and

let them Marinate all day while we go out and play!