A Year of Blogging: July 9, 2011

July 9 is National Sugar Cookie Day. Sugar cookies are one of my specialties! Not to brag, but they are kind of famous among my circle of friends. Every year at Christmas, I make a lot of cookies. Probably around 100 dozen. I make all kinds: chocolate chip, maple drops, chocolate snow drops, and sometimes I experiment with other kinds. But the ones that create the biggest reaction are the sugar cookies. They are also the most fun to make. I don't remember making cut-out cookies with Mom. I know we must have at some point, because Mom had a few cookie cutters- the obligatory Christmas tree, snowman, hearts and Easter Bunnies. I also think we must have made them, because how else would I have started making them? When I was in college, I learned that baking was a good way for me to relieve stress. Of course, when you live in a dorm, it's hard to bake. So I went to my boyfriends' parents house and baked up a storm. I left some of the goodies for them and took some back to my friends. I started making sugar cookies when I was going through my divorce. I had a lot of trouble sleeping, so I'd bake up something at 3am. I bought cookie cutters and made cookies for each season. Since I lived alone, I took the bounty in to work and shared it with my coworkers. My cookie cutter collection has grown over the years. A few years ago I bought a 100 piece cookie cutter set. When I go to stores and find one I don't have, I add to my collection. My cookie cutters currently take up three drawers in my china cabinet! I have cookie cutters for every season and holiday: Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving. I have letters and numbers. I have trucks and dinosaurs (which will come in handy for Drew) and flowers and butterflies for Sydney. And of course, I have teddy bears and moose. The only drawback to making sugar cookies is I have a tiny kitchen. It is not an eat-in kitchen. We have very limited counter space- there's the counter between the stove and the sink, which sits over the dishwasher. Then there is the counter between the sink and the refrigerator, which holds the dish drainer, the toaster, the coffee pot, and the microwave. If I push the toaster and coffee pot back against the wall, I have just enough room for my kitchenaid mixer (which usually sits on the shelf in the china cabinet in the dining room). So this leaves me with 2 feet of counter space. Seriously! The counter over the dishwasher is just big enough to hold my wooden cutting board. I have an under the bed storage container which is too stuffed to have a lid. That lid happens to fit perfectly over my double sink, and becomes a temporary counter. Of course, it isn't very sturdy, so I have to be careful what I stack on it. But it usually holds my flour canister, the bowl of dough, and the cookie cutters. The cookie trays have to go on top of the stove, and the cookies that are cooling have to go on the dining room table. Making sugar cookies is the greatest stress relief for me. I put on my apron, get out the flour, and make a mess. It's hard not to make a mess when you are making sugar cookies- flouring the board and the dough and the rolling pin. You constantly apply more flour. Flour has a way of floating through the air. If you're going to make a mess, you might as well enjoy it! I never make sugar cookies after just cleaning the kitchen. But if the kitchen needs to be cleaned, it's a perfect time to make sugar cookies! During my marathon baking at Christmas, the sugar cookies are the last cookies to be made. Then the kitchen gets a good cleaning and all the baking supplies get put away. My sugar cookie recipe is a secret. Everybody is certain it must be a family recipe passed down for generations. The few people who know the truth didn't believe me when I told them, so I've stopped telling people and just say 'thank you'. Here's the secret: it's a mix! I put my own touch on the mix, actually, I make them wrong according to the mix. For cut out cookies you are supposed to use less butter. I didn't realize that until a couple of years ago, and by then I'd had such success with them, I kept right on going. Sometimes I add in a little vanilla extract or almond extract. So I guess they are semi-homemade! I like to decorate the various shapes with colored sugar or sprinkles. I really like to decorate them with different colored icings, so the cookies look like a little painting. I like them to look life-like. But my hands don't allow me to use the decorating bags or tubes very easily, so I've given up on that aspect. No one seems to mind; they just enjoy the tasty treats!