Cookie decorating with the neighbours

We are unashamedly obsessed with hanging out with our next door neighbours. In January last year the Hayes family moved in next door and after getting to know them really well, really quickly, it's been more or less a non stop riot ever since. If I am missing, the kids assume I am next door and are more often than not right... Joseph is always next door with Gracie, Maddie and Charlee hang out all the time - and little Kinsley and Alex love each other too. Could not have possibly worked out better if we had ordered them from a catalogue. When Luke and Karalee listed their house I was so worried, because we got along so well, but it has worked out like a dream. We are constantly passing things back and forth, lending things, passing on clothes, sharing cooking - and laughing all the time.

On Monday, it was Valentine's Day and the older girls came over to decorate cookies with Madeline. I have no idea what happened to the photos of the decorated cookies, but this one photo is all I have. Day after day these kids can be found hanging out together and there is nothing that brings them more joy.

valentine's day cookies with the madi's

doug and i never really celebrate valentine's day, but i think it's something fun for kids, you know "the day of love" and all that. so when we had to stop by madeline's friend madison's house to collect some ballet shoes, i decided to be nice to the girls and make some cookies for them to decorate. we took over pink icing and some things to top them with and the girls got to work. they were having so much fun, all i could hear was giggling and lots of talking as i chatted to madison's mum on the other side of the bench. really the cookies were just a distraction so i could have some adult conversation...shhh. haha

i used my favourite cookie recipe from here (i love it cause it's no chill and can be used straight away) and let madeline cut them all out

baked at home...

then threw them in a box to take over.

for the icing, we just used the free icing mix that comes with store bought cupcake mix with pink food colouring added - and whatever we could find in both my cupboard and theirs.

they got pretty inventive though, i was impressed.

and little brother was even allowed to taste test!

i had the best afternoon with these little valentines. ❤

holy ghost cookies

i am a weirdo. i like to pull off little unexpected fun things for a laugh. today was no exception. it was halloween yesterday and i decided i was going to make some cookies and decorate them for the girls i minister to and some other close mates.

here's the quirk - i decided to make them religious halloween style hahahaha.

i came across this little picture on the internet and decided holy ghost cookies were a go - and used the recipe i've been using as a go to for years, going all the way back to the pineapple cookies i did for madeline's fifth birthday!

best sugar cookies from in katrina's kitchen

Ingredients:

226 grams unsalted butter

1 cup granulated white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups plain flour 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius (fan forced).

In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until smooth, at least 3 minutes

Beat in extracts and egg. Almond extract can be switched out for more vanilla, lemon, maple, peppermint…

In a separate bowl, combine baking powder and salt with flour and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients.

If the dough looks crumbly keep mixing for 30 seconds to 1 minute longer. The dough should be pulling away from the sides of the mixer.

Dough does not need to be chilled. Divide into workable batches (2-3 chunks), roll out onto a floured surface, and cut. You want these cookies to be on the thicker side (closer to 1/4 inch rather than 1/8).

Bake at 160 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.

so easy and even easier to decorate - i simply spread them with melted white chocolate and then stuck little candy eyes on while it was still soft.

into bags and out to friends. so easy and so. much. fun! i can live up to my weirdo status for yet another year hahaha.

holiday cookie decorating

my favourite little mates did some hard core cookie decorating as part of their holiday hang out. hannah and hayley unfortunately couldn't make it to madeline's birthday party on the weekend, so we organised a little holiday catch up with cookie decorating. i don't know who was more excited, the kids or us mums. probably us. haha.

i baked up some cookies this morning and then julia turned up with some too so we had plenty to decorate and oh did we have a good time.

jen left the last of the icing bags she had used to make the cookies and cake for madeline's birthday behind and we sure put them to good use.

they giggled, they talked non stop and they made one heck of a mess

but ended up with some pretty amazing creations.

us mums were allowed to participate when they realised how many cookies they actually had and these are mine on the left haha.

this was the aftermath. it took quite some time to clean all the icing off of the bench.

highly recommend cookie decorating for a holiday activity. we had a ball and have enough cookies to last for weeks!

easter cookie decorating

kids had the best time yesterday decorating easter cookies with the easter decorating kit we bought from my friend jens home baking business - baked on benrua.

the bag came complete with 4 different colours of icing, 2 containers of sprinkles and 12 easter egg cookies and it was perfect to split between the two older nuggets that live here

joseph had the time of his life filling and colouring the cookies to his hearts desire

while madeline was a bit more deliberate and drew pictures and shapes on hers.

i am totally filing this idea away for future reference, it kept them busy for well over an hour

some serious happiness right here!

maddie on her last cookie swirling and twirling away

the best part was, the icing was royal icing, so after leaving the cookies overnight, the icing set rock hard and they could enjoy them without killing their handiwork

so proud of their handiwork

❤

thank you cookies

if you didn't already know (and seriously, if you've ever checked out my blog and haven't noticed then you must be living under a rock...) my best friend is extremely clever with pretty much everything she does. i've not had to bake a birthday cake yet for either of my kids (and just for the record, it's not because i am incapable, it's because she is much more capable than me and offers to do them!) and after specialising in cupcakes for a while, she's now making custom cookies... which are amazing! totally shameless plug, she's baked on benrua on facebook and instagram, go check her out!

i really wanted to send something to the amazing midwives and doctors that looked after us at the hospital so i made an order through her for some cookies. aren't they gorgeous?! we dropped them at the hospital this morning along with some thank you cards, my first unaccompanied expedition with joseph and baby while madeline was at school and i survived! go me! hopefully they are appreciated, cause i already know they are going to be delicious!

jen macqueen, you've done it again. ♥

**just for the record, i may have survived, but it wasn't without a call to doug and massive hysteria and almost crying... i very carefully put the parking ticket in my pocket, paid for my parking on the way out and somehow lost my ticket between the machine and the car. i spent the next 5 minutes looking for it to no avail, and in the end had to call the hospital and ask what to do! a call to the hospital security via the help! button on the carpark exit, with a very teary voice saw me out of there within seconds as they opened the boom gate remotely for me. oh my word. so much drama.**

**and a little but more, a week passed and we finally found the ticket, under my seat, it must have flown off when i shut the door on the other side to go around. ugh. what a first outing that was. thankfully i am still alive...**

ready, steady, cook: welfare edition (a relief society additional meeting)

this evenings handout, complete with a cookie... please scroll to the bottom to have a look!

tonight we had another relief society additional meeting, with a focus on welfare. the girls did an amazing job and we had a great time as always.

someone had been lined up to sing a song on the evening to open but wound up sick and i was handballed it last minute... oh my word. it honestly is one of the hardest ones i've had to learn short notice and i am still amazed i managed to pull it off. thank heavens for the lovely emily who played it for me and helped me stumble through learning it at such short notice. you're a gem! it is pretty... you can listen to the original (not me thank goodness) here

our opening presentation was about spiritual welfare, discussing what we can do to keep our lanterns full and be prepared for times of sadness and hardship. it was really lovely, especially having the room darkened and being given a candle each to light as we talked about it.

our second topic was about the benefits of honey... it is good for soooo many things and stores indefinitely! fun fact: they have found honey in the ancient pyramids that is 5000+ years old and it's still just as good as it was when it was packed... never loses any nutritional value or takes on bacteria. it's such an amazing god given gift!

lastly we had a presentation about the importance of emergency preparedness... having a plan in place, what we need on hand and a 72 hour emergency kit in case we ever need to leave in a hurry.

then the fun began! elena and her activities team had planned a competition to follow... ready steady cook, with things you'd typically find on hand in your pantry or food storage, plus some extra things to make it more interesting.

it was kind of a cross with masterchef with a judge ready to pick a winner at the end... and the teams being given just 20 minutes to put something on our plates. 

i was paired with my mother in law and one of our sister missionaries... to make an entree

quick peek in the box found enough ingredients to make crepes, both savoury and sweet (once i'd swiped some chocolate from the other teams pantry - totally fair considering they'd stolen our frypan and we had to find another one and plug it in haha). 

i used the pancake mix according to directions then added onion, zucchini and tomato, which the other gals sliced and siced while it was cooking, then whacked in some pizza sauce before rolling it up. sweet ones were cooked normally, strawberries and cream and chocolate added once on the plate, which melted perfectly seeing as they were still warm when we served them up. yes i know, they don't look very appetising, but you gotta make do with the time you have! 

our entrees were marked as a draw with the opposing team... but our team won the competition overall for the evening... yay! i also was super chuffed as i won a prize for having the best presented dish (not my crepes obviously) just by making jelly slice and putting it on a two tier plate. if only presenting everything in life was that easy!

an action shot of our crew, filling our sweet crepe with chocolate before serving.

now... the highlight of the evening... my beautiful friend jennifer asked me if she could make cookies for any of our church activities as she's just recently started doing decorated cookies and needed to practice. i suggested these hive ones and she delivered them yesterday much to my absolute amazement... i can't even imagine how much time and effort went into them! i am gobsmacked. 100 points to baked on benrua, her little side venture. aren't they amazing?!

choc chip cookies!

earlier this week i had a must bake chocolate chip cookies day, i needed them after the morning i had... which i'll explain in a minute!

i have hunted for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe for quite some time, i have tried a few and just not been into them, but somehow stumbled across this one (here) from rebecca judds website. gave them a try and they were amazing! so so so yum that i probably could have eaten the whole lot myself... thankfully i have a husband and two kids. seriously try them, you won't regret it! (and yes, you definitely should double the choc chips, or at least add another half a cup! :)

so... this was the reason i needed chocolate. madeline and i were chilling in bed that morning and i hear a noise that sounds like pen on paper. maddie looks behind and squeals, "mama! joseph is drawing on the bed!!" and so he was. i yelled, he threw the pen at top speed, then plonked himself on his little bottom and started crying over and over "sowweeeee mama! sowweeeee!!" oh my gosh. it was so funny, i couldn't help cracking up at him and even more so when i managed to get a snap and he was making this face... priceless! seriously. cutest little man there ever was!

pineapple cookies

i have avoided ever making decorated sugar cookies because i thought they would be way too hard. but when i found a pineapple cookie cutter a few months ago i decided it must have been a sign that it was time to give it a try. so i did. i read recipe after recipe on pinterest until i found one that looked easy enough here and got to work.

it was pretty easy and i quickly got this ball of dough ready to roll

then got out my little pineapple cutter out and got 30 of them cut and on the trays. tip: lift the edges with a butter knife before you try and pick them up

i baked for 10 minutes instead of 6-8 and they came out great. nice and solid, ready to ice once they had cooled. 

i used this icing recipe (but added 5 tsps of milk instead of 4) to make it runny enough to pipe. i made two lots, added yellow to one, green to the other and started to decorate my day away... a circle on the bottom of each pineapple to outline, then a dollop spread and smoothed out with one of the kids teeny knives! haha. rinse and repeat for the crowns with green, 2 hours of icing cookies later... leave to set for hours (preferably overnight) and voila! i have officially made my first set of iced cookies and will not be taking orders, ever. if you're feeling brave, give it a try :)