Sunshine and Flip Flops

These cookies were so fun to make and just make me smile! I've made this design of suns before but think they are so cute and cheerful!

And nothing better says summer to me than a pair of flip flops!

Happy Baking

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! To some great Dad's at our house - my Dad and my husband!

What Is A Dad?

A dad is someone who
wants to catch you before you fall
but instead picks you up,
brushes you off,
and lets you try again.

A dad is someone who
wants to keep you from making mistakes
but instead lets you find your own way,
even though his heart breaks in silence
when you get hurt.

A dad is someone who
holds you when you cry,
scolds you when you break the rules,
shines with pride when you succeed,
and has faith in you even when you fail...

In honor of those great Dad's I made some good sugar cookies....

Some Dress shirts....



Father's Day ties

And what does Dad do best? Grill and make burgers! I thought these were perfect Dad's cookies!


Hope you all have a good Father's Day.
Happy Baking

Father's Day Baking

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Hope you had a wonderful Father's Day! We celebrated yesterday with my Dad and my husband. My husband had to work at the fire station today! Here are some of the things I baked! It was nice and warm outside so we got to sit on the deck and enjoy the weather, grilled chicken, steak and vegetables too!

What starts the day out better than fresh cooked Feather Light Breakfast Puffs for Dad?
Pat came home from work to find flowers, a card and some "puffs". I've made these before and they are super easy and yummy to make!


My Dad is a Lemon fan so I had to have these for him. I made Martha Stewart Creamy Lemon Squares was from this recipe. He was quite pleased with them - and they were very lemony and soft!

Pat's request was a French Silk Pie . This is also very easy to make and I've made it before. I went with some old stand by's this weekend !! This recipe is also very rich and chocolatey!




Here's Happy Father's Day to some wonderful Dads! My Dad and my husband. Both are reasons to celebrate every day. I"m lucky to have them both and wouldn't trade them in for the world!Happy Baking!

Cookies for Fun

I got the chance to try some cookies just for fun and be able to give them away....I think I pulled out all the cookie cutters I had just to see what I wanted to make!!! It's not often that I get a chance to decide with the orders that I do. So I pulled out quite a few the last week and just made a summer assortment.

A very neat idea I saw on Picket Fence Confections website here. With my new baking tips, putting the details on the very small lady bugs was a bit easier. But I do have to tell you, I wish I had a steadier hand! The little lady bug is a smaller cookie "glued" on with icing.
Just like a little kid, when I got this new cookie cutter I was anxious to try it out!!! Looks good enough to drink!

Sugarbelle inspired me one again with the flip flops. I have a larger flip flop but to make this smaller one I used a butterfly cookie cutter. Quite creative, right?
The future's so bright, gotta wear shades!
Nothing says summer like a slice of watermelon.
Another Sugarbelle idea - for a palm tree - take a cross cookie cutter and cut off the top portion and you have a smaller palm tree.
My fun Bouquet Cookies were another brilliant idea. Sugarbelle took a tree cookie cutter and turned them into a gorgeous bouquet. I used a few different techniques that Sugarbelle described on her website which was fun to practice.

Here's the whole assortment!Happy Baking!

Summer Fun

Here is what I've been working for a bit!
Some fun cookies for a ladies event. 7 dozen cookies!!!


Remember the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a child? Well, I had this funky cookie cutter that I didn't really know what to do with until my friend Amalia inspired me and used it as a caterpillar. And then I went to Grin and Bake It website and saw these cute little ones.
I thought they were fun and had great colors and would go good with this order!



Pretty Dragon flies.



Inspired a bit by the Painted Cookie. But when I make cookies I always feel like I need more to "doctor" them up so I added a few more embellishments!


Here come the ladybugs!

When making my ladybugs I found this cool design on The Cookie Jar's Website and had to try them. I thought they were fun little ladybugs running around that would be a different design and compliment them nicely. With all the details it took quite a bit more time than I thought!

Here are the 2 ladybug cookies together....
Here are some pretty pink flowers with disco dust centers.

Tried out my potted flowers again this week - made from the upside down Frosty cookie cutter. And this time I think my lady bugs on the side turned out much better. I made them differently than before -thus perfecting them a bit more! This idea came from The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle.

Hope the ladies enjoy the cookies!!!

Summer Fun is here

It's time to be in the summer mode! And seeing these beach balls and starfish on The Baking Sheet blog here I knew they were perfect for the summer order that I had!


Summer is here in KC and we are so glad after a long, cold winter!!!!
Happy Baking

Dinner

We haven't been entertaining as much lately....guess that has taken a back seat to other things. But this weekend we had our wonderful friends over for dinner. It was a great night outside - warm like summer for Kansas. We were able to sit outside on the deck and enjoy their company. Here are a few picture of the Valdez family that came over.



Doesn't our hair look nice?
Trevor had a blast playing with their daughter, Sofia, too!


I wanted to share a few good recipes that I made for dinner. They were actually all very yummy. For the main dish we had Tomato Basil and Romano Ricotta Spaghetti Pies with the recipe I found on the website by Picky Palate. This was wonderful. I had to do the last minute assembling and cooking just before but it was worth it. This bake was cooked in a spring form pan. I used the big one instead of the little individual ones - which I think would be very cute to do. I just didn't have little ones for everyone! This is made with a french dough crust, pasta, ricotta and mozzarella cheese with a sauce and meat. (I used turkey instead of hamburger). It was really tasty but I wish the french dough crust had been a little more done - following the directions on the recipe it didn't cook quite as well as I would have liked.



These little Gougeres from Martha Stewart are yummy. I love watching Martha Stewart's baking show. She makes everything look so darn EASY. So I have been wanting to make these little rolls for a long time and just needed an excuse to do so. I decided to use these as little rolls instead of appetizers like Martha does. The Gougere is French and a pastry made of water, cheese, flour, salt, egg, nutmeg, chives, dill and paprika. I didn't even attempt to put the dough in a pastry bag and make them all neat and tidy like Martha did. I figured that would be a disaster. Despite them not looking that great, they were a very tasty cheese roll. Even my husband Pat liked them - and he is pretty picky!I only made half a recipe since the entire thing would have made 5 dozen!
And here comes the dessert - Chocolate Chip Cookie Cup Treats from Picky Palate. Yum Yum. These were little cookies made in the miniature tins. I used a basic cookie dough recipe for that. I was worried about how the cookie would cook in a little muffin tin but they did just fine. A soft little muffin/cookie. Then the topping of rice crispy treats and marshmallows mixed together with a little caramel drizzle. (I didn't use chocolate drizzle like the recipe called for.) Add a little ice cream on the side and you had the perfect amount of dessert!

No more company for awhile, so it's back to doing just dessert baking!!!
Have a great weekend.
Happy Baking.