Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Little cherry pies

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I love to make pies.  When I thought about it, I was stunned that I hadn't done any pie baking on this blog.  Cookie decorating is something I started a couple of months ago, and I guess I have been a little fixated on that.  In case you have never tried it, let me just say that decorating cookies is quite a bit easier said than done.  But pie making is something that anyone of any skill level can do. 




Next to my grandmother, The Barefoot Contessa is my pie mentor.  Ina uses the word "rustic" to describe the look of a pie that is imperfect, bubbled over, and easily distinguished as homemade.  And THAT is a large part of the charm.  They aren't something thrown together in a matter of minutes - they are crafted with time and love (so a little imperfection is OK).  Whenever someone needs a little boost of caring, I make them a pie. 




Ina makes rustic charm legit, and I for one, appreciate it!

Now lets get to the pie baking itself.  The first order of business with a cherry pie is pitting the fresh cherries. I realize that this is a colossal pain in the neck, but worth it.  There is no comparing a pie made with fresh cherries and one made with the goo in a can.  My fingers will be stained for at least one more day.

Add some flour and sugar and a little almond extract to the cherries.  If the cherries are sour, add more sugar.  Really juicy, add more flour - I don't measure.  Now for the pastry.  The following is my family recipe

2 cups flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup shortening
7 tbsp cold water

Pulse together in a food processor till it comes together in a ball.  Form into a flat disk, cover with cling wrap and chill.  The key here is ice cold water and cold shortening.  I put ice cubes in my water and let them melt.  Another thing I do is to roll out the dough on a well floured wooden board.                                                                                                                   
Pie making is one of my earliest memories.  My grandmother (pie baker extraordinaire) always saved me the hunk of leftover dough so I could practice rolling the pastry out.   She would then have me put my little rolled out dough on a pie plate, prick the bottom with a fork, and sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon.  Perfect with a cup of afternoon tea. 

I still use her rolling pin, and I still make my little cinnamon and sugar pie with the left over dough.  She is still with me in the kitchen for every pie I bake.

For these tiny pies, I cut out circles to fit in a muffin tin.  I spray the muffin  tins with non-stick spray so they will easily come out in one piece.  Just spoon in the cherry filling and top with another circle of dough or making the lattice pieces.  Don't do the lattice unless you have some extra time on your hands  :)

Because the 4th of July is upon us, I stuck flags and stars into the finished product.




Two warm cherry pies + two scoops of vanilla ice cream =




                                                         Two very happy girls!


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Monday, June 27, 2011

Retirement cookies



I made some retirement cookies yesterday for a friend to give to some of her coworkers.  She gave me complete carte blanche in regard to the design.  Thats great - except when I have no ideas.    I went to bed for two nights with retirement on the brain.  Clearly, I needed to



The problem was, I don't relax and unwind easily.  And my personal happy place to relax is in the mountains with trees all around.  I am hiking and breathing in the crisp mountain air.  Throw in a little stream and a thermos of hot apple cider as well.   

I realize for most people, relaxation happens at the ocean, and so that seemed the most likely cookie theme for me.  Unfortunately, I don't love going to the shore.  Sand in my swimsuit, sand in my hair, and sand in the car.  Its crowded and I am sweating.  Too many years spent playing the part of lifeguard making sure my kids weren't carried away by a rip current or eaten by a shark. 

Nevertheless, most people find the beach to be synonymous with relaxation, so I forged on with a beachy theme.  I thought a hammock would work, and I love the way a black outline looks on a vibrant sunset background.  My Lion King giraffe cookies were similar and I really liked that look. 




These are actually beginning to make me relax.  Look closely - NO SAND.




The beach is deserted, its not too hot, the sunset is magnificent, and I have my thermos of apple cider.  Ahhhhh.




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Saturday, June 25, 2011

Hydrangea confections




This day of sweets is about summer flowers, an over the top combination of flavors, and an upcoming wedding.  My son Drew and his fiance Genevieve are here for the weekend, and we are not only discussing the big event, but also doing some wedding dress shopping. 


That sound you just heard is me cackling gleefully. 


Anyway, I am not the first person to make a hydrangea cake by any means.  I think the first time I saw it was Amanda's gorgeous take on it at I Am Baker.  I am not worthy enough to clean this woman's icing tips. 





Now that I have freely admitted to not being in the big leagues of cake decorating, lets talk about flavor.  This cake is a rich chocolate with a kahlua mousse filling, and slathered with Swiss meringue buttercream. 











Heavenly (or is it sinful?).  However you want to look at it - this is one delicious cake.  The baking and filling of the cake is quite simple.  I used a chocolate box cake mix and added instant coffee to the water along with a box of chocolate pudding mix.  For the filling I whipped heavy cream with powdered sugar and flavored it with kahlua.  I used Martha Stewart's recipe for Swiss meringue buttercream.  You can find the recipe here.  To get the two toned look of the petals, I just loaded the piping bag with two colors of the buttercream.  One bag had blue and lavender, and the other bag had pink and lavender.  To finish it off, I added soft green dragees for the centers.






I had a few spare cookies, so these got the same treatment.






I just wish my hydrangeas in the garden were blooming.  They will soon enough, so for now I settle for roses, coneflowers, daisies, daylilies, asiatic lilies, wandflowers, wall flowers, yarrow, lamb's ear, salvia, butterfly bush, foxglove, and more.






I had intended to have our little party outside in the garden, but traffic delayed Drew and Genevieve's arrival so we ended up in the dining room. 






Its going to be a fun year of wedding talk and planning for these two.  The cake and cookies are sweet, but I think these two are sweeter.











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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Umbrella drink cookies



These cookies were the culmination of three things:  I found these cute little paper umbrellas at The Dollar Tree, the desire to make another cookie on a stick, and being hot and thirsty.  And these aren't regular old cookies, but I'll fill you in on that in a minute.

These are easy to make, so lets get started.  I didn't have an appropriate cutter so I pieced it together using three different cutters.



The top was made from the lid of a mushroom cutter turned upside down.  The middle was the cone part of an ice cream cone cutter.  The bottom was the stem of a wine glass cutter.  If you have a margarita glass cutter, by all means use it. 




See what I mean?  I then smooshed the shapes together.  Please don't be intimidated by my using technical baking terms like smooshed. 

I  placed lollypop sticks on the cookies, and presssed more dough on top for added stability.  They look kind of Frankenstein-ish at this point, but don't worry because they will be iced on the other side. 




I also added a small half circle to some of them to become lime garnishes.  Keep a close eye on baking them because you will want to add a minute or so to be sure they are done enough to not fall apart or lose the stick.                                                                                                                                                         

Right out of the oven, add the paper umbrellas while the cookies are still soft.  



Once they have cooled completely, they can pick flipped over and decorated.  I chose to do strawberry dacquiris, pina coladas, and mojitos so the flood icings were pinkish red, cream, and white. 




But thats not all folks.  Here is the best part.  THEY TASTE LIKE THE DRINKS.  For the strawberry daquiri, I used strawberry, rum, and lime extracts in the flood icing.




I also added some sanding sugar to the rim :) 

The pina colada flood was flavored with an extract by the same name.  You could also use pineapple, coconut, and rum extracts. 




The mojito was made with rum, peppermint, and lime extracts. 




I have never had a real life mojito, but I just might after tasting this - it was incredible.  These are quite possibly the best tasting cookies I have ever made. 

Think of how fun these would be at a party.  I can totally see myself saying "Lets all raise a cookie and toast the happy couple".  How about at a celebration that is non-alcohol?  Or as an option for non-drinking people that you want to have something special for?  As a centerpiece stuck into floral foam?  Yes, yes, and yes!

And you never have to worry about guests eating a couple of cookies and driving.  You could eat a dozen of these and not get drunk....just a little chubby.




Cheers!


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Monday, June 20, 2011

First time giveaway

Hi Friends!

I am giving away a dozen decorated sugar cookies at Bacon with the Hungry Hypo!  Jump on over to Mindie's blog and get all the fun details. 



They will be customized just for you, so get going people! 

P.S. They taste great!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Toile cookies



I love the color pink.  I love toile.  I really love PINK TOILE. The peaceful pastoral scenes filled with charming people, animals, and graceful trees, has me at hello.  Every time I am at Sweetology 101 blog I swoon over the background.   It may have been a crazy idea to attempt toile design cookies, but then I never claimed to be sane.

As you might imagine, its a little tricky.  A cookie is a bit unforgiving if you get a nose wrong or eyes out of alignment.  One slip of the tip can make a lovely lady look like Adolf Hitler - I speak from experience.  As I have mentioned before, I do not have a Kopy Kake.  My house is very small.  If I had one it would have to do double duty as an end table or night stand.

 I'm sort of happy with how they turned out.  The lady in top cookie looks a bit like Elly Patterson from the cartoon strip For Better or For Worse.  This was not on purpose. 





See what I mean?  After the pinks, I decided to use up some left over blue and brown.  Another color combo I love in toile.  This time I used a larger tip. 




Hmmmm.  Next attempt I will go back to the smaller tip, and I think adding some sort of border would be nice.   What are your favorite colors in toile?  Maybe I will try it out!

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Friday, June 17, 2011

Wedding cookies



Is in the air.  I have been working on ideas for wedding cookies this week.  My son Drew and his beautiful fiance Genevieve are getting married next May, and I am so happy for them.  First and foremost, we are welcoming Genevieve into our family.  She is everything I could wish for in a wife for my son - intelligent, thoughtful, and loving.  Isabelle and I are thrilled to have another member for the girl team.

 And now for a guilty confession - Izzie and I are wedding show junkies.  Say Yes to the Dress, My Fair Wedding, Amazing Wedding Cakes, and (I can't believe I'm going to say this) occasionally Bridezillas.  We laugh and eat popcorn.  Don't judge. 

Of course, we can't wait to see what Genevieve picks for a wedding dress.  Will it be a one shoulder mermaid?




A classic ballgown?




Would she go for a ruffly skirt?




Or something couture?




And if this wedding excitement isn't enough, I am making cookies for my friend Nancy.  Her son is getting married next weekend and we are doing cookies for the rehersal dinner.  Little wedding cakes would be cute.




This next idea has been done a million times, but it is fun.  The bride and groom cookies, using a gift package cookie cutter for the groom and a heart cutter for the bride.




I also like the idea of monograms.  Michael and Lindsay's wedding colors are tangerine and purple so I did some with those colors.




Then I tried it adding white as a third color.




I know what are my favorites are.  Which would you choose?

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Friday, June 10, 2011

Chintz petit fours



I was in one of those girly moods today.  I started thinking about when I used to have a tea party almost every day with my daughter Isabelle when she was a little girl.  She had a miniature silver tea pot and a collection of espresso cups that were the perfect size for tea (actually, apple juice).  It is a very precious memory for me, and I hope she will look back on it fondly when she is an adult.  My favorite little cup had a chintz pattern on it - I am insane for chintz.  I am also insane for roses.  I grow them, buy them in the winter time, and even gave my daughter the middle name Rose.
                                                                                                                         

So I made some delicate vanilla petit fours and drizzled them with two coats of powdered sugar glaze.




And if that wasn't good enough, I covered the tops in tiny yellow and pink roses made with Swiss meringue buttercream.  The only thing better than one is, of course, three.




Excuse me now, its time for afternoon tea. 




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Can you guess where I'm going cookies

Isabelle and I have something really fun going on this weekend.



No, we aren't going to the zoo.  Not a safari either. 




We are heading for a city.  Can you guess which one?




New York City!  I'm afraid we aren't going up in Miss Libertie's head.  I put small crowded places at high elevations on my phobia list along with snakes and gaping wounds.  We will just have to wave to her.  Here is our destination.




Do you know what we are going to see?  One more hint.




You know now, don't you?




We are so excited!  Look out New York - Pennsylvania chicks are headed your way.





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