Ikat pumpkin cookies

I was looking for fabric to make some new curtains, when I had the idea of doing an ikat design on cookies in

HALLOWEEN COLORS!

I have to look at the design for a while to try and formulate a plan to make it work in icing.  

I am such a happy baker when it happens!

When I stopped to think about it, I realized that I have done a number of cookies that have been inspired by textiles.

Last week I did crochet lace on pumpkin cookies,

and a more traditional lace on hearts,

a number of argyle cookies,

and even toile.

I really enjoy looking at fabrics, but unfortunately, I don't like to sew.  

Good thing I know how to do it on a cookie!

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Some sweet pumpkin cookies

Today I am posting some sweet and pretty fall cookies, but

BEWARE!

There are some scary ones coming soon.  

MU HA HA!!!!!

The perfect fall weekend and cookie lessons

It was quite the weekend I had. 

My son Ted and his girlfriend Katherine came up from D.C. to enjoy a beautiful autumn weekend.  

On Saturday, we went hiking in the mountains, had a picnic lunch, went to two local wineries for tastings, purchased pumpkins, went to a corn maze (which I would still be wandering helpless and lost in if it wasn't for T and K), and made an autumn dinner of pork with an apple cider reduction, spinach gratin, pumpkin and rosemary risotto, and a pumpkin pie.  After dinner, we bundled up and had mulled wine by firelight in the garden

Yours truly was tired at the end of the day.

On Sunday, we made cookies.

Donning my pink apron, Ted and Katherine put my Halloween cutters to good use.

I took them through the entire process of making the icing, outlining, flooding, and adding the details. 

Look at the concentration on his face!

When Ted was a little boy, he and I used to love watching the old Charlie Chan movies from the 1930's, so I ordered one from Netflix to have on while we worked.  It was chilly and rainy outside, making it the perfect afternoon to be inside doing cookies.

I thought they did an amazing job (both are serious overachievers!).  

After cookies we made chicken and wild rice soup, an autumnal salad (arugula, pears, feta, and spiced walnuts with a dijon mustard and maple syrup vinegrette), and gluten free bread.  Dinner was enjoyed with a glass of wine from one of the local wineries.  

After dinner we decided to watch a scary movie to give the day a little punch of Halloween!

How cute are they?

BEAUTIFUL MEMORIES TO TREASURE FOREVER!

Sweater weather - argyle cookies

I just got back from a trip to Montana.  Gorgeous isn't it? 

This was my first trip out west and my first real glimpse of the Rocky Mountains.  It was quite a bit cooler there than in Pennsylvania, and really made me feel like fall was here in all it's glory.

Fall weather means sweaters, jackets, and warm socks, and that got me thinking about classic sweater patterns like argyle.

Yes, this is really how my brain works.  I haven't decided if it is a blessing or a curse. 

To make an argyle pattern, you begin by outlining your cookie.

Make a couple of diagonal lines like this.

Then diagonal lines back the other way.

Now begin to flood the cookies with thinned icing.  I used four different  patterns with three colors.

Fill in the rest of the colors.

After the flood icing has had time to set up, add a thin stripe on the diagonal to give it that distinctive argyle pattern.

And there you have it!  Argyle cookies in halloween colors that just scream  FALL IS HERE!

Good bye to rugged and spectacular Montana - you made me break out my sweaters!

Linking with

StoneGable

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No Minimalist Here

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Caramel Corn

I love caramel corn.  In my time living in the mid atlantic, I have noticed that caramel corn isn't nearly as prevalent here.  In the midwest, caramel corn/popcorn shops are everywhere.  As an Iowan, I have a special place in my heart for corn in any form, and this recipe is a real winner.  In fact, it is addictive.  I can only make it once or twice a year because I could (and would) eat the entire batch myself. 

Caramel corn

1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking soda
8 quarts popped corn

Combine sugars, butter, corn syrup, and salt in a saucepan.  Over medium heat, bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add vanilla and baking soda.  Pour over corn and mix well.  Bake in large baking pans (I use my roaster) at 250 degrees for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes.  Spread on waxed paper to cool. 

My cousin Kathy and her husband Mike put the caramel corn in paper grocery sacks and microwave on high for 45 seconds, shake well, and then another 45 seconds on high.  They made some for me this summer and it was fantastic AND you can avoid the whole washing  roaster ordeal.


The Cookie Mom-ster, Busy Izzie, and Cookie Brookie (me, Isabelle, and Brooke turn into superheros when power baking for the football team) also added some honey roasted peanuts and caramel flavored candy corn to the mix. 

These are headed for the football team as their treat of the week.  The jersey in the top picture belongs to none other than the offensive lineman of the week - Mr. Alec!   Go #75!

Sharing treat this week with
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Moon dance cookies

Don't you just love that song?  I do, and there is something so beautiful and magical about watching the moon rise in the sky.

A couple of years ago, my husband and I were at World's End state park in Sullivan country PA.  It was night time and we were at the highest outlook watching falling stars.  It is desolate there - no light from cities and you couldn't see beyond the headlights of the car on the way up.  Perfect silence and complete darkness and a high elevation made for a celestial show like like I had never seen before.   There was the occational crackle of fallen leaves as an animal moved through the woods as well as hooting from an owl.

Yesterday I was looking up song lyrics and poetry about the moon, and suffice to say there was plenty.  Clearly, the moon brings out creativity, romance, and imagination.

. 
18 year old Mary Shelley wrote the gothic novel Frankenstein during a "waking dream" in which she was inspired by the moon shining in her window in June of 1816.  Many discounted her moon inspiration (thinking it was made up as a way to sensationalize the story), but scientists have now calculated that the moon was indeed shining in her window that night. 

I tried a something new when making this cookie.  I used black disco dust applied with a paint brush to create the shadowing effect.  The flood icing was pretty dry when I did this, so it gave a very light and controled touch.  Loving it.

I highly recommend talks with the man in the moon because he is very good listener.

Ispiration.  Isn't it a great thing?

I have just discovered (by way of Lynn at Happier than a Pig in Mud blog) that photos can actually be edited online.  Yes, I am cringing that  everyone on the planet knew this and that I am a very slow learner in all things technology related.  I am ashamed.  Anyway, now that I have been turned loose on Picnik, I am having outrageous amounts of fun playing with photos.  Talk about inspiration - this has opened up a whole new world for me - the ability to not only improve my photos, but also to impart mood and atmosphere.

And I would NEVER use my newfound toy in an  immature way. 

Linking up with

Sweetology 101

Dittle Dattle

The Girl Creative

A Well Seasoned Life

The Tablescaper

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Sugar Bananas

No Minimalist Here

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Cast Party Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style

Nest of Posies Fall Festival

Barbara's fall leaf cookies

One dozen sweet leaves headed to sweet Barbara F!  BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, DAY so they will be headed off to the post office tomorrow morning. 

Big hugs to Barbara and all of my wonderful followers.

Link up are:
Chic on a Shoestring
Foodie Friday
Between Naps on the Porch
Nest of Posies Fall Festival
A Stroll Thru Life
Sweetology 101

Football cupcakes

This week's treat for the bluedevil  football team came in the form of cupcakes.  Because I am enamored with my new Wilton grass tips, I decided it was high time to make icing grass.  And what better to put on the grass than little footballs and fall leaves. 

I know I have seen little foil wrapped football shaped chocolates at Easter time, but I came up empty when trying to locate some this time of year.  And so began the quest for the candy that could be made into footballs.  After visiting a large number of stores, I began to have desperate thoughts like "you know, if I squished up some tootsie rolls and rolled them into a football shape, it could work - or maybe a caramel or maybe some fondant".  Trust me when I say if thoughts like these crop up, it is best to pour a glass of wine, sit down and wait for common sense to return.  I honestly think there should be some sort of self help group for bakers. 

I am happy to report, however, that I stumbled upon some chocolate covered almonds at The Cracker Barrel (yes, I even went to The Cracker Barrel in my wild eyed search for the faux edible football) that were pretty darn close to the desired shape.  AND they were in a bag with no foil wrappers to peel off.  I nearly wet my pants. 

I am also happy to report that my young baking associate Brooke has graciously agreed to team up with me in providing treats for the team.  So yesterday after school we piped the stitching on our chocolate almonds and grass on our cupcakes.  I honestly don't know how people who do large quantities of icing grass projects cope.  We were both having hand cramps about 1/4 of the way through.  I swear, I thought we were going to rupture blood vessels in our heads.  And don't talk to me about making the icing looser, because then the little blades of grass wouldn't be as perky.  We suffer for our art. 

So we hustled to the practice field this evening to wish the blue devils good luck! 

Do you have any idea how fast a football team can eat 63 cupcakes?

PRETTY DARN FAST.  This is Alec thinking "Oh no, my mom brought the camera..." 
And that's the side of Brooke's face. 

Good luck tomorrow night blue devils and THANK YOU BROOKE!!!

About three hours of work and a couple of minutes to be devoured.  Is it worth it?  Brooke and I think so :)

Link parties:
Between Naps on the Porch
Stonegable On the Menu Monday
Chic on a Shoestring
My Romantic Home
Foodie Friday

Fall baking

Lots and lots of  baking in the last several days.  Mercifully, my bedroom carpeting is becoming dryish and the outside temperatures have gotten warm enough for me to justify turning on the air conditioning, so getting icing to set is MUCH easier. 

Here are a couple of pictures of the cookies requiring a blow dryer late last week.  First are cookies for Alec's football team. 

Believe it or not, the rain stopped shortly before the start of the game and it wasn't cancelled.  And I got the 60 plus cookies dried just in time.  And the blue devils won.  Whew. 

These next slow to dry apron cookies were for my son Ted's girlfriend Katherine's birthday.  Adorable Katherine is an apron lover,  so it was cut, bake, decorate, and blow dry - apron cookies sent off to Oberlin.

Has anyone else noticed a surge in apron popularity?  Katherine would have fit right in with the 50's or even 30's with her fashion sense - like I said she is ADORABLE. 

On to the fall baking with the AC on and no blow drying involved!  Project number one was owl cookies with stained glass tummies.

LOVE doing stained glass cookies and I highly recommend it for baking with children.  All you do is make a cut out in the center of the cookie before baking, smash up some hard candy and put it in the cut out area and bake as normal. 

Just remember to use parchment paper on the baking sheets.  Once the cookies cool you just peel them off the parchment - no muss no fuss.  To get the color I wanted, I used root beer barrels and lemon lollypops.  Oddly enough, it tasted good together.

 I am addicted to the food network program called Chopped - as I was preparing the unlikely bedfellows of lemon and rootbeer I kept imagining Ted saying "chefs, in your baskets you have rootbeer barrels, duck liver, lemon lollypops,  and Swiss cheese.  You have 20 minutes on the clock".

 I didn't have fat owl cookie cutter, so I used an apple cutter turned upside down and it was the perfect shape. 

Next, I made leaf cookies.  I wanted a simple color combo, so I used wilton copper and detailed the cookies in black.

I also used just the tiniest amount of copper disco dust on them.  For the record, I am in love with this dust.  It is GORGEOUS.  I also think a little bit of sparkle goes a long way on a cookie.  Just a touch is magical.

So pretty added onto team owl.

Time for cupcakes to take to Tony's mom's house for dinner.  I wanted to follow the same color scheme as the cookies, so I made chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting in three shades - light copper, a more vibrant copper/orange, and a deep rust.

I used a wilton grass tip (like I made my starry night cake with) to make a mum and a petal tip to make the others.   I really like the three colors together.

And if you liked the leaf cookies, I am making one dozen of these in your color choice for my give away which ends tomorrow.  Leave me a comment that you are following, and the cookies, kitchen towel, vintage looking cupcake liners, and orange sprinkles are yours.  And because only six people have entered, your chances of winning ARE REALLY GOOD.
Contest closed and congrats to Barbara F!

Linking up with
Chic on a Shoestring
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Miz Helen's full plate Thursday
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