Cookin’ Cookies

Today I had one of those, wow-I-can’t-be-this-old moments. I was decorating Christmas cookies with my boys.  I remember being the kid with the bowls of colored frosting and sprinkles that my mom gave me.  Only now I’m the mom and my kids are decorating cookies. My, how time flies.  It hardly seems possible that I am carrying on the tradition of making cutout cookies and decorating them with my own children. But, I am and it’s so much fun.
First of all, the most important thing for good cookies is a good recipe.  Many people, when they eat my sugar cookies at my Open House rave over them.  For some reason this recipe, from my mom, never gets crunchy or nasty.  They are always sweet and soft. I think part of the yumminess is the hint of lemon flavoring in them. Here’s our recipe for Sugar Cookies which we always double:
1/2 C. softened butter
1/4 C. shortening
1 C. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. lemon extract (you can substitute 1 tsp. vanilla if you hate lemon, but it’s the lemon that makes these cookies special)
2 1/2 C. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Mix thoroughly butter, shortening, sugar, eggs and flavoring. Blend in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and chill overnight. The next day you heat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll dough to 1/4” thick on floured surface (part of having chewy cookies is not making them too thin). Cut into desired shapes. Put on ungreased cookie sheet and bake about 6-8 min. Don’t overbake!
Of course the enjoyable part of all of this is letting your kids help you cut out all the fun shapes:


Yes, it’s true, flour goes everywhere, but deal with it. You can sweep later. Have a blast and let them cut out whatever they want. It’s the tradition and memories that count here!
The next day is frosting day! And this is where it gets lively, crazy and messy. Anal people need not apply!
Frosting:
2 C. powdered sugar
3 T. melted butter
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
2 T. milk
Mix until right consistency (I doubled this to make enough for a double batch of cookies and several kids) Divide between several bowls and dye whatever colors, OK our blue was a little too blue, but who cares. Get out lots of sprinkles and go to town!

Realize that there will be some, ok more than some, really ugly cookies, but those are the ones you save for your family to eat!

One funny memory I have is that my dad used to take a tree or an angel and decorate it with every color of frosting and every single type of sprinkle. I think he did this #1 to drive my mom nuts and #2 just so he could eat that cookie! :)
Realize also that this will make a big mess! But, as my friend Sara used to say, “If it entertains the kids longer than it takes you to clean it up, it’s worth it!”


This entertained Nate and Daniel for at least 2 hours, and took me 15 minutes to clean up. Well worth it, I’d say. Plus, we listened to Martina McBride’s Christmas CD and laughed and talked while we made cookies. A treasured memory for sure. 
And when you are finished, you will have cookies for the family and cookies for guests and you’ll be surprised that most of them look pretty A-OK and taste pretty awesome too!


Happy Baking! And thanks, Mom, for starting such a wonderful tradition with my sister and me, so I could carry it on with my kiddoes!