The Great Cookie Decorating Adventure of 2010

I think - maybe - Blueberry and I have a new tradition.  What started as an innocent suggestion to make Christmas cookies for dessert for Sunday dinner tonight turned into a 5 hour, messiest kitchen ever, delicious cookies and icing extravaganza.  We had so much fun.  My sides hurt from us laughing at some of our rather ridiculous issues we had.

Blueberry was "assigned" Rolling Queen.  See, I suck at rolling dough.  I have no patience for it. Shocking I know.  We made 4 batches of dough and she rolled each one at least twice.  The marble rolling pin - which she bought me years ago - wasn't supposed to stick to the dough, and yet it did.  We opened windows and doors to get the temperature in the kitchen down since we were both having hot flashes...but it also helped keep the dough cooler.

 She was the Rolling Queen for sure. In fact, I think the dough fumes were getting to her...

Cutting was a science to her.  She wanted to get as many cookies as possible out of one rolling.  And let me tell you...it was not only exact, but carefully planned. Each cut thought about and pondered...all the while I'm like, "CUT it already!"

Ahhh how purdy.  See that cookie on the left side in the middle? That was left over dough that I decided needed to be cooked so we could actually test the cookies cooked - instead of "testing" the dough by tasting it regularly.  Anyhow, somehow I thought it looked like a piece of poop and so it was named, "Our piece of poop cookie"  Let me tell you...it tasted good.

We tried two different recipes. I did the first batch of sugar cookies from a recipe on Pioneer Woman's blog.  Blueberry had three packets of sugar cookie dough her sister had bought and brought over.  The three packets required almost no effort on my part in mixing, aside from putting the stuff in the mixer and hitting "go".  Of the two, I liked PDub's better, but the other - for a package dough - was darn good.

Oops! One broke!

So I also had to try this Royal Icing on PDub's blog (scroll way down in the blog).  It called for Meringue Powder - which I had never heard of, let alone tried.  The icing is a power house of flavor and a bit wicked in making.  In the end, it's good icing. Not like your normal frosting on cookies.  It has a more tangy flavor to it, almost lemon-y.  It was so shiny too. The recipe called for corn syrup which, apparently, makes it shiny.

Look how fancy!  We decided to frost them last night and let the Sunday Dinner participants decorate them tonight for something fun. I get a kick out of adults doing something usually reserved for children.  It brings out the inner child in all of us.  I can't wait.

Stars are hard to frost! I'm just sayin'.

Finally, sparkle gels for the ultimate frosting party tonight.  I almost bought the pink too, but refrained. I know, it was tough! 

So check back in tonight or tomorrow for the photos from the Sunday dinner party.  I can't wait. I'm making Homemade Chicken and Noodles.  mmmm which I'd better get off the computer and get started.