Well I never really used the Meyer lemons for baking but I also bought a bag of limes (I am not sure why I am craving citrus right now) and used those in these pretty lime melt aways.  I used Martha's recipe so I knew it would be good!  That lady can bake!

She adds corn starch to the dough which makes them very tender.   Here is the link for the recipe http://www.marthastewart.com/316576/lime-meltaways-from-the-martha-stewart-s  They are great for adults but they did not pass the kid test at this morning's play date!

Well this is what greeted us this morning...

I don't mean to complain BUT.....I will.  I am kind of done with -10! OK I said it now I can move on, it will be spring soon anyway...right?

Just one more picture.  I finally downloaded photos from the camera and came across this little gem!

Meyer Lemons

I stumbled upon Meyer lemons at the store yesterday and was very excited as we live in northern Vermont and do not get many Meyer lemons up in these parts! I always see them in recipes from Ina Garten and always thought they were just pretentious little things!  BUT....I was wrong.  After I brought them home I dumped them into a bowl and the fragrance just hit me!  They are so floral with a hint of rosemary.  My daughter and I had to try one. We sliced one up and it is still a sour lemon but it almost has an orange flavor as well.  It is really the scent though that got me.  I keep picking them up and just smelling them.  My daughter thinks I am nuts (which I can be about scents sometimes, my husband can attest to that!).  

                                                   

 All of a sudden I can't move pictures to the middle, argh! We are getting a new computer this weekend!  I have been trying to do everything from the Poor little IPad and I think it is trying to tell me that it is tired!

I also made some birthday cookies. Happy Birthday Megan!  Luster dust is fun to play around with. This is Wilton bronze and I just mix it with a drop of vodka and use it just like paint.  It did eat away at the icing a little bit because I was short on time and didn't let it dry long enough. 

Valentine's Day Cookies

                                            

These little love birds were so fun and easy to make.  This is just a base of white royal icing and then I piped on stiff royal icing to make the branches.  I used the aster mauve color from the Wilton garden tone set.  I really wanted to stay away from the bright reds and pinks this year.  I love this color and only a small drop is needed to make it.  I just think the less food coloring the better.  Red tends to give me trouble, it seems like I have to use half a bottle to get a true red.  

I used the same color to make the tiny hearts on these quilted cookies.  I was cracking up when I was decorating them because when I would first pipe the little hearts they looked like tiny buts!  I had to do a little work with the toothpick to make them look like hearts.  I suppose a big heart with little buts all over it would be a cute cookie too! I don 't know if you can see this or not but for the cookie on the left I used a food coloring marker to draw my grid on the cookie and the cookie on the right I used a knife to scratch the surface of the cookie to make a grid.  I would definitely recommend the latter because the food coloring marker shows through the icing, I was not very excited about that!                        

                                                                 

 More aster mauve!  Maybe I need to mix it up a bit with the next batch!      

  

This is my first attempt at painting on cookies. I gotta say I loved it! It really is like using water colors which I also love.  Try it at home this Valentine's day!  Just glaze the cookie with royal icing in a light color and you have your canvas.  Then mix a small amount of alcohol ( I use absolute lemon which my sister can't believe we still have in the freezer) with gel food coloring.  I used small Wilton paint brushes from Michael's.  I have tried using vanilla instead of vodka and it just doesn't dry enough for me for packaging.  It may just have too much sugar; it gets sticky.  

                            

                                            

                             There will certainly be more painted cookies to come! 

Here is my daughter cutting out hearts.  She cracks me up because whenever I ask her to smile for a picture she squints her eyes and does this funny face like she is trying really hard to smile but it is a little bit painful. I could have a whole seperate section talking about that little one, she is quite a character! I guess photo shoots are just not her thing. Of course my sister- in-law can get my nieces and nephew to pose perfectly in a beautiful fall maple tree and smile for the camera, but not this little bugger!

                                               

Bacon!

                                       

I had to stray from cookies for a moment and share this dish we had the other night.  It is a heart attack in a pan but it was really good! It is thin slices of potatoes layered with shredded fontina cheese and wrapped in bacon with a little melted butter to top it all off!  I had to drain about a whole cup of fat off when it was done but it tasted great.  You are supposed to be able to flip it upside down onto a plate like a cake but of course mine stuck to the bottom of the skillet and almost ended up all over the floor! I bet it makes a dramatic statement though when that actually works out.  Well we can try it again in about a year!

Baby shower owls

I used Sweetopia's design for these owl cookies.  She maintains a great cookie decorating blog, I recommend checking it out! They turned out nice in the end but for some reason there was a roadblock every step of the way.  The first time I mixed up the dough while my sister was chatting with me in the kitchen. This is always a BAD idea!  You know how sisters get talking and then somebody forgets to add the eggs!  Scrap that batch!  The next batch I rolled the dough too thin and used an owl cutter. 

                                     This is the one I used...I don't like it.  Well I should say I don't like it for a baby shower, I like it for kind of a creepy Halloween owl.  It is too skinny for a cute little baby owl.  Soooo I scrapped that batch as well! I went with the circle cookie and piped on the outline of the owl. I really prefer basic shapes, I find they are much easier to work with. Here is the final finished product. Three times a charm right?

                         

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it is 2014 already, that sounds very futuristic! We rung in the new year quietly with a little take out food and Ryan Seacrest and Jenny Mcarthy! I made these stars very much after the fact but I realized I had a whole bunch of stars left in the freezer that I never used at Christmas.  Rolling and cutting out the shapes then freezing them really is a big time saver.  That way you can just pull cut out dough as you need it and bake it. 

               

The the stars on this cookie sheet are about to go into the freezer for at least an hour and then I wrap them in Saran Wrap and put them in a plastic container in the freezer.  When I am ready to bake them I just put them on a room temp. cookie sheet and pop them right in the oven while they are still frozen. They always taste great!