I recently had an order for some Vermont cookies for a college student.  These cookies make a great addition to any care package. I remember how much I LOVED getting care packages when I was in college and then later when I was an Americorps volunteer in Alaska.  One time my mother sent me a package when I was working in Fairbanks. We lived in tents and my mother sent me a package and told me not to open it until my birthday.  After storing it in my TENT in ALASKA for a couple of days I opened it up and it was full of food!  Thanks mom, guess who else likes food in the wild in Alaska? Bears that's who!  But alas I was not eaten by a bear and I gobbled up all of the delicious chocolates and cheddar cheese. 

I have to say the Stowe logo gave me a lot of trouble!  I guess I need to work on that since we share a name!

Well my daughter and I are on a trip to New Jersey to visit my brother and his family.  It feels tropical down here, (we woke up to -10 again in VT this morning!) It is the little things right? A hotel pool and 40 degree weather go a long way! 

What a beautiful morning! The sun is shining and the thermometer is slowly inching upward.  I snapped these photos this morning after I dropped my daughter off at ski school, or snowboarding school, as my daughter likes to correct me with a little irritation in her voice.  Ahh she is only four... but the mountain did look beautiful this morning.

Here is the little bugger getting ready this morning, little cutie even when she is correcting me.

                           

Here she is shredding with my husband cheering her on!  Look out 2030 Olympics, here we come!

I also went for a walk this morning and took lots of photos of a frozen river.  There is just something about winter rivers that I find so soothing.  I need to make a cookie with these colors, they just make you feel cold inside. Which I don't know why you want to feel cold inside hmmm maybe I should rethink this cookie or save it for the middle of July! 

Happy Monday!

I am getting spring fever even though there are not actually any signs of spring yet!  My husband and I keep talking about a tropical get away so I decided to try out my new starfish cutter.

We used to live in Juneau, AK and at low tide you could see tons of starfish attached to the rocks.  They were beautiful and I remember them being this sort of purple color that is hard to replicate, but alas I will do it! Food coloring can sense fear...

My aunt Jane is always sewing beautiful skirts for our daughter.  I love the material she picks out and these three happen to be particularly spring-y.
 I made the birds into a cookie last year and I want to make the other two into cookies as well.

This cookie was my entry for an online cookie contest. I think I need to make them again, I love the fun colors!

We have had two pheasants hanging out around our house for the past couple of weeks. They like to eat the berries from our front tree. They are beautiful but we have no idea where they came from.

 Wow this photo looks black and white but it is actually a COLOR photo! I guess it is just a grey March day...

Seriously?

Seriously?!?

What happened to Global Warming!? 

This cold weather does however make for beautiful skies...

I got kind of fancy with this one.

I am exploring some Guinness ideas for St. Patty's day.  So in the name of research...

I hope the sun is shining in your corner of the world!

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!