Sugar Cookies

  After an absolutely wonderful spring break and Easter filled with family time, Brandon time, day trips, movies, good food, dying eggs, sunshine, and celebrating my mom's birthday it was back to the old grindstone today. Getting up at 5am this morning was surprisingly easy and the day went by fast, though over the course of five days my little kindergartners seemed to have forgotten many school rules. I did get two sweet and interesting gifts from some of my students today. One little girl gave me a boiled egg she had dyed. It had a large dent and crack from being carried around in her book back but it was so sweet of her I hugged her and told her that I would eat it for breakfast tomorrow...she later realized that she had intended to give it to her bus driver and asked for it back. I was happy to oblige. Another precious little one brought me a lemon on the verge of going bad. I'm not really sure what possessed her to bring me a mostly brown lemon but her pleased smile and generous heart melted my heart and as I hugged her "thank you"I said I'd probably use it to make lemonade to drink with my boiled egg. Yum yum.
   I hope you all had a really fantastic and blessed Easter and that you've been able to ease comfortably back into that old work routine. We were blessed with so much time with our loved ones as well as really delicious food. I was super pleased with the sugar cookies I made and so was everyone else :o)

I suppose I'll share the recipe with y'all...you know, since I said I would.

Mrs. Fields' Sugar Cookies
Makes 18
Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup colored sugar for decoration
• 3/4 cup butter
• 
  
• Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl combine the flour and salt with a wire whisk. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until well blended. Scrape down sides of bowl, then add the flour mixture. Blend on low speed just until combined. Do not overmix.
3. Gather dough into a ball. Flatten the ball into a disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap or a plastic bag. Refrigerate one hour until firm.
4. On a floured surface, roll out dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. With cookie cutters, cut dough into desired shapes and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Decorate with colored sugars or sprinkles. Bake for 13-15 minutes, being careful not to brown. Immediately transfer cookies with a spatula to a cool, flat surface.

   Plain sugar cookies are fantastic on their own but, with icing? What more could you want?

Sugar Cookie Icing

Ingredients

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 teaspoons milk

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

food coloring 

Directions

   1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in almond extract.

   2.  Add desired food colors.