Thanking Dr. Oakes

Tomorrow we go for Bryan's 2 week check-up after his heart surgery. He wanted to take a thank you gift. I suggested cookies.

Here's what I did. I made the word thanks out of my William's Sonoma Letter cutters. I found them at an antique/flea market store. LOVE them. Not to mention they came in a cute lunch box tin. But I digress.

I patterned the hearts off of Bryan's pillow that they give heart patients so they remember to hug it to their chest when getting out of a chair, coughing or any activity that may stress their chest.

Poor guy I made him pose for me. He's a good sport. 

I did the arrangement and then decided that I really wanted each one individually wrapped. So I took it all apart and bagged the cookie pops up and put it all back together. 

Also made a tag out of a cookie. 

Cookies for neighbors who are kind.

With Bryan healing from open heart surgery it is impossible for him to clear our driveway. The other day we got about 3" of snow and I looked out late in the evening and our neighbor was clearing our drive. So kind. Bryan asked me to make a plate of cookies to thank them. OH alright! haha I love it when I need to make cookies.

Then I made a plate for Ashley to take to work.

When I was making Frosty (upside down Frankenstein cutter) I thought what a hassle to make a small amount of orange for the carrot and black for the coal. SO I made more than I needed and piped out a bunch of carrots, pipes and coal pieces onto parchment (do not use wax paper it sticks, use parchment!!) paper and let them dry over night. Now I have a little jar of snowman pieces when I want to make snowman cookies again! Love doing that. It really speeds up the decorating process when I need it. 

And a jar of little ones for some friends.

When I was at TJMaxx the other day I found that "Home Made" cookie press and am just loving that. I decided to make one cookie like that to put with each batch of cookies I make. 

Baby S'mores

I have an obsession with making tiny things. Last year we had a tasting party at Christmas time and it was delightful to create all that tiny food. Well, today I was pantry shopping to see what I had in there and take inventory and, well, in typical Patti fashion I saw these three things and decided to try making tiny s'mores. I lined the baking sheet with parchment paper placed the tiny cracker squares on it, placed one chunk on each and put them under the broiler just to get the chocolate soft. Watch them, you don't want it melted! Take the sheet out of the oven and press a mini marshmallow onto each one and return to the oven. WATCH them!! they can brown super fast. As soon as they are browned and a bit puffy take them out and gently press a cracker on top. There you have it a mini s'mores snack! I think they would be great for a kids party or to top a cupcake.

Gadgets...you know you love them...I do.

I was walking through Target and saw this Nostalgia Pie Bakery pie maker thing on sale. A really good sale. Such a good sale that it wouldn't kill me if it really didn't work. So I got it.

I happened to have a couple jars of Strawberry/Rhubarb pie filling that I had made the other day. 

So I made a double pie crust, rolled it out (thinner than I would for a normal pie) used the included top and bottom crust cutter and cut out 10 bottom and 10 top crusts. I poked the holes in the top ones but am not sure it is needed. The bottom crust is slightly larger than the top.

In the manual included with the machine it says they cook in 5-8 minutes. This is how they looked at 8 minutes. A bit raw if you ask me. 

So I cooked them 16 minutes and they turned out beautiful.

Things I learned: cook longer, fill to the top and a little over to round the top crust up into the heat. Was this a good purchase? In my opinion, yes. Bryan loves pie and this is a quick way to have a pie treat. I went ahead and made a batch of Peach/Blueberry filling to have on hand for the next time. If you don't make your own crust or filling then buy the refrigerator kind and canned filling. VERY quick.

Sweet Sushi

I do not take credit for this idea. I found it in a Kids Treats book I got at Kohl's. It turned out so cute I had to show it. 

Make a half batch or less of Rice Krispie treats, dark color fruit rolls, chewy candies in pink and green and Swedish Fish. 

Build it like real sushi. You have to work quickly or the rice mix cools and is hard to work with. Have your fruit rolls out and ready, your candies opened and flattened and then you should be able to build them quickly. I made two rolls then cut the rectangles out of the remainder. For those I cut strips off a fruit roll put a fish on top and wrapped it around. 

Packed them in a Bento box. 

Seemed appropriate.

Red, white and blue

Just a little patriotic cookie decorating.

#jakelovesjill

I pre made the bouquets and that really sped up the decorating process. Let the flesh and white dry overnight then added the stenciled lace.

Drew on the guys details and filled in those areas allowing dry time between each one.

Used a stamp and food color with moderate success. Kept having to tell myself "they are going to be eaten!!"

Added more stuff.

Finished product

I made a total of 50 (25 each) for her rehearsal dinner. They all got eaten.

French Fries and Ketchup

For these I used my Pampered Chef fry slicer and sprinkled them with sugar before baking. Then for our Memorial Day lunch today I filled little cups with red icing to dip in and used some little containers I found in the dollar aisle at Target to serve them. Love how they turned out!

They are deceptive because you don't think you are eating lots of cookies but 4 fries equal a big cookie! CAUTION! Haha

Katelyn's Flowers

This is the second time I have pre-made an element to put on a cookie. I did the centers ahead of time and let them dry. I knew that the week I needed to decorate would be hectic (it got even worse) so I was wanting to speed up the process. Totally worth it!

Her school colors are yellow and black. Congratulations! Katelyn.

Graduation and an Apple for a teacher

Hudson is graduating preschool tonight. Fortunately he only has 12 in his class. He wanted "graduation hat cookies" to give his friends. Thank goodness I had just picked up Wilton's Graduation set.

Drums for Dylan

Can't believe Dylan is graduating. When his mom asked me to make drum cookies for his party I got a bit nostalgic for the naughty little boy who used to sass me. What a great young man he has grown up to be!

Lord Of The Rings Risk

I made a little cake for the girls because they were having a game night on Sunday night and I wanted to play with royal icing and frosting a cake. Strange but true. 

Lego Construction Man

Hudson is turning 6 and asked me to make Lego Man for his preschool class. I had them all done with names and thought them a bit boring so used a food color pen and drew some details.

Sandwich Cookies...

and I don't mean Oreos. I decided to make some cookies that looked like the ingredients to a ham and cheese sandwich. I am so pleased with how they turned out. I used a Wonder Bread crust trimmer to make the bread cookies, a large pumpkin to make the ham, a maple leaf (I cut the leaves out a bit thicker than normal and then rolled them out to normal thickness to distort the distinct Maple look they had), a large square and two small circle cutters to make the Swiss cheese, a large circle to make the tomato. They were such huge cookies that before I baked them I cut them in half on the diagonal and am really happy I did. It made 49 cookies. I packaged them up with bread on the bottom then the fillings then bread on top so remember if you do this to make twice as many bread as the other fillings. If you aren't packing them as "sandwiches" then just make what you want. Every stage of this process made me smile. All in all it was a very fun easy project. I think they would be fun for a picnic or BBQ.

Dr. Rodney Rathbone and Lego blocks

Miles' favorite Lego character is Dr. Rodney Rathbone. His grandma asked me to create him in cookie for Miles' birthday party. Pretty pleased with how they turned out.

Foxy 2nd Birthday cookies

A few things I've done lately-

While making cookies for a birthday that is coming up, I had leftover dough so made birthday cookies for Boden's 2nd and tried a heart/bride design idea that a friend sent me. And I made my friends, Doug and Kathy, some tool cookies. The cupcakes were for our Valentine's family dinner.