Love and Hugs. . .Just Because

 

Isn't it great how hobbies bring people together?  I first started baking sugar cookies when a co-worker brought her wonderful cookies to work and agreed to share her recipe with me.   The rest as they say, was history, and cookies became my signature sweet treat.  Over the years, I often brought cookies to work to share with my colleagues.  Donna, a good friend and colleague who was approaching retirement, said that she would like to learn how to bake cookies for her grandchildren, I decided to give her a lesson and a starter package of cookie supplies as a retirement gift. After one lesson Donna was hooked and my name,"Cookie Friend," was born.

Although we are now both retired and lots of miles are between us, Donna and I communicate via phone, text and email several times a day to discuss our shared hobby.  She constantly encourages me to move out of my comfort zone and try new techniques.  In addition, Donna introduced me to FLICKR, Facebook and blogging as methods to share cookie photos with other decorators all over the world.  That's Donna (l) and me(r) at Spring Fling Cookie Convention.

Last week, I planned to make some cookies to send to Donna just because--she's a wonderful friend who is facing a difficult challenge and I wanted to tell her I am here to support her during this difficult time. 


Just as I was deciding what designs to make, I received a package in the mail.  Surprise!!!!!  A gift from Donna.  She was shopping for new cutters from a new supplier that everyone is raving about and she decided to buy a few for me.



I tried a new frosting recipe on this set of cookies.  The new icing is tasty and softer than the RI that I usually use for decorating.  I often use food marker writers on cookies and I realized when I was making this set that the softness of the new frosting would require lots of practice for me to get the neat appearance on the cookie surface that I usually have with RI.

Royal Icing on the left,  Royal Glaze on the right

As I read all the different blogs and forums, I've decided that RI, glaze and royal glaze are a matter of personal preference both in taste and ease of decorating, but isn't it nice that so many cookie decorators are willing to share ideas via the internet?

Donna, my very,  special friend gets cookie love and hugs, while I send cyber love and hugs to all the great cookie decorators that I have come to know via the internet
 
To learn more about Donna and why she is such a special lady, read the blog entry that she wrote at the end of a very difficult day:
http://carrollscookies.blogspot.com/2012/08/one-sweet-gesture.html

Cookie Cutters are available at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PlasticsinPrint

Royal Glaze Icing Recipe:
http://sweetpssweets.blogspot.com/2012/06/is-it-royal-or-is-it-glaze-royal-glaze.html

Simple Birthday Cookies

A few quick, simple cookies for a friend.  I didn't have a lot of time to make anything very personal or unique, but they look pretty all dressed up in the gift box from http://www.brpboxshop.com/.

Happy Anniversary

When it comes to cookies, my husband is my quality control person.  He eats the rejects, gives me honest feedback when I try new recipes and tells me what's good and bad about my decorating.  Even though he gets plenty of cookies through this process, I realized that I have NEVER made cookies just for him.  We don't have children, so no Father's Day cookies,  on Valentine's Day we're usually still counting calories from the overeating during the Christmas holidays. . . so for our anniversary this year I decided it was time I made some cookies just for him.

The little crab cookies are an inside joke because these cute little critters were the only "guests" at the wedding!  Every time we have the opportunity to go back to Hawaii, we visit the beach where we had our wedding and the little crabs always come out to bite Matt's ankles.

              Happy Anniversary!