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Bugs -- but not in a gross way

You know how when some people are expecting a child they don't want to know the gender of the baby until it comes? And sometimes they don't even pick out a name until they see the baby? They love the excitement and adventure of not knowing. I am not that person. I NEED to know. I have to plan things. Like...you know...THINGS. So, I'm going to have a baby in about 8 weeks. And after 4 (Yes, FOUR) ultrasounds, the doctor still couldn't tell me the gender. This is a long and complicated story that involves many interpreters and green linoleum and dry toast ( I told you it was complicated) and ends in me getting a new doctor that told me in 2.5 seconds the gender of my next child. We are going to have another little lady around our house! And it seems like there is no better way to celebrate girl-ness than with scalloped cutters. (Well, that and a potential apartment fire, right?) Okay, so as a recap, I just put BUGS on scalloped cookies to celebrate the anticipate

Pumpkin Medallions

A few weeks ago, a firetruck pulled up to my apartment complex with lights flashing. 3 firemen jumped out and ran toward the building. My 4 year old was completely enchanted with this up-close excitement and practically glued himself to our window. (Yes, I know -- I need to get this kid more excitement in his little life.) I was slightly less interested. That is, until 3 minutes later when they came knocking at MY DOOR . They don't speak English and I don't speak Korean so well. I wasn't sure what to do. I figured that if they were firemen, they had a pretty good reason for wanting to come in. (Unless of course, they had borrowed the uniforms and stolen a firetruck just so they could trick me into letting them in so they could eat my food and steal all my good stuff...) So I just opened my door. They went straight to the balcony and THEN--- one of them jumped over the edge.   I mean, sure he was attached to a rope and all. But he just walked into my house and jumped of

Fall Tree Cookies

You know what I wish?  (Besides world peace and skinny jeans that fit and stuff...) I wish someone would invent some kind of sticky something that actually works just how it is supposed to. See, I live in a pretty nice apartment in Korea. It's beautiful. I love it. Except that holiday decorations are basically NOT going to happen because you can't hang anything on a marble wall. (Yes...I have marble walls. Hate me if you like.) I have tried every kind of self-stick, non-permanent wall hanging device I can find in this country. Oh sure, they CLAIM to be able to hold up to 7 pounds and stick for a year...but THEY LIE. And, where I come from, lying is bad. Like, the kind of bad where you go to your room to think about what you've done, but you have to stay there for so long that everyone forgets about you and THAT is why you have puzzles hidden under your bed. And maybe a juice box. So...my point is...we tried to decorate for Halloween today and we ended up with some wooden

pumpkin witches

I've been kind of "away" this week. My husband's family has come for a visit. To Korea. (That's across the ocean.) But they are only staying 8 days. :(   {<--------sad face} So we have been very busy going everywhere and doing lots of really important things like taking flying cars to the top of mountains and eating kimchi. You know, the basics. And I have a teensy-tiny confession. -- I haven't made any cookies this week. Zero. We did make some rice krispie treats with sprinkles on them, but that is as close to cookies as I've come. So now you have to look at these cookies. I didn't love them so much when I made them. And I wasn't even going to show them to you. But to be honest...I worked real hard making that tiny little hay bale out of rafia. I've never actually worked on a farm that had hay (or any farm at all for that matter) so I'm not sure how it compares to the actual thing, but I'm pretty sure it was almost as much work.

Pumpkins and Balloons

So, I made these cookies because I wanted to. (As opposed to all the other cookies I make because I can't help it. Seriously, sometimes there are little cookies screaming to be made and I can't just walk away and pretend like I don't hear them. They KNOW better. And they would totally call me on it. And then it would be all awkward. And I would probably have to take them to the market and buy them a new outfit to make up for it. And I just don't have that kind of time.) And I liked these cookies. And then I showed them to my little boy. And he LAUGHED. A lot. Like, A LOT a lot. He thought they were VERY funny cookies. See, because the faces are on the balloons instead of the pumpkin. And I started to question who I am as a person. And I contemplated life without sugar. For at least 12 seconds. Well, probably at least like 3 or 4 anyway. And then I did some internet research on vats of ice cream... And then I remembered this picture. Its a picture he drew for me. It&

Halloween Pinwheel Cookies -- on a stick

I've been thinking about pinwheel cookies ever since I saw the cookies on a stick from Carolyn at Occasional Cookies   on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle . Carolyn's cookies are fabulous. They are like a special glammed up sparkly version of cookies my mother makes every year at Christmas. The secret benefit to my mother's cookies however is that they require much, much less effort. (Or so it seems. Because, to be honest, I haven't tried making Carolyn's beautiful cookies. I'm impatient. And my children would eat all the beautifully colored ropes of cookie dough before they were ever wound into the oh-so-impressive looking Lollypop Cookie. And then I would cry. And they would cry. And we would all be eating macaroni and cheese for dinner. And crying. And my husband would walk in the door and stare at all of us, and maybe wish he had some extra work he forgot about that he needed to go back to work and take care of. So... you know...I had to find an easier way

Pumpkin Cookies for Grown Ups

Hey, when you were growing up, did your parents ever have one of those " Adults Only " parties? You know, where they invited all of their friends over and made you go to bed at 6pm. And to console you for not being able to attend, they promised that it wouldn't be any fun at all and you would hate it if you tried to come anyway? But you could HEAR them. And they were most definitely having FUN. And your parents always saved the FUN food for those parties. And you just KNEW that if you could sneak out there without them seeing you that you would most definitely have FUN and you would get to eat all that delicious, magical food before it turned back into normal, everyday food in the morning. I think that if I am ever responsible and adult enough to have one of those parties for Halloween, I will make these cookies. And all my guests will drink out of glasses that are made of real, actual glass. No plastic cartoon character glasses for them. Oooh, and we'll have as muc

How to Make Fall Leaf Cookies

I'm warning you right now -- these leaves are so fun to make that you won't want to stop. You're just going to keep on making them right through dinner time. And bed time. And hitting the snooze button over and over again time. First...bake some cookies. It's best for everyone if you just go ahead and bake those cookies in a leaf shape of some kind. And gather up some supplies. You know, like snacks and a drink and...well, get what you want. But while you're getting, make sure you get some fall colored icing (12-15 seconds thick), some #3 tips, and some toothpicks. These cookies go real, real quick. I recommend doing just one cookie at a time. But for the sake of the tutorial I did two. Oh, and its best if you decide on your color pattern BEFORE starting the cookie. Anyway, pipe on your outside layer first. Pipe around that with the next color. And if you disregard my previous advice to only do one cookie at a time, at least only do one color pattern at a ti

Fall Leaf Cookies

I used to love playing in the leaves when I was a kid. My parents had some big trees. And those trees pretty much produced enough leaves for the entire neighborhood. Not that I shared. (Come on. I was a kid. The biggest pile of leaves wins. I wanted to win.) My brothers and I would rake for hours. HOURS I tell you. That's like 4 years to a kid. My mom always told me that if we wanted to rake the leaves into big piles, we had to rake ALL the leaves. Not just some of them. (How do parents get to be so smart anyway?) And then after we jumped in them and hid in them and threw them at each other, we would build houses out of them. Seriously, I TOLD you we had a ton of leaves. And then my mom would come out and we knew that would be the end of it all. And we would pretend to be sad, but honestly, we already had leaves stuck in places we didn't want to mention and they kind of smelled bad and its not really very fun to hide in a big pile of slightly wet leaves while your brothers pr

Witch Hats and Cauldrons

So...my 4 year old just put a sign on his sister that said, " She is NOT for sale. " I thought that was real sweet of him to look after his sister and all. And then she ran over his foot with her little push car. And he changed the sign to say, " She is for sale ." He told my husband about this new development and my husband said, " Well, I'd buy her. " So my little boy again changed the sign. This time it read, " She is for sale for someone else . " You know, just to clear things up. And then he proceeded to sell me my husband for a dollar. So, basically what I'm saying here is that if I ever sell cookies...I'm not going to make him my front man. But someone else is going to have to tell him. I can't handle the sad face. Sometimes MOST times, cookies don't turn out quite like I expected. These cookies are a rare exception. The cauldrons are a black cookie to begin with and since they are flat...ha ha ha...I was about to

winners of the tiniest giveaway ever

My goodness I have been without an icing bag in my hand for at least 3 days now. I have, however, been to the top of a mountain, ridden a train, and there was that incident with the fire department that I will TOTALLY tell you about later. In the meantime....WINNERS. That's what we are all here for. Winner #1 --- The A Team who said... "Just yesterday I got a mattress pad on clearance at macys! Woohoo!"  And Winner #2 --- Chris. And check out Chris's best clearance find ... "So the best thing I got on clearance....a pair of jeans for $1.97. Seriously! I couldn't believe it. It was such a good deal that I bought both my sisters and my daughter each a pair. I didn't want to try them on in the store so I bought 2 different sizes because I wasn't sure what size would fit. I love clearance sales!!!"  I am honestly loving that you bought two pairs of jeans in different sizes. It makes me feel better about my compulsive cookie cutter