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Make Your Own Cookie Molds

  I made cookies for someone I've never met. I know her name. And her address. And I know that every week of her life she mails an envelope of expired coupons to soldiers who live in Korea. (The military grocery stores that are overseas accept expired coupons for up to 6 months.) That's all I know. I've spent an inordinate amount of time looking at her scrawling script and I've decided that she's old and sweet and probably uses her crochet scissors to cut out those coupons while watching reruns of "The Price is Right." And she has shag carpet in her living room. And she may or may not belong to a pinochle league that plays every Tuesday. And also, I've decided that someone needs to tell her that the envelope makes it here every week. And that soldiers and family members stand around sorting through the coupons and talking to each other when it comes in. And that young mothers live for the diaper coupons and that single guys who have never seen

Badge of Liberty Cookies

 A long time ago, I lived in America and I shopped at grocery stores. And when I walked down the international aisle, I wondered what things they would sell in the American section of a grocery store in another country. (Peanut butter and spaghetti sauce.) (And sometimes nacho cheese sauce.) I never wondered about zoos. I just assumed that everyone else in the world had cooler animals than we did. I mean...ELEPHANTS?! TIGERS?! Those don't really compare to squirrels and umm...other non-exciting animals. America has bald eagles though. Those are cool. Do other countries have bald eagles? Do you think I can ask my 5 year old to do a report on them so I can find out? Maybe I can use some kind of ice-cream cookie treat as a bribe reward. It's going to have to be a big treat so his father will help him "research." I'm going to need to do some ice-cream cookie treat research of my own it looks like.... Whoa. Back to the zoo. I went to a Korean zoo yesterday. We sa

Dehydrating Cookies -- What YOU Need To Know

I live in South Korea. It's been said before, but it is still true. As a result of this, I am pretty much the world's best Amazon shopper. I know you think that YOU are the number one, top competitor of Amazon shopping ...actually...you might be right, but let's not ruin this for me right now, okay?  Sometimes I make cinnamon rolls the size of my head and drink watered-down soda while browsing through the ladies shoe department just so I can pretend that I am in an actual store. My kids are happy to accompany me to the land of make believe as long as they get their own straw. Sometimes they even pitch a fit until I put some inexplicably desirable item in the cart. And like every other parent on the planet...I take it out while they are going to the bathroom. The problem with Amazon is that you can load stuff in your cart "for later." I usually reserve this space for items that I really want to get and know that there is no circumstance, ever, in the entire

Father's Day Decorated Sugar Cookies

It's here! It's finally here! The day before the last day before Father's Day!! Oh my goodness, did you ever think this day would really come? Oh man, Father's Day is practically on our doorstep. So exciting. You know what else is exciting? I'M HAVING A LINK PARTY!!

Sailboat Cookies

  Father's Day is almost here! Are you guys excited? I mean...depending on where you are in the world there could be as little a ONE more day to get all your shopping and decorating and Father's Day song-singing in. ONE day. That's like 24 hours in cookie years. I'm going to be honest with you though.. I'm a little tuckered out with all the late night tie tying parties and MEAT eating going on around here. I'm also re-thinking my strategy of unveiling my new holiday celebration schedule immediately before a holiday in which I am not the recipient of large quantities of attention and gifts and free food. I was thinking that if you take into account the nights I put the children to bed before my husband comes home from work, and subtract that from the fact that we don't even have a lawn to mow, multiplied by three children...it equals out to about 1/6 of that pumpkin pie that is waiting for him on Father's Day. ( Pumpkin pie ? On Father's Day?! If

Bowtie Cookies -- no cutter required!

  When it comes to Father's Day, my mind can only think it two directions -- Tools and Ties. It's not my fault. Okay, maybe it is. But I was thinking that it might make me feel better to blame it on something else. Like maybe one day when I was coming home from school, I got kidnapped by ninjas and they brainwashed me to only think about tools and ties for Father's Day. And then they gave me a snack and we played backgammon and it was pretty much the best day of my life, except that at the end of it all they also had to brainwash me into not remembering the whole thing. So actually, its kind of tragic really. You should probably feel a little bit sad for me that such a happy adventure was so cruelly ripped from memory at such a young age. I mean, I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that this event took place sometime around 7 years of age. Or 10 years of age. One of the two.

Father's Day Tool Cookies -- part 2

  Welcome back to Father's Day Week!  In case you are wondering....this is still the perfect plan. I am determined that the anticipatory celebration of the holiday will only serve to increase the fun (havoc) on the actual day. So far, my children have destroyed the house in their search for those elusive ties we bought six months ago in preparation for Father's Day. They broke my husband's tape measure while fighting over who got to put the tape part back inside the case. My 5 year-old got jealous that there is a Father's Day and is now making his own plans for Children's Day....which according to him will be on Monday and my husband is expected to give him a gift and a toy and a treat. Also, due to some 2-year-old temper tantrums, we had waffles for dinner last night, instead of meat on a plate . All in all, this week has been wildly successful so far, and I just can't wait to see what the next few days bring! At least we know that in internet-land, today

Father's Day Tool Cookies -- part 1

My husband loves Christmas. To be fair, he loves holidays of all kinds. But he reserves a special excitement for Christmas. He starts putting up the tree while finishing off the last of the pumpkin pie from Thanksgiving. And then my kids start to go crazy. We end up with like 7 different paper chains and count-down charts and they get to mark every day off on the calendar and each night before they go to bed they recite how many more times they have to brush their teeth before this giant day of excitement and anticipation will finally be there. I was thinking that all the other holidays would be more fun if they had a season leading up to them too. So at our house, this is going to be Father's Day Week. We're going to hang awful looking ties all over our house and scatter tools across the bookshelves. We're going to sing Father's Day songs and make special Father's Day meals, like Meat On A Plate. (The plate is optional.) And then on Sunday when my husband wake

"Will you be my BRIDESMAID?" Cookies

So, this one time, Anne from Flour Box Bakery suggested this super fun wedding cookie project that involved perusing a Brides magazine from cover to cover. Repeatedly. She basically said that we could give up laundry and shaving and even order take-out while we spend hours tearing out pages of beautiful inspiration. At this point, my inner honesty compels me to mention that she didn't actually say that second part. She may have said something more like, "have some cookie fun and get creative." But, let's not get all judgey here. I'm easily confused. They sound a lot alike. They both have letters in the words and verbs in the sentences. My favorite part about this project is that I got to leave piles of gorgeous wedding dress and flower pictures all over my apartment. I'm not normally a messy person. It's just that I was really hoping someone would stop by for an unexpected visit and then get all confused because it would look like I was pla

Rattle Cookies -- Cookies And Cards

  When I first moved to Korea, I couldn't figure out how to make my kitchen sink work. It looks exactly like every other sink I have ever seen in my life. But when you twist the handle... nothing happens. We spent weeks filling pots up in the shower so we could cook dinner. (Not like in a weird Seinfield way. The hand sink is just too small for our pots to fit under the faucet.) And we kept a bottle of water on the counter to wash hands. Randomly though, sometimes we would walk by and the water would magically turn on. I could NOT figure that thing out. I thought maybe it was a motion sensor so we staged a dance party in the kitchen. Aside from an amazing performance of "the robot" by my 5 year-old, nothing happened. At the end of the first month, our landlord came over to collect our giant pile of cash that we lovingly referred to as "rent." We had a friendly game of charades and ultimately learned that we were the proud renters of a floor sensor kitchen sin