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 saw a dolphin show. And also a horse. And some cattle. And a dog. AND...I wasn't going to tell you this, but I have to. I can't let it go. We went into the insectatarium. It was a big ol' building with INSECTS. If you don't know what those are...those are bugs. I do not like bugs. Not even a little tiny bit. Not even lady-bugs. And my children hate them just as much. I thought it would be the perfect learning experience for my children so they could get all brave and stuff and not hate bugs so that when we have them in our house in the future they could be all interested and think it was really cool to somehow get them into a glass jar and remove them from the house and I would never have to touch another bug again as long as I live. It was a great plan. What could go wrong? I will TELL YOU.

About half way through the bug tour of this giant ol' building (Seriously, who needs TWO floors of bugs?) we came upon some zoo people working with the bugs. I don't know what they were doing because I was actually kind of staring off into the space above all the cages while pretending to be interested so my children wouldn't know how totally creepy bugs really are. Anyway...I chatted with the zoo people in my very limited Korean and moved on. Or tried to move on. All of a sudden the Korean guy was coming at me with chopsticks. He started jabbing and I got all weirded out and decided I didn't want to be at the zoo anymore AND THEN I REALIZED -- one of those bugs that I had not been looking at had jumped out of its cage and attached itself to my shirt. MY. SHIRT. I froze and pretended to laugh a little bit. It was horrifying. The zoo guy kept pulling at the bug with his chopsticks and the bug wouldn't let go of my shirt. And the worst part of all was that my five year was basically traumatized for life and will now never touch another bug again so the entire experience was a complete waste. Except for the part where I got to speak Korean to some very nice people. That wasn't so bad.

Anyone else traumatized after reading that story? There was a reason I wasn't going to tell you that. In happier news (this is the part where you forget that I just told you an insect story on a cookie blog) I made some star cookies!!

Want to make some?

Cut out a scalloped circle and a star. Then, using the same circle cutter, cut a hole out of the scalloped circle and the edges off the star. Put the star inside what is left of the scalloped circle. Press the edges together gently and bake. It will be delicate when it comes out of the oven, but as soon as you pipe the star on the cookie, it will hold together quite nicely. I didn't take pictures of the actual decorating. I think it was due to some kind of pre-trauma effect. Outline the star and then flood it. Let it dry for at least 20 minutes and then do all the red stripes. Let those dry for 20 minutes and then finish with all the white stripes.