Saturday, January 14, 2012

Resolutions, Challenges, and Goals

A resolution is the same as a challenge is the same as a goal. My goal to write a blog a day has taken a detour, just as many resolutions do by this time of January! I've noticed that many things we resolve on New Year's Day are often forgotten by January 14, in my life as well as many others. Many people create the challenge, but cannot live up to the goal. I have made many grand statements since my retirement in May, 2011, and even at the beginning of January 2012. Some have gone by the wayside, but my goal to cook something new every day is still hanging tough. I find, though, that life is getting in the way of writing on this blog every day. Sometimes you have to call uncle. I'm calling it! That's not to say I'm not going to post recipes and blog about my kitchen trials and trails. Creating new things in the kitchen continues. The blog continues, too, just not at the pace I had challenged myself to attain


I've got new neighbors! Great neighbors: they invited me to supper this past weekend. Yea! Pedro and Alyssa are People Who Grill. That's a capitalized title because I DON'T grill. I'd like to learn how one day, but for now, I depend upon the People Who Grill like my dad, my brother-in-law Karl, and now Pedro and Alyssa. Because they treated me to supper, I repaid with iced sugar cookies. I love a sugar cookie, but have always cheated when it comes to icing them. I would buy the ready-made vanilla frosting in a can/tub. It's great, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't harden. Tub frosting is for when you're sitting at the table and eating the cookies as you frost them. (Don't pretend that isn't a dream of yours. Now you know why I need Weight Watchers.) Anyway, I made my very own frosting this time and cheated on the cookies. I used a roll of cookie dough right out of my grocer's refrigerated section and went for the made-at-home frosting, which hardened and was perfect for being able to wrap the cookies for someone else. I chose this recipe from allrecipes.com because the comment along with the recipe was "This icing dries hard and shiny and the colors stay bright," which is exactly what I was looking for. It was very tasty too!

SUGAR COOKIE ICING
(This is enough to ice only 12 cookies, so you will need to multiply it for the amount of cookies you're making.)

Ingredients

1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 Tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (lots of recipes call for almond extract. I don't like it. Changed it to vanilla.)
assorted food coloring

Directions

In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and vanilla extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush. (I'm reading that last sentence and say, "WHAT? Dip or paint with a brush???" I used a knife and frosted them!)



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