Sugar Cookies

Well, yesterday I tried two new recipes, both of which were FABULOUS!


The first recipe is for sugar cookies. Yesterday, the Mommie and Me group went to Little Pastry Chefs. It's a little pricey for our taste, so I decided to do our own version. I tried Betty Crocker's sugar cookie recipe, and after I took it out of the freezer, the dough was rock hard and dry. So, I did a search on my favorite recipe site, allrecipes.com, and found this one. I wanted Jocey to be able to decorate them, so in order to preserve some cleanliness I made colored egg yolks so she could "paint" the cookie dough. All you have to do is mix 1 large egg yolk with 1/4 tsp. water, then divide it into custard cups (we did 3 colors) and add enough food coloring to make bright colors. Then you just take a paint brush and paint the cookies BEFORE they go into the oven. Jocey loved this! The recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.


The second recipe is for grilled portabella mushroom burgers. They had portabellas on sale this week, so I thought I'd give it a try. They were delicious and a nice alternative to the meat version. Because everything was on sale, this meal ended up costing $3 per person.

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt


Directions:
1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and chill dough for at least 1 hour. (I found that here in Vegas, I should only chill it for 30 minutes to keep it from drying out too much)


2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit. Roll out cookie dough onto floured surface 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 6-8 minutes. Cool completely on racks.