Boy have I got a TON of delectable photos for you today! I have to admit...I may have gone a little overboard with the pictures, but there was just so much deliciousness packed into today that I just couldn't bare to leave any of these beauties out of the post. I actually did a little bit of studying today too (AND had a shower)! I think the hearty breakfast I ate really helped in the energy department.
For breakky I had good ol' bacon and eggs. The bacon was spectacular...it was so thick!
I guess having a cup of coffee with breakfast for once could have also aided my energy today. Either that or the cup of sugar I loaded into it...I should really cut down my sugar intake...
I washed down breakfast with a big glass of milk and started on the sugar cookies I made today!
This is the best sugar cookie recipe ever, these puppies have so much flavor (in contrast to other sugar cookies...which can be a little bland to say the least...) and stay slightly chewy (which I love) unlike most sugar cookies! They are also really good for decorating because there is no baking soda or baking powder in them so they hold their cut-out shapes really well! Here's the recipe:
Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
1 cup white sugar
1 cup softened butter
1 (3 ounce) package of softened cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, almond and vanilla extracts, and egg yolk. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour until well blended.
You can put the dough in the fridge to firm up a bit if you find it's too soft to roll out, but I find this dough is usually pretty easy to work with right away as long as you flour your rolling surface enough!
On your floured surface, roll out the dough 1/3 at a time, and cut into shapes with whatever you've got (cookie cutters, knife...even just shape them with your hands)!
Place the cut out shapes onto an ungreased cookie sheet. At this point you can pop the cookies right into the oven, and decorate or frost them later when they're cool, or you can try a weird decorating trick I tried today on them (I'll put that recipe further down on the page).
Whenever you do get around to throwing these cookies into the oven, bake for 6-10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a very light golden brown.
Okay! So this is the weird decorating trick I tried out today. Instead of decorating the sugar cookies with icing once they've baked and cooled like I usually do, I tried decorating them BEFORE they baked! I made a little colour glaze that I painted on the cookies out of egg yolk, a little sugar, and food colouring! It was pretty cool, and fun! You could get really creative doing this...but I stuck to pretty basic designs today.
I painted the glaze onto the cookie dough with a clean paint brush, it worked so well!
Here are the cookies all glazed up ready to go into the oven.
And ta-da! Cookies nice and decorated right out of the oven! I was really surprised at how well these turned out! The colour stayed nice and bright through the baking process, and got a great shine to it too!
And most importantly, they tasted great too! Nice and sweet with that gorgeous hint of almond in there.
After baking cookies it was finally dinner time. We had the most amazing (and simple) dinner tonight!
We tried out Tatomme's kale recipe, and it was so delicious (and addictive)! We will definitely be making those again...
Always have to have a salad with dinner...tonight we had a yummy greek-ish salad, just loaded with tons of fresh veggies and garlic!
Best part of tonight's meal...obviously the steak. These steaks were unbelievable! Mine pretty much melted in my mouth...soo good. We also had some quick and easy couscous. I love couscous...it literally took five minutes to whip together!
Anyways, there is my essay on food for today! Lots of pictures...I know...but weren't they mouth watering?? Can't wait to bake up some more Christmas treats tomorrow!
xoxo
Mariel
