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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Sugar Cookie Bars?!?!?

Here's a major first and maybe last for this blog. I'm posting about food. What can I say, I like to bake occasionally...

This morning when I got onto Facebook I saw a post staring me back in the face that had me intrigued, I had to take another look. The title was Sugar Cookie Bars.


I'll admit, I'm a bit of a sugar cookie snob. I like most sugar cookies, but the best by far has always been and will always be my late Grandma's recipe. She gave it to me a few years before she died and I try my best to do her justice, but I always fall just a bit short. That being said, I do make them for each of my kids birthdays and at select other times during the year. But as mentioned in the Facebook post above, they take so much time.

My Grandma's recipe, for instance, takes about 5 to 10 minutes to make, 2 hours to refrigerate, 1 hour to warm up so that it's pliable, then probably 30 to 40 minutes cutting them out and baking them. I then let them cool off for another half hour or so and then depending on the look I want, it can take upwards of an hour to frost. It's literally an all day project - ask the hubby, he'll vouch for it.

So, they really don't get made as often as I want them. (Probably a good thing for the waist line) Seeing that this took maybe an hour from start to finish - I decided to try it.

I followed the recipe provided by Pretty Providence, which you can find here. If you're too lazy to click that link, I provided the recipe below:



SUGAR COOKIE BARS

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
1 Tablespoon sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375*. Butter a 9x13 baking dish well. In a large bowl whip together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Stir in egg and egg white, then add sour cream and vanilla and mix until well blended. Slowly add in dry ingredients. (I did 1 cup of flour at a time, then the 1/2 cup flour along with the baking powder and salt) Butter your hands and gently press into your buttered pan. Bake 16-19 minutes - until fork comes out clean and edges are slightly brown. After 'cookies' are cooled completely, frost and cut into squares.

SUGAR COOKIE BARS FROSTING

1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 or 3 Tablespoons, half & half
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
food coloring

In a mixing bowl, mix together butter, powdered sugar and half & half. Stir in vanilla and salt. Add food coloring if desired.

I chose a nice purple for our frosting. I was going to do green, but decided I was in a purple mood. I also added silver slivers for a fun look.


Results...

I was worried when I first put my dough in the pan and pushed it around. It was very thin and I was worried it wouldn't turn out correctly. However, as you can see above - it came out as thick as it was supposed to.

The cook time only took 16 minutes in my oven and it was done. The edges were nice and brown and the inside was nice and soft, just like I like it.

A downside for me was the sour cream. I don't really like sour cream and figured it wouldn't be that recognizable in such a small amount. I noticed it.

They're still sugar cookies and I like them okay, but they're definitely not a favorite. The kids all seemed to like them and didn't complain about them tasting funny or anything and they're all begging for more - so I guess it's a hit for them.

I'm going to do what the original post suggested and keep it in the fridge. Wonder if that'll do anything for the taste.

Overall, I'm sure I'll make them again. They were quick and like I said the kids enjoyed them.

Monday, April 15, 2013

A Pirate's Day

It's so much fun going back through old photos. It's crazy to look back at these days when I realize this kid will be 5 at the end of the week. How did 4 years go by so quickly?

I'm also loving April's Templatetopia by North Meets South. I'll probably be using this template pack for many more layouts, so keep an eye out.


SUPPLY LIST:

TEMPLATE: North Meets South Studios (Trixie Scraps Designs) Stampers Block Vol. 1 - Part of North Meets South Studios April Templatetopia

KIT: YoHo YoHo by Just So Scrappy




Iz Pizza Time

Still working my way through my 2009 pictures.


SUPPLY LIST

TEMPLATE: North Meets South Studios (Connie Prince) Bordered Volume 2 - Part of North Meets South Studios April Templatetopia

KITS:  It's A Boy Thing by Crazy 4 Monograms and Cookout by Crazy 4 Monograms

Monday, April 8, 2013

Tiny Dancer

Once again, Trixie of Trixie Scraps designed a kit I just HAD TO HAVE. She showed us the preview of the kit and I knew immediately which pictures I wanted to use and an added bonus was that they coordinated with the kit almost perfectly.

The kit is called Prima Ballerina and it was released at ScrapbookBytes today as part of the Grab A Byte sale. As of today each of the kits pieces is only $1.00. I would jump on that deal.


So you wanna see what I did? 

Here's a little background. We signed my oldest daughter up for dance as soon as we could. A lady in the neighborhood we had lived in had a dance school and it was reasonably priced. I also knew she had the same morals as us, so we wouldn't have to worry about risque costumes and dances for our 3 year old. 

These pictures were her 1st set of professional pics done during her dancing years. I wish she had stuck with dance, but she decided a few years ago that she was done. She wasn't enjoying herself and we've come to realize dance isn't where her heart is at. She is much more into art and so we're helping her focus her talents that way.

Anyway I totally went off on a tangent there, but here's my layout using Prima Ballerina.



SUPPLY LIST

KIT:
 Prima Ballerina by Trixie Scraps Designs
TEMPLATE: Trixie Scraps Designs September Template Challenge by Trixie Scrap Star Stacey
STITCHES: Defining Me Kit (Retired Kit) by Trixie Scraps Designs
FONT: 2peas Scrapbook

Thursday, April 4, 2013

#1 Duck

A couple weeks ago, Trixie of Trixie Scraps got together with Connie Prince and together they are North Meet South Studios and they came up with a great collab kit called Sailor Duck.

When Trixie posted in our forum that this kit was going to be released and she wanted layouts done, I requested the kit. Why? Because I had the PERFECT picture in mind and a story to go along with it. I did have to call my mom to get more information, but here's what I did:


This is a picture of my older brother. I just happened to have my mom's scrapbooks with me at the time and I immediately thought of this picture. But like I said, because I wasn't 100% on the details I had to call my mom and get them.
Such a funny story and I think my brother may still have a soft spot for that duck!

SUPPLY LIST
KIT: Sailor Duck by North Meets South Studios
FONT: Donald (Had font for awhile, unable to find download link)

Creating Announcements And Invites

Another recap of a post I did at the Trixie Scraps blog.

Because April starts the beginning of a birthday a month for a few months, I decided to revisit the greeting card tutorial and expand on it a bit. You can read the full post here.

In short, I made a gender announcement card and a b-day invite. You can see both below.



SUPPLY LIST

BABY BOY ANNOUNCEMENT
KIT: My Brother, My Pal by North Meets South Studios
FONT: CK Toggle

BIRTHDAY PARTY INVITE
KIT: Pigskin Party by Trixie Scraps
FONT: Freshman