Starting the New Year Off with Cookies & Crafts

Now that I bake, I just can't buy commercial cookies anymore.  They taste so chemically.  The last Seahawks game of the season was going to be on TV for a change, so I decided to use my new cookie cutters to make some Hawks sugar cookies.  Also picked up a Jones Green Apple Soda for the game...based in Seattle and bottled in British Columbia.

Even Sasquatch is a 12th Man!

This is the rest of the batch.

My craft table is, as usual, a white hot mess.  I decided that I have to make the projects on it before I move onto other things.  This pink glass drop needed to get a beaded hanger so whipped that off in a few minutes.

Russell bought me that crystal after LAST Christmas...of 2014....and it, too, was waiting for a hanger. I found these beautiful beads this fall and whipped that one up as well.  Yes that's snow in the background...first of the season.  

I found this little jar in Target...I bought 2 of them.  Stuck glitter tiles on this one.  It's so pretty!

Last year I purchased that gorgeous rutilated quartz wire wrapped pendant from my friend Robin. Also last year, my friend Lynda gifted me with those beads, which used to belong to her sister Cyndy, who passed away a few years ago.  Cyndy was part of my 'group' back in high school and it was so heartbreaking to lose her so young.  I wanted to do something special with them.  It was by happenstance that I pulled out the bag of beads and the pendant at the same time and realized how great they'd look together!

I had these metal and glass pendants sitting around so I added the decorative papers to them finally to get them off my table too....and into one of my many beading boxes for future use.

Still chipping away at the projects on the table but it already looks way better than when I started.  I should've taken a before picture but I was so mad at myself for letting it get that bad!  Next up is one more necklace and add embellishments to the glass float I got up in PTown last fall.  

Stained Glass Window Fall Cookies

I decided to try a baking project from Pinterest, for stained glass window fall cookies.  I got some fall themed cookie cutters at the estate sale, so I figured I'd give it a try. The center of the cookie was supposed to also be in the shape of the leaf, but I purchased small, round cutters instead.

I didn't take pics of the prep because it was extremely time consuming and I will NEVER make them again. I ended up combining two separate baking ideas.  One was to colour the dough, which instructions were found at The Hippie Housewife and which referred to a sugar cookie recipe, found HERE.  Then I used the instructions for the 'stained glass' part, found HERE

Mistake #1:  Do NOT use Jolly Ranchers.  I bought them because I prefer their flavour to Life Savers. However, they are extremely sticky and I had a wicked hard time trying to break them up.  Plus the candy shards poked major holes through the baggie so I had to stop to triple bag all of the different colours/flavours.  

Mistake #2:  Doing the candy breaking the day before I decided to bake.  That gave the chips overnight to stick to themselves in a giant sticky conglomerate blob.  

Mistake #3:  Dying the dough.  Every time I make cookie dough I end up having to knead it into submission with my hands.  Dying separate blobs meant having to knead it 10x more.  My hands, wrists and forearms were so sore and cramping.  

Mistake #4:  Not letting the dough warm up a bit after taking it out of the fridge & slicing up the different colours to roll.

Problem #1:  Dough kept cracking and falling apart upon rolling it with the pin.  The colours absolutely refused to fuse and blend. I kept applying flour to make it not stick but that made the dough crack worse.

Problem #2:  Cookie cutting also made the dough split and separate.  

Problem #3:  Candy chips so melded together I could barely break them apart to use.  

Now all of the above is what I encountered before I even baked them.  I did one pan's worth, using the non-stick aluminum foil my friends suggested, and decided I'd wait and see how they came out before I decided to continue on with my frustration....because it wasn't looking good.

I pulled them out of the oven when some of the candy was obviously starting to overcook.  Which, unfortunately, meant that the cookies were way underdone.  Plus there were also some holes around the edges of the stained glass part where the candy hadn't melted so I tried to grab some chips to throw inside the holes, but now that the kitchen was good and warm, it was impossible to pry anything off the sticky chip blob.

I went to remove this one off the foil and it broke right away.  The nonstick foil worked pretty well.

I won't deny that the results look pretty, but the cookies aren't baked all the way through.  

This was what I ended up with, after we each tried one cookie (and one fell on the floor that was quickly snarfed up by my assistant chef, Sagan).  The candy center is so sticky that you will pull a filling out if you try to chew it.  The cookie recipe is definitely a keeper, and I'm not a fan of sugar cookies.   

Lessons learned:

1.  Use life savers & don't break them up till you're ready to use them.

2.  Moisten the dough a little bit as you roll it out so it doesn't crack (I found this out later).

3.  Don't dye the dough.

4.  Bake the cookies halfway first, then add the candy for the last few minutes.

And most importantly, 

5.  Never try this project again.