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So I finally got around to rolling and baking some of that cookie dough from a couple of days ago. I just have to say, rolling and cutting cookies is way more trouble than it’s worth. I even did the thing where you roll it between sheets of plastic wrap, and I still didn’t have fun. The only reason I wanted to do it was so I could decorate them my crazy way. I came up with this during my Martha Stewart-worship days when I wanted to learn how to decorate cookies that would be so beautiful, they’d make you cry. Yeah – that didn’t happen. After much frustration I just dumped all the icing together in the bowl and started dipping cookies into that, letting them drip, then flipping them over. I loved it!! They look like they’ve been tie-dyed.

This year I goofed up, though. I tried to be stingy with the icing since I didn’t have enough, and I had it too thin on the plate. It has to be deeper, so the cookie can gather enough to drip. Here’s a ‘before’ shot, with too little icing on the plate, which also creates bubbles:

Here’s the Jackson Pollock frosting assembly. Go nuts, with it, people!

Here’s the final batch, much more swirly and pleasing. Lloyd is pointing to the one he thinks turned out the best.

Of course, you have to replace the icing after a while, because it all muddles to gray (and nobody likes gray icing). I need a good sugar cookie recipe, though. I got this one off the internet, and I’m not thrilled with it. Of course, when am I ever going to make these again?

Nothing great happened today, at least nothing photo-worthy. We’re expecting some ice and freezing rain……wait….halting ..posting ..process…..

(Time passes)

Ok, we’re back. As I typed that, I realized that earlier in the day I had covered my truck’s windshield and doors with a sheet so getting the ice off would be easier. (We don’t have a garage). Just now I told Lloyd that we should go do that for his car, too. The rain is already coming down, so this picture is taken from inside my coat to avoid getting the camera wet. “Good night, Honda.”

Ok, back to the dumb tea thing. Boy, now it seems like I’ve wasted two posts here, but I’m plowing on. When I was little, my mom would make ‘Tang Tea’, also known as ‘Russian Tea’. The original recipe has all kinds of ingredients – unsweetened tea, sugar, lemonade mix, Tang, cinnamon & cloves. Nowadays I just cut to the chase and put lemon tea mix & Tang together and shake in some spices. This year it was particularly hard to make, since the lid on the Tang wasn’t put back on correctly and the good ol’ Nebraska humidity has turned this into one giant Tang pellet. (scrape, scrape, scrape) No measuring involved, so it always turns out differently every time. Hey, it’s hot and orangey, and that’s what I’m going for!

UPDATE: I’ve been up since 5:08, when Lloyd got the call that his school was closed. I can never sleep on these days, because I get all worried fot no good reason. Anyway, I’m waiting to hear when I should go into work, and I wanted to show the success of the sheets. Peeling them is like using a giant Biore Pore Strip for your car. I was a little worried about hurting the windshield wipers, but going slowly worked well.

My neighbor is making me crazy – he’s mowing my yard. Well, just a substantial portion of it. Just the portion that he can see from his house. *sigh* Is there any worse criticism? It says, “I have to look at your crummy leaves and they’re ruining my view.” *sigh* I’m sure he thinks he’s being nice and helpful but it’s really eating on my nerves. I may sneak a yard sign outside tonight that says, ‘Stop mowing me’. I like fallen leaves. They’re crunchy and colorful. God put them there, for cryin’ out loud. Don’t bother asking why I don’t just go talk to him about it. I’m way too chicken, through and through.

Speaking of chicken, I made some pot pie to make myself feel better. See??? Autumn leaves on the ground, pot pie in my gut. That’s how life is supposed to be.

I love chopping stuff! It’s really a shame that I can’t work in a restaurant where my only responsibility would be to make large pieces of food smaller. This weekend I spent way more time than necessary slicing apples up so we could snack on them. I started to get obsessed over how many slices I could get out of a quarter of an apple. (Twenty-four is the record, and now I’m all out of apples.)
Hmmm….I wonder if I could give sliced apples for Christmas?