394.262 (Secular holidays - Holidays of March, April, May) - A Memorial Day Post

My mother's church has an annual Memorial Day bake sale. The church sits right on the parade route, so as long as the weather is decent (which sometimes happens in Wisconsin), they do pretty well. Since I was in town for a surprise party that day, she asked me to bake some cookies for the bake sale.

I've been wanting to try the "stained glass" cookie technique for a while, so here are the awesome results!

The hubs helped with these cookies, for which I was EXTREMELY thankful. They're kind of a pain!

I made my normal sugar cookie dough (the one out of the Betty Crocker (c)1973 cook book) and cut out stars using two different sized cookie cutters. After a little SCIENCE!, the hubs and I discovered that the best way to make them without either a) the candy melting too fast and then becoming bubbled and burnt or b) the dough being under cooked was to follow the steps below:

1. Bake the cookies for 2-3 minutes on the parchment paper lined sheet before adding the candy.
2. Remove the cookies from the oven and add "large-ish" chunks of jolly rancher to the center of the cookie, using more candy than you think you'll need to ensure complete coverage of the inside of the cookie. Also, doing this carefully so no candy ends up on the dough itself, but stays on the inside of the cookie.
3. Bake until all of the candy has melted (another 3-5 minutes) and the cookies appear a little brown around the edges.
4. Use a toothpick to quickly (and carefully) spread liquid candy to any blank spots.

Instead of wasting or re-rolling the middles I cut out of the cookies, I baked the middles and then frosted them with a simple pour-frosting (Wilton recipe).

They definitely turned out beautifully, though! I've got to hand that to them! And if you like jolly ranchers, they're pretty taste-y, too!

A few more pictures for posterity, right?

Cooking in the window - I love the reflection on the window sill!

Cookies in my mother's antique glass bowl. Aren't they patriotic?

Closeup on my favorite cookie of the batch - I love the way the color swirls!

793.2 (Parties and entertainments)

I just hosted a bridal shower for my best friend and her future hubby, and with the help of my mother and the bride and groom's mothers, we turned a basement room of a local art museum into a cheery, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" themed shower space.

 I bought vases, beads, and tiny square mirrors at our local Dollar Tree to create 10 small centerpieces to decorate the tables using dyed daisies, carnations, and baby's breath.

I purchased "high quality" plastic silver ware and plates from Party City. I then baked and decorated sugar cookies, which I packaged in paper CD sleeves and tied with black and white bakers twine. Silver chargers (left over my my own wedding almost 3 years ago) were used to complete the place settings.

When we arrived at the museum, my moms (my actual mother and my "other mother", the bride's mother) discovered that the tables weren't the size we thought they were - we were expecting tables that sat 8 and these tables sat 6. We had to go out and buy some tablecloths last minute... and since Manitowoc (where we hosted the shower) doesn't have a Party City, we couldn't match the Tiffany's blue of the other tablecloths I purchased). It wasn't as pretty as I would have liked, but it worked.

And of course I made a cake and cupcakes for the party! How could I not!?! The cupcake tower is made out of aluminum covered soup cans and foam core board covered with craft paper and ribbon. It was cheap and easy and could hold almost 40 cupcakes.

The small orange and white cake had a blue ombre interior, which I didn't get a picture of before the cake was eaten and destroyed, and the cupcakes were chocolate with simple vanilla buttercream. I had a mixture of paper and foil liners on the cupcakes, as I was using the leftovers from other projects.

I made three floral "puffs" that I placed on chargers and mirrors at the center of the buffet table. They're a little hard to see in this photo (it's white against a white background) but they were very effective at making the buffet table look pretty. My black and white damask tablecloth that I usually use for summer picnics came in handy to cover the extra long buffet table.

All in all, it was a successful shower with delicious food and good company! One less activity to cross off my list before the wedding in June... now if only the table runners and bridesmaid clutches would sew themselves...