CookieD-oh

Who here is cheap frugal? **raising hand and waving wildly** Then have I got a recipe for you!  You see, several years ago I quit my job to stay home with my children.  Then my husband was promptly laid off.  While he worked to get his business off the ground, I tried to find ways to save lots of money.  Now that we're doing a bit better, this is one of the money saving habits that stuck with me.  Because I usually have an apoplectic fit when I see how much the laundry detergent goes for at the grocery store. Note: There are many, many laundry detergent recipes out there, but this one works for me. The ingredient list is quite simple: 1 bar of bathsoap, grated, or 1/3 bar of Fels Naptha laundry soap, grated 1/2 cup Borax 1/2 cup Super Washing Soda 2 gallons water, divided And here's how you make it! Grate the bar of soap.  I used Dove (pomegranate scented) this time.  I used to use the Fels Naptha, but Hubby started complaining abou...

A couple weeks ago a co-worker approached me about cupcakes.  Last time I brought red velvet cupcakes to work, my co-worker, being a good hubby, took one home to his wife.  So she wanted some more.  And she was having a potluck at her place of business, so it seemed like a good time. So anyway, he asked for 2 dozen red velvet cupcakes and I happily agreed.  Then he asked what other flavors I could make.  I said, "Probably whatever you want."  So he described to me a cupcake that he used to get at a bakery long ago.  It was marble with cream cheese icing with Oreos in it. (Can I say "Oreo"?  Or is that some kind of copyright infringement?  How about "chocolate sandwich cookie?"  Will that work?) Only the marble was black and white, making it even more Oreo  chocolate sandwich cookie-esque.  I was intrigued, so I agreed to make a dozen of the Oreo  chocolate sandwich cookie cupcakes as well. I used my go-to ...

Earlier this month, Georganne at  LilaLoa  issued a challenge.  She challenged us cookiers to try something new, and to not be concerned about not being good enough.  The first challenge was to forget about color and do some black and white (and any mixture of the two) cookies.  Here's what I came up with: Pretty dresses in black and white.  I did not do gray scale because I'm lazy and I didn't want to wash more bags and tips.  Hey, at least I'm honest. These cookies were leftover from Christmas.  The girl wanted pretty dress cookies for Christmas, and she did decorate a few for herself, but they didn't make it onto my list for some reason.  And the trees were just left over.  I don't know why. So anywhoo, using leftover cookies and leftover icing, I got to participate in the challenge! First the ball gowns... I tried a little bit of overpiping on these and mostly screwed them up.  The one on the top left is my favor...

It's my first Blogiversary!  And to celebrate the completion of my first year as an official Blogger (can I add that to my resume now?), I am having a little giveaway.  Nothing much, just some fun cookie stuff I got at the local cake decorating store.  They have everything and I love them.  And they've been around for decades.  So they really know their stuff. I picked up some cookie cutters.  America, a hummingbird, a frog and a butterfly.  It has been really hard to let the last three go (if you read this blog with any regularity, you know I already have the America cutter), and I may have to go back for more cutters soon. Disco Dust!  Peacock, Raspberry and Rainbow.  A second peacock may have fallen into my shopping basket by mistake. CK Meringue Powder.  I've never tried it, but I've heard great things.  I used a different brand for Christmas cookies (Lorann) and it was pretty great.  It didn't have the ...

Well, I think we're all recovered from Christmas.  And on New Year's Day we went to my Great Aunt's house for dinner.  And she sent us home with a ziplock bag full of leftover turkey. SCORE! I made pot pie, at the request of the boy. I use this recipe here with just one small change.  We love it. However, I'm pretty sure it is NOT very good for you, as far as calories go.  But it's good for a special treat every now and then. This may be a post without pictures.  My computer is being a complete butt-head.  Of course, it may be Blogger, but I'm going to go with the computer. ****************************************************************************** OK, the nice ladies at www.cookiedecorator.com (aka Cookiers R Us) told me to upgrade to a new browser to make Blogger work again.  So, one Google chrome update later, and I am in business.  Sorry you have to look at my photos again. So let's get started, shall we?  Dice so...

OK, so it's not so much a toy as a very useful tool. Whaddaya think?  It's not done yet, but I needed to use it for Christmas cookies.  I used to keep my full icing bags stored tip-up in coffee cups while I was decorating.  One day, my longsuffering hubby demanded to know why I had to use ALL of the coffee cups in the house, and couldn't I leave him just one for his morning coffee?  Sadly, I had to say no.  I did, however, describe to him exactly what I needed in order to keep my icing bags tidily off of the table without the use of coffee cups.  A mere year later, this is what he gave me. It holds 10 icing bags and it's collapsible; the legs fold down and it stores flat.  As I said, this one isn't completely done yet.  It needs to be sanded and stained, and he's going to rout the edges.  But I really needed to use it.  I'll be sure to post a picture when it's all done.  But it worked so well that I had to share. ...