Cookies, Sugar!

 Finally!!!!

Yes~ I finally made Sugar Cookies...

I haven't made sugar cookies for a very, very long time. And I've been intending to do it for a while now, but it just never seems to happen.

I decided that no matter what, I was going to make Amy's Sugar Cookies this year for Valentines.

No. Matter. What!

 And honestly? It wasn't nearly as messy and terrible as I remembered.

Messy? Yes...but not so bad.

Perhaps that was because the kids didn't help?

They just stood around, confused, jaws hanging open...

Next time~ I'll get them to help!

 This is a soft sugar cookie recipe~ the kind with sour cream in it.

They were good. Nice and soft...uh except for the first batch, which I over baked. They still got eaten, though!

I do think this particular recipe is better with frosting.

You may remember that my kids don't like frosting?

I left the cookies all un-frosted, so everyone could choose if they wanted frosting or not.

And guess what??? My kids liked them with the frosting too!

In fact, Shane ate an un-frosted cookie and spit it out in the garbage!

He did not like it at all. I had to coax him to try another one with frosting.

He liked the frosted ones much better!

I  used this Buttercream Dream Icing  (YUM) from The Repressed Pastry Chef.

Absolutely my favorite buttercream type (un-cooked) frosting right now!

Light, fluffy and not too overly sweet.

(I wish she were still blogging! Check out some of her other yummy recipes too. The Sugar Cookie bars are also yummy!)

When I was making the frosting, I remembered my mom teaching me to make buttercream frosting.

She would tell me, "Don't drown the miller". That's what she called it if I added too much liquid.  Which I did on frequent occasions!

Amy's Soft Sugar Cookies

In large bowl or mixer, Mix together:

1/2 cup margarine

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sour cream (small container)

In a separate bowl, mix together: then add to previous ingredients:

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. soda

61/2-7 cups flour

Roll out to desired thickness. (I like mine thick!)

Bake for 5-8 minutes (mine were perfect @ 6 minutes)

 @ 400 degrees on greased cookie sheet.

Cool on rack

Frost, if desired

 I recommend:

Buttercream Dream Icing

And this is what happens when you put 2 frosted cookies on a plate to take pictures for your blog.

And then you try to tip the plate for a more pleasing photography angle...

SPLAT!

 Good thing I waited to mop the floor until after I was done baking cookies!

I have another recipe I'll be trying... sometime...soonish...

Do you have a favorite sugar cookie recipe?

I'd Like to Thank the Academy

Well...

Maybe not the Academy.

But I would like to thank Cherie and Keely for being good sports and not banning me from blogging after my last post!

Keely is so awesome, she made me my own word strip for my "word of the year".

She spelled it right and everything!

(Do you think she was tempted to spell it wrong, just to see if I would notice?)

Bloggers are the awesomest, don't ya think?

Optical Illusions

Optical Illusions...do you like them?

Can you see the illusions?

Some people can't~

Optical illusions are sometimes used in brain injury rehabilitation~ especially if the the patient has vision problems such as depth perception or problems discerning field/foreground.

Curtis has vision problems from his car accident. He has learned to adapt really well! In fact, I'm amazed at how well he has been able to learn to live with this disability.

Can you see the old woman?

Can you see the young woman?

Do you see a man's face?
The word "Liar"?

According to Wikepedia:
•An optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is characterized by visually perceived images that differ from objective reality. The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to give a percept that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source. ...


•the use of shapes, colour, and line distortions which trick the eye and brain. When viewing confusing images, our brain can sometimes interpret visual information and cues incorrectly,or at other times our brains fill in the missing pieces.


Sometimes, our brains can play tricks on us!
 
Cherie has a great blog, Bakow Babble  that most of you probably already read.
A while back, she posted about her word of the year.
And then she posted a cute word strip under her header...
So cute! So clever!
Uh...it's misspelled! (Go ahead, go look again and then come right back, okay?) Bakow Babble...
 
So...I figured she would eventually figure it out. 
 
Then, I was reading this blog: Meanwhile Back at the Gusty Ridge Ranch and Keely posted the word strip that she had made for Cherie...
It was misspelled there too!!! (Alright...go take a peak...here's the link to the post...Gusty Ridge Ranch)
 
ACK!!! (Cherie and Keely...do not freak out!!!) :)
 
Still, I figured someone was bound to figure it out!
I contemplated kindly mentioning it to Cherie...but decided not to.  (Good thing!)
 
I decided just to ignore it!!! But every time I read Cherie's blog...there it was! This giant, misspelled word!!! I couldn't ignore it! It wouldn't go away...it seemed to get bigger and bigger every time I visited her blog!!! (Edgar Allan Poe ish?)...
 
A few days ago, I was reading blogs when Emily came home from work.
She sat down and asked me what I was doin'.
 
Seeing my opportunity, I quickly pulled up Cherie's blog and asked Emily;
 
"Do you see anything wrong on this page?"
 
"No, Mother. It looks fine to me." (Her calling me Mother should have been the first clue!)
 
"Really? Nothing?" 
She looks again.
 
"Nope, nothing. Nothing wrong here. Nopeity. Nope. Nope." (Okay, she didn't really say it like that~ I'm taking some creative liberties here!)
 
"Ha! That word is misspelled!!!" (I point to the word on the screen)
 
"Uh...mom? What do you think it says?" (Warning! Danger ahead!!!!)
 
"STRENGTH" (clearly misspelled, I think to myself)
 
"Mom, that word says STRETCH."
 
*Blink*
 
*Blink*
 
"Oh."
 
So...I am wondering if Keely will make me a cool word strip? But first I have to change my word of the year from CONNECT to
 

I*D*I*E*T

(What do you mean I misspelled it?)

 

(And my brain still tries to read that word as Strength!!! Maybe I need vision therapy?)