A cookie a day...

Well, it probably won't be keeping the doctor away, but it sure would be yummy!
I'd like to promise to post a cookie recipe daily (yes, I have that many!) but I'm not that foolish. I know myself well enough to know that eventually something will come up and I'll get busy or forget or not be home or...well, just about anything could come up in my crazy life. BUT, since I've posted about the 2008 Cookie Bake, I do promise to post all 25 recipes that we'll be using this year, and I'll get them up before baking day (November 23). I'll try to post at least one a day until I get them all up, but don't forget it's football season and we do love our football weekends...and baking cookies for tailgating, so don't expect too much of me!
I'll start the endeavour out right though by posting recipe #1 today. This is for my mom's Sugar cookies, believe me, you can NEVER go wrong with these! We've always called them Cut-Outs.

Sandy's Cut-Out Cookies

• 1 cup margarine
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons milk
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 1/2 cups flour

Mix ingredients in order in a large bowl. You can use an electric mixer until the flour makes it too hard to mix, then switch to a wooden spoon or your own hands (kids love this!). You may need extra flour if the dough is too sticky to roll out.

Roll dough out on a floured surface to about a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut dough into desired shape with a floured cookie cutter, or a butter knife (we used to trace our hands when we were growing up, sometimes decorating them to look like turkeys around Thanksgiving time...be creative!).

Bake cookies on a lightly sprayed baking sheet, at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Don't over-bake! Cookies are done when a fingerprint lightly pressed into the center pops back up. The bottom will be very slightly browned

Carefully remove warm cookies to cooling rack. When the cookies are completely cool, ice and decorate the side that was down on the cookie sheet, then decorate and let the icing set for a couple hours before packing them for storage. Keep them in a covered container or they freeze well for about 2-3 months.

This recipe makes a pretty large batch of cookies but the number depends on the cookie cutter you choose. We tend to get about 4 dozen cookies out of each batch. You can also cut the recipe in half.

Sandy's Icing

• 1 cup shortening
• 8 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Cream together all ingredients, adding a bit more powdered sugar or milk to achieve the desired consistency. After the icing is mixed, divide it and color each portion if you like. Paste colors tend to work best, but liquid food coloring is fine too, you just may have to add more powdered sugar to keep the consistency you like.

Ice the cookies and immediately sprinkle on any colored sugar or candies you wish to use. Set the cookies aside for the icing to set...or just eat them now!

Enjoy,

Val