Livin' the Dream in Lima

Happy Valentine's Day all! Hope everyone is having a lovely  day... I woke up to a fresh blanket of snow and a 2-hour delay, which has since turned into a SNOW DAY!!!!! (What a way to celebrate!) On to today's recipe... I have a bit of a confession to make. Sometimes I can be a baked goods snob. If I am offered something is not homemade, it's likely that I won't even want to try it. Why waste the indulgence on something pre-packaged, full of preservatives, and probably not that good anyway? But to be honest, whenever I have seen the Lofthouse cookies at potlucks, school, etc... I have such a strong desire to eat one. You know which cookies I'm talking about! The brightly colored soft sugar cookies sold in grocery stores everywhere .  So when I found a recipe at Annie's Eats for a homemade version, I knew I had to try it. And I'm so glad I did! These cookies are pretty much fabulous. And without all the preservatives. I claim to be a c...

This past weekend, one of my good friends from college, Kristi, came down to the Bean Town with her daughter Cora. We hadn't seen each other in 10 (!) months, so it was a wonderful  weekend of catching up and hanging out. Back in college we always used to bake and/or cook together, so naturally we had to spend some time in the kitchen together. Hello, cookies! On Saturday, we had a Bake-a-palooza to make cookies for cookie tins & trays... and ended up making 15 varieties. Over 700 cookies! It was intense. So intense that we had to compile a plan. We made a variety of cookies from this year's 12 Days of Christmas Cookies and last year's 25 Days of Christmas Cookies. Yum. Funny story :  I actually wrote this list out on Thursday night... and then took it to school with me on Friday. And then I left it at school and almost freaked out. But then I remembered that I had taken a picture of it, so it was fine. Haha ! Once we had everything baked, we...

I'll admit it, I've never really loved sugar cookies. Take me to a bakery case full of cookies, and I'll always go for the chocolate. Every time. However, fancy schmancy sugar cookies with royal icing have always intrigued me. "How do they get that icing so perfect?" I was determined to try it myself. I did some research online, and found a great tutorial at Annie's Eats. If you're going to try it, you should definitely check out her site; she explains a lot of little tips & tricks that will help you succeed. But really? It wasn't that hard! It just takes a lot of patience. And kind of a lot of dishes. (But just find someone like my Business Man, who cleaned up after me all night. Best husband ever.) First, you start out with the sugar cookies. (Duh.) And these are delicious. Usually I don't love sugar cookies because they're too plain, too bland. These have just a hint of almond flavoring and a wonderful texture. Once...