Cookies!

I made sugar cookies last week for the kids to decorate at Keith's office Christmas party.  It got me in the mood for gingerbread and cookie decoration.

First you need a cookie:

Then you need some frosting.

I started by melting some chocolate & using it as frosting on some pieces.

I made this lederhosen-guy in honor of Rachel's German Christmas this year.

I couldn't find any of my pastry tips (here or at my parents), so I had to make do with a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off.

I covered the cookies with sparkle sugar to cover up my poor piping skills and so you couldn't tell that I didn't temper the chocolate.

Of course, I had to do a few the traditional way too.

This time I went for parchment paper piping bags...if it's good enough for Ace of Cakes, it should work for me.

Viola!  Yes, it didn't entirely stay inside the lines, I never claimed to be Martha Stewart.

I tried a little sanding sugar on these guys too:

Not too shabby.

I'm not too impressed with the actual gingerbread recipe (which btw, does claim to be Martha Stewart), I prefer my gingerbread cookies to taste more like gingerbread and less like brown sugar cookies.  But, they turned out pretty cute, especially considering how I haven't held a pastry bag in years.

Oh right, and did I mention that Parker & I went swimming this morning, so he took a three hour nap this afternoon?  Yeah, that's how.