Making sugar cookies with my mom is one of my favorite memories growing up. She had found the best recipe in an old cookbook, and we stuck with them every year. I get requests for the cookies from anyone who has ever had them, and I thought it would be good to share them here. After hearing from a lot of you, many don’t have a go to sugar cookie recipe and you should!!!
I am going to share my frosting recipe with you as well, because honestly, it is what makes these the BEST cookies to most people. But honestly, if frosting isn’t your thing…these taste great alone or just with few sprinkles.
What You Need
2/3 cup Butter Flavor Crisco
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
What You Do
-Cream butter flavor Crisco, sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg.
-Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Mix into creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight. (I always leave it over night.)
-Heat oven at 375 degrees.
-Roll half the dough at a time to about 1/9 inch thickness on floured surface. Cut in desired shapes. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugar and decors or leave plain to frost when cool.
-Bake at 375 degrees about 7 to 9 minutes. Cool slightly. remove to cooling rack.
The BEST Creamy Vanilla Frosting
This recipe makes A LOT of frosting. I usually make half a batch, but if you are going to double the cookie recipe or use it for something else, this would make enough for that.
What You Need
1/2 cup Butter Flavor Crisco
4 cups confectioners sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
What You Do
Combine ingredients in bowl at low speed of electric mixer until well blended. Scrape bowl. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes, or until smooth and creamy.
If you are going to color the icing, you can mix it in now.
It is hard to believe that this is the last weekend before Christmas!!! Work was insane all this week, so I never got to share our weekend shenanigans last week, or post anything I had planned. Pretty much the story of my life this entire year.
This weekend, we plan to do all the Christmas things. We are going to bake cookies (I will share our favorite recipe next week, including the icing), watch some Christmas movies we haven’t gotten to yet, wear our mommy and me matching jammies, read Christmas books, see my sister for a little bit, and do some more Christmas crafts.
Favorite Moments: The weather was gorgeous last Friday and Sunday. We spent every moment we could outside, knowing it might be one of the last for a little while.
We did our gingerbread village last Sunday. It was a lot of fun having several houses to decorate, but we always run into the problem of them caving in while we are doing them. I think next year I am going to purchase the already built one and just roll with it.
And of course our elf has been up to his own shenanigans each night. Luckily, he hasn’t made any more messes since the snowpocolypse of 2020 in our kitchen.
Favorite Purchases: My favorite sweatshirt came out in two new colors this week. A dusty rose and powder blue. I grabbed up a dusty rose for myself, and ordered one for my mom to put with her Christmas stuff. Of course, the package in lost in transit now….but I own enough of these sweatshirts to know I love them and have several colors in them.
I have been using the Colleen Rothschild conditioner/hair mask for several months now, and I absolutely love it! I have a really good hair routine down now, finally. I think that this has played a big part in how soft and healthy it feels/looks now. She has a tis the season sale, so now is the time to grab it! Her hand cream is also amazing. It smells so good and is not greasy at all.
Favorite Recipe: I need to really sit down and get some new meal plans in the works again. I have been in a food rut the last few weeks, feeling very uninspired. This Christmas salad looks so good! f
Obviously, healthcare workers, poll workers, grocery store employees/other essential workers and delivery services (FedEx, UPS, USPS) win the award for the real MVP. This is more a fun, trivial list.
Shipt, Instacart, Uber Eats, TrussvilleToGo – Until the last month, we used Shipt (Target and Publix) and Instacart (Aldi) for all of our grocery needs. We had few instances where an item was missing, expired, not the right thing. Overall it was a wonderful service and I highly recommend. And then we have our local food delivery service and Uber Eats for all the restaurants around here. Some of our local places never did offer curbside, or have done away with it, so these services have been great for that.
Curbside – After about 8 months of using delivery services…those fees and tips add up and make the grocery bill ridiculously expensive. Most stores have mastered the curbside pick up option, and that is what we do now. I hope curbside is something that sticks around after the pandemic. I really love that other retail stores like Best Buy, Lowe’s and Michaels have been offering curbside as well. There is nothing I hate more than walking around Lowe’s, so to have them find the stuff for me and bring it to my car is priceless!
Coffee – I am exhausted all of the time now. Waking up early, working out, working my full day and having Zoe home with us 24/7 doesn’t give me any down time, or time to myself. Coffee runs deep in my blood and is the only thing that gets me through some days.
Streaming Services – I think we all appreciate having YouTube, Netflix, Prime, Disney+ and whatever else right now.
Skincare – Has anyone else really mastered their skincare this year? I have always had a skincare routine, but I never really focused on procuring products that would really work for me, and eliminating unnecessary steps. I did some research, changed a few things out back in April/May and never looked back. I think face masks, hair masks and other products have allowed us to feel lux and take care of our skin, and forget that the world around us is burning. At least for those 10-20 minutes.
Loungewear – Sweatshirts and leggings. My new uniform of life. Nothing more needs to be said here. I will say, I didn’t have a great collection of at home clothes before March. When I realized that we were going to be home for longer than 2 weeks, (LOLOLOLOLOL remember when we thought it was only 2 weeks?????) I started investing in some loungewear. I have found some fantastic new favorites, and I am sure you have too.
Outdoor Furniture and Activities – We moved in to this house just a few months before all this went down. Back in April we invested in some really nice outdoor furniture. I am so glad we did. We literally spent time on our back deck at some point every day for months. As well as corn hole, sprinklers, blow up pools, bikes, scooters, balls, outdoor playhouse, side walk chalk, wagons, soccer goals, etc. All of it has earned its keep in our garage because it has entertained us for more hours than I ever knew it would just this year alone.
Walks – I don’t know about you, but when it wasn’t as cold…I was taking daily walks. Walks in the morning alone after my workout, walks with Zoe throughout the day, a family walk in the evenings when Chris was done working. The outdoor fresh air and moving…it does things for my sanity and my soul. I haven’t been taking as many lately with the cold spell we have had come through here, and I definitely notice a difference in my mood. I have also loved Andrea’s Walk and Talk series on Instagram. I have never recorded a walk and talk myself, but I tune in to every single one of hers. Thank you for being a light, Andrea!
Books – Escaping to another land in a book outside of the pandemic has been invaluable. Shout out to Lindsay for her virtual book club, too. It is literally the only face to face adult only interaction I get outside of Chris and zoom meetings for work.
Memes – Because if you can’t laugh, you’ll cry.
Crafts and Baking – What else do we have to do on a rainy day? I have definitely invested more in crafting supplies this year. Between home schooling and just needing something to do on a rainy Saturday, it has been a great distraction! I have also tried so many new recipes this year! Remember when everyone was making banana bread and sourdough bread?? Now everyone is posting about hot chocolate bombs. They seem to labor intensive for me. Have you made them?
Christmas – This is the first year it has been acceptable to throw your tree up and start playing the holiday jams on November 1 without taking crap from everyone. Any year I believe you should do you and do whatever makes you happy and sparks joy. No one needs the negativity. But this year especially! The Christmas spirit is really helping me get through these last two months. Thanksgiving was hard not seeing family, and Christmas isn’t going to be looking much better given the rise in cases. At least Christmas movies, driving to see lights, playing elf on the shelf every night, baking cookies, shopping for gifts, etc is bringing some normalcy and joy!
Felt like a good currently post this morning. I also have something on my mind that I would like to vent.
Reading– One to Watch came available from the library last week. It was the audio version though, and I really just don’t have time to listen to a book right now. It is much easier for me to physically read one, which is so different than me pre-pandemic. I hope to get through it before it is due back.
Watching– Some of our shows have come back, so we have enjoyed catching an episode after Zoe goes to bed a few times this week. We are caught up with Good Doctor, Blue Bloods, Chicago Fire, SVU and I think we have one more episode of Greys. It is nice to have that normalcy back.
Listening-I found Liz Moody’s Instagram account through Whitney Simmons when she shared some of her Tik Tok recipes that I tried. I learned that she has a podcast called Healthier Together. I listened to her most recent episode on skincare with Jessica DeFino and I found it very intriguing. In the episode she talks about why hyaluronic acid isn’t good for your skin, and a few other shocking tidbits I never thought about. I am definitely going to do some research now. If you are looking for healthy recipes, Liz’s Instagram account is great!!!
Cooking-I made an oatmeal bar recipe yesterday morning, and it was amazing. Like I almost ate the whole pan throughout the day yesterday because I couldn’t stop. This is where the recipe came from. Found, again, from a Whitney Simmons video.
I also made this chicken tortilla soup last night. It was really good! Definitely add the coconut milk. It gives it this creaminess to it that really sets it apart.
Thinking-Last Friday was insane with work. Email was blowing up. We took in more jobs in that one day than we usually get in a week. I was feeling overwhelmed, especially since I had worked extra early in the week to take a few hours to spend with Zoe on her birthday and wasn’t able to.
I had mentioned being overwhelmed to my sister, who made a comment about how she doesn’t have any sympathy for me because I get to sit in the comfort of my own home in a sweatshirt and don’t have to deal with people in person like the “essentials” such as herself.
Is there anyone else out there who feels this way??? Because let me tell you, while I am so so so grateful that I have a job that allows me to WFH in a sweatshirt during all of this…it is not some easy cake walk. I have a full time job with real responsibility. Take yesterday, my team was responsible and the last say on whether a $50 million deal went through. And yes, I do it from the comforts of my home..in a sweatshirt most days…but I am ALSO taking care of my child during this time. Basically a second full time job. And being her friend, caregiver, playmate, mother, teacher, dance instructor, basically her everything. Because Chris sits in meetings literally all day every day and cant really help me at all.
I still wake up before the ass crack of dawn, and even though I don’t have to commute to the office anymore…I still have to work out and fit in a few hours of work before Zoe wakes up. Last night I was up til almost 11pm working after she had gone to sleep. I work EVERY Saturday and Sunday for several hours, waking up early and not getting to sleep in on a weekend. Thanksgiving and Black Friday are the only two days I have had off since March. And only because I forced myself to take a break.
On top of all of that, I have mom guilt for making my daughter play independently for hours every day. Way longer than anyone her age should have to. And I have guilt in my career for not being the best I can possibly be and trying to further myself. I get my work done and on time, but it is really hard to focus some days when you are getting interrupted a hundred times to get snacks, put someone on the potty, checking to see what that noise was, listening to ridiculous shows on the ipad in the background, being asked 50 times if I am almost done and can take a break, etc.
So I want to set the record straight for people out there that think working from home is easy, and not really work. Because I promise you it is in fact not. And just because I don’t have to see people in person, doesn’t mean I don’t have to deal with people. I get snarky emails where it is hard to read the tone. I spend hours trying to track down data on the phone, talking to zoning departments, tax assessor offices, playing phone tag, etc. I have zoom calls with my team, and have to talk to market participants. So I am still “dealing with people.”
I ignored her comment, but it has eaten at me for days. This year has been hard on everyone, no matter your situation. We should have compassion for others, because you never really know what they are going through.
And there is this, which I think a lot of us have mastered…
Working-Because of what I said above, a lot of my side projects that I was really excited about this year have fallen to the back burner. Or off the stove completely. I had so many great ideas that I really want to make happen, and I just don’t have the time or energy for them. And I know you make time for what is important to you, but damn. Can someone give me a few extra hours in the week to accomplish them???
I need to come up with a plan for these things. I am indefinitely working from home for at least another year, and Zoe probably wont go back to school until the next school year…so this is life and I need to figure out a way to balance it. I think the hardest part of this year for me is feeling like I am losing myself and just barely staying afloat. Does anyone else feel that way?
Linking up with Steph and Jana. I read a few books that I really enjoyed this month, one was a debut from an author that I highly recommend. My goal at the beginning of the year was to read 52 books, average one a week. I don’t think I did that many in 2019. This year had other plans for us all, didn’t it. I am at 67 books for the year! I hope to get all my favorites together for the second book link up later this month. I feel like I rated more books 4 and 5 stars this year than in the past. I am not sure if it was the head space I was in, or they were really that good? What was your reading like this year? Did you find yourself getting lost in a book more or less?
This is my first from this author. I actually have The Switch on audiobook in my possession as well. I thought this was a cute book, but I have to be honest and say I wasn’t real sure about the writing style for the Leon parts. I got used to it, but it was hard in the beginning. I really loved Tiffy, Leon, Rachel and Richie. The premise of the book, building a relationship through post it notes reminds me of the early days between Chris and I, as we met online and communicated at first through email and then text before phone calls and finally meeting in person.
There is some baggage to unpack with Tiffy and her ex boyfriend. Man, was he a douche. This could be triggering for some people. I think it was done very well and convincible. Overall, a lovely book that I enjoyed and had a hard time putting down.
So I have an unpopular opinion in that I didn’t LOVE everything about Beartown and Ove. I liked both books overall and though the writing was beautiful, they took awhile for me to get in to. I felt that Beartown just went on forever and ever and I got really bored in parts, not caring to pick it up.
Now, with all that said…I like Anxious People a lot more! I finished in just a few sittings. All the characters in the book worked their way into my heart quickly, even if they didn’t seem likable in the beginning. I sort of figured out what happened, but there was a slight twist to it for me. Also, the way that Fredrik worked and weaved some of these characters together was very well thought out. The book was filled with grief, depression, anxiety, love, loss, parenthood, life choices. It has it all. What I loved most, was that this book was heartbreaking in some ways, but made me laugh and left me feeling warm in the end.
Bottom Line: I probably wouldn’t have picked this book up if it wasn’t for book club given my history with his previous books. But I was left feeling warm and loved the way the story tied together in the end. I think there were 7 of us on the book club meeting, and I am the only one who liked the book. But most people whose recommendations I take (Kristen…Heather…looking at you) loved it. His writing is definitely not for everyone.
This book is marketed as The Unhoneymooners meets The Hating Game, and I have to say that is very true. The Galápagos Islands sounds like a dream. I admittedly didn’t know much about the area and looked it up while I was reading so I could really transport myself there. I love both characters in this book, the banter between them and their competitiveness kept it really fun and entertaining. Their chemistry was nice, even though it was a closed door romance. I smiled the entire way through, and this might be one of my favorite romcoms of the year!
Bottom Line: Highly recommend. I cant believe this is a debut book from this author, I cant wait to read her next one!
**I received a copy of Shopped from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are of my own.**
After Shipped, I had a hard time getting into anything because I was sad it was over. I started to read this book and just sort of lost my mojo. Then a day before it was due back to the library, I picked it up and really got into it! There is a lot to unpack with this book. There are many heavy topics, yet the whole book felt light to me? I really liked Emira and some of the other characters in the book. There was a good pace all the way through, and I liked the ending. It wasn’t rushed or cheesy, which was appreciated.
I didn’t realize this was the second book in the series to The Friend Zone until I added that I was reading it into Goodreads. Kristen from that book is best friends with our leading lady, Sloan in this book. I want to go back and read the first one because I loved this one SO much and people I know said they liked Friend Zone even better. How?? I guess I will find out.
Anyways, about this book. I loved Sloan and Jason, Tucker and really loved Jason’s family. Sloan is dealing with the grief of losing her fiance in a tragic accident and having a hard time moving on, Jason has the drama of being famous. It was instant love, which sometimes can go either way for me. I liked it in this book. I thought there were some really beautiful moments throughout the book. And the mental state that Sloan was in at the beginning felt realistic to me. I had a really hard time putting it down.
I requested this book back in March when Zoe’s school first shut down, and I just now got it. Ridiculous, right?! Obviously, we are still staying home with Zoe and I am desperate for a refresh on our lessons throughout the week. I will admit, I was slightly disappointed that this book is geared for ages 1-3. Most of the stuff in this book is too young for my daughter who is 4. However, there are some key principles I have taken away in the way I deal with problems that arise. There are also a few activities and ideas that can still apply.
I definitely think this would have been a great book to read about 2 years ago for me. I definitely recommend it for other parents just starting out. You don’t have to have the Montessori mindset to read this book. It really helps you relate to your toddler. Any parent can utilize a lot of these techniques.
Bottom Line: This would be the perfect book for parents of young children, newborn to 3.
I love reading Christmas books this time of year, obviously. This book had some really cute elements to it, I loved the bakery setting and the fact that it had older characters that are closer to my age than most of the love story books I read. However, I felt this book lacked character development. There were zero romance sparks for me between Olivia and Simon. There are some deeper topics in this book dealing with Olivia’s mom’s dementia and Simon had a tragedy in his family. So this isn’t a fluffy book by any means, but it wasn’t deep either, given the topic. I enjoyed the story and the setting while I was reading it, but honestly, it is quite forgettable.
Bottom Line: If you are looking for a Christmas book to pass the time, this one is fine. I enjoyed the descriptions and the setting of the book. This just wasn’t anything special, and rather forgettable. Just a book to pass the time.
