A Music Room for Kiddo and Sugar Cookie Popcorn for You!

We'll start with the music room...


And, we'll end with some rockin' Sugar Cookie Popcorn!


So, our little family lives in a little 3-bedroom house.  Mr. E and I share one bedroom (That would be awkward, otherwise.) Kiddo has one bedroom, and we call the extra bedroom "the guest room."  I always feel weird saying that...it makes it sound like we have a library, gift wrap room, salon, parlor, etc. etc.
"Jeeves, please attend to the guest room."

Anyway...the "guest room" was just an average ol' room that saw guests maybe once a year. Otherwise, the bed served as a holding area for cookie cutters that needed to be put away. Meanwhile, the walls of kiddo's room were closing in on him as he accumulated multiple keyboards, guitars, and the like.


Over the summer, I had the idea to convert our extra room to a music room. Kiddo would have more space, and he could actually invite friends over to play music. (I almost typed "jam" there, but I felt like I my 1980s was showing.) ;)

As with most of my ideas, I did not follow through. UNTIL, I got an email from team Novogratz. I've been a fan of the Novogratz designs ever since they did a makeover of the Ree's girls' room.  SO cute!


The 9 by Novogratz is a line of home furnishings and bedding...it's fun, it's colorful, it's bright, it's happy. You will never believe what store carries it. (WALMART!) No way! Way!


So, the fun tomato red metal bed  (the cutest bed and biggest bargain!) and bedding was our jumping off point for the music room. It was exactly what I wanted. It makes a perfect day bed and extra seating for friends. A colorful, happy place for music.
(Most of the pillows on the bed are Novogratz...8 ball pillow is from Ikea and green runway pillow is from 08 Left.)

Find the full line of Novogratz home furnishings here.

Now...we also needed a sweet treat to celebrate our music room and Sugar Cookie Popcorn it is.
So easy, so sweet, so fun!

Those dishes?  Yep...they're Novogratz, too.  These are from Macy's. I love them. I have a thing for COLOR if you haven't noticed. ;)


Sugar Cookie Popcorn

1 batch popped popcorn (how to make perfect popcorn here)
2 TBSP salted butter, melted
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
kosher salt
1.5 bags Sugar Cookie Candy Melts (on sale at Michaels!)
1/2 cup slivered almonds
sprinkles (I used two kinds)
sparkling sugar

Divide the popped popcorn onto two large cookie sheets.  Fish out any unpopped kernels.

Stir extracts into the melted butter. Drizzle the butter mixture over the popcorn and toss. Sprinkle with a few pinches of kosher salt and toss again.


Melt the candy melts on 50% power in the microwave. Start melting for 1 minute, stir, then at 30-second intervals, stirring after each, until melted. Pour over the popcorn and toss. Toss in the slivered almonds.

Add the sprinkles and sanding sugar over the top. Toss lightly. Let sit for an hour or so until completely set.

From our little family to yours...we wish you a colorful and sweet 2015!

*This post was sponsored by The Novogratz. All opinions are my own. I tried to make all of the popcorn my own, but Mr. E ate most of it.*

Sweet on Trader Joe's Saturday: Cookie Butter Cheesecake

You read that right...Cookie Butter CHEESECAKE!

Kiddo and picked this up a couple of weeks ago and decided to review it today thinking this could be a perfect New Year's Eve dessert.  Let's see.


You'll find the cheesecake in the freezer section at Trader Joe's.  Keep it there until the day before serving, then move it over to the fridge to thaw.  It'll keep there for 5 days.


Trader Joe's describes this as "a creamy vanilla cheesecake inside a crunchy Speculoos Cookie Crust, all topped with a slathering of our signature Cookie Butter."  One cheesecake cost $6.99.  It's a little smaller that a cheesecake that you'd make at home, measuring not quite 7" across.


A mom's (my) take: Well, first of all, this is a really beautiful cheesecake...from the scalloped edges, to the swirl of cookie butter on top, to the contrast between the cheesecake layer and the crust. Better than the way it looks, though? It's delicious. The cheesecake itself is creamy and luscious. The cookie crust is crunchy and flavorful, and the cookie butter topping adds just the right hit of spice. Even if you'd never heard of cookie butter before, I think you'd enjoy this cheesecake...creamy vanilla with a hint of gingersnap-esque flavor. Trader Joe's has redeemed itself from the Cookie Butter Ice Cream fiasco of 2014. ;)
Overall rating: 5 of 5 stars

A teenager's (kiddo's) take: Looks aside, this cheesecake stands up to all that it claims to be. The trio of the Speculoos cookies, classic cheesecake flavor, and rich cookie butter combine to make this a cheesecake that you will not be able to keep yourself from eating. The cookies actually taste quite a bit like ginger snaps (not a bad thing at all), and the intrinsic awesomeness of cookie butter leaves you with a finish which make it hard to stop eating. Whether it's a half slice or half of the box.
Overall rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Trader Joe's Cookie Butter Cheesecake: YES! Pick one up for your New Year's party! 

Read all of our Sweet on Trader Joe's dessert review posts!  See you next week!

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Wishing you and yours an Out of this World Christmas!

From a galaxy far, far away...otherwise known as Texas...we're wishing all of you and your families an out of this world Christmas!
{groan. I know, I know...Mr. E's corny jokes have rubbed off on me after all of these years.}


In case you want to pick these Star Wars cookie cutters up for next year, they're from Think Geek. I think they'd be perfectly cute all year long. Wookie Cookies!
The storm trooper is my favorite. 

Gingerbread recipe here.
Royal Icing recipe here. 

(The gift tag seemed appropriate for Catholic school Christmas gifts, right?  I'm sure if the teachers didn't think I was a weirdo before, THEY DO NOW.)


Have a very, merry Christmas!  
Or, as Yoda would say, "Have a merry Christmas, you will." 

Sweet on Trader Joe's Saturday: Dark Chocolate Triple Ginger Cookies

Ho, ho, ho! It's time for another seasonal dessert review! 

This week, we review Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Triple Ginger Cookies. This is a seasonal item at Trader Joe's and comes in a pretty little box for giving.

Trader Joe's describes these as "a kicked up chocolate lover's version of our best selling ginger cookie." A 6-ounce box (about 15 cookies) costs $2.99.


A mom's (my) take:  I'm a big fan of chocolate and ginger together. I wanted to love these, I tried to love these...it didn't happen. The dark chocolate really overpowers the ginger cookie. They're not a bad cookie, just not as good as I wanted them to be.
Overall rating: 3 of 5 stars

A teenager's (kiddo's) take: I think a more fitting name for these would be "Triple Dark Chocolate Ginger Cookies". Yes, the chocolate definitely outdoes the ginger by a mile. That's not a bad thing, though. If you're really looking for ginger, you won't find much but a hint of it. However, if you're going for taste, you'll absolutely love the flavor.
Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Sweet on Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Triple Ginger Cookies: chocolate with a hint of ginger. 

Read all of our Sweet on Trader Joe's dessert review posts! 

On Dasher, On Dancer...

I'm not a blogger who has Christmas recipes made and posts scheduled in October. Usually, if you see it on the blog, I was stuffing it in my face the day before. ;)

These little reindeer, though, I made back in August. AUGUST! A magazine (!!!) that I really like asked if they could interview me about cookie parties and also if would I create a Christmas cookie for their holiday issue.

I was on Cloud 9. (I'm not sure if Cloud 9 is capitalized, but it seems like a proper noun to me.) Anyhoo...I was on Cloud 9 because not only do I love this magazine, but I love pretty much ALL THE MAGAZINES!!!


One of my favorite things about being a flight attendant was that sometimes people would finish a magazine and LEAVE IT IN THE SEAT POCKET!!! Those were the best days ever. (I always make sure to do this now.)  When I get a pedicure, I look forward to flipping the pages of People almost as much as getting pretty toes. In other words, I love glossy pages, quizzes, perfume samples, and tables of content that you can't find until you get past the ads on page 30.

So, December 1st rolled around, and I hightailed it to Barnes and Noble to find my magazine. I spied the magazine...and looked for that table of contents. Hmm...no cookies mentioned.  Let me look in the recipes section. No. Hmm...let me look in the editor's picks section. Nope. OK, now I need to sit on the bench to flip through ALL of the pages.

No cookies. 

I stop by Godiva to eat my feelings, then head home. I did some emailing, and it turns out, they didn't have enough space to include them. I get it, but MAN, soul crusher for a few minutes there.


You know what, though?  That means I get to share the cookie tutorial here, so...

THERE'S NO CRYING OVER COOKIES ON THE EDITING ROOM FLOOR. 

(Unless they are ACTUALLY on the floor, then you can cry...or dust them off and eat them.)


To make these reindeer face cookies, you'll need: 

• Cut-out cookies, reindeer face shape (I got this one at my grocery store)
• Royal icing
• Gel paste food coloring: brown, white, red, green, and black
• Disposable icing bags
• Icing couplers and tips: #2, #3, 4, #1
• Squeeze bottles
• Toothpicks

Divide the royal icing and tint: dark brown, light brown, white, red, green, and black.  Divide the white icing into two bowls. Cover each bowl by pressing a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the icing to prevent crusting.


Spoon the dark brown icing into a piping bag fitted with a #2 tip. Outline the face of the reindeer and pipe the antlers.

Thin the light brown and one bowl of white icing with water, a little at a time, until it is the consistency of a thick syrup.  You’ll look for a ribbon of icing dropped back into the bowl to disappear in a count of one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two.

Cover the thinned icings with a damp dish towel and let sit for a few minutes. Stir gently with a silicone spatula and pour into squeeze bottles.

Working 6-8 cookies at a time, fill in the outline with the light brown icing. Use a toothpick to guide the icing to edges and to pop and large air bubbles that have risen to the surface.


Starting with the first cookie filled, drop dots of the thinned white icing onto the top of the reindeer face (on top of the wet brown icing.)  Let the cookies sit for at least one hour.


Spoon the remaining white icing into a piping bag fitted with a #3 tip.  Pipe eyes onto the reindeer.


Spoon the black icing into a piping bag fitted with a #1 tip. Pipe pupils onto the eyes.  For the girl reindeer, add eyelashes.

Switch the tip on the back icing to a #4 and pipe a nose on the girl reindeer.

Repeat for the noses on the boy reindeer using the red icing.


Thin the green icing as above, but stopping when the ribbon of icing disappears in a count of 20, rather than one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two. Pour this icing into an icing bag fitted with a #2 tip. Add a bow to the girl reindeer, using this icing.

Let the cookies dry uncovered, 6-8 hours or overnight.


Christmas is next week and I have about a million more cookies I want to make. And, I kinda want to make these little guys again. Could we have another week, please???

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Chocolate Orange Pinwheels

For the longest time, I thought I didn't like chocolate and orange together.
You know who I blame?  This guy.  

I remember being a little girl and biting into a piece of that chocolate orange. It was horrible. Maybe I was thinking it was like a giant, round, Hershey's Kiss...I don't know, but it stuck with me.


Apparently, I must have spread the gospel of "chocolate and orange should not be mixed" because as I was telling my sister about these pinwheel cookies yesterday, she said, "I thought you didn't like chocolate and orange together!"


Well, I have been converted.  It started a few years ago when I made cannoli filling.  Then, there were chocolate sandwiches. You get the point. I'm a chocolate + orange lover now...even though I'm never eating one of those "oranges" again.


These pinwheels!  Oh my gosh.  I love them.  I love the swirl, I love the flavor combo, I love making them! 

You'll start with just one dough which gets divided.  Then, you'll make one half chocolate, and one half orange.  You can see the little bits of zest in the orange dough...so pretty.

Roll it all up, chill it, then...it's slice and bake time.


If you don't eat these all by yourself, they look really pretty on a holiday cookie platter.

I'm sharing the recipe and the how-to over on Imperial Sugar today.

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Decorating Christmas Cookies? You'll want these tips and recipes!

All year, we've been training for this. December: the Olympics of cookie decorating.


Never fear! I've assembled every tip, trick, and recipe you'll need for successful cookie decorating this year.

Tip #1.  You'll need wine. OK, only if you're decorating cookies with your kids. 
I'm kidding. (Maybe.)

The recipes:
1. Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies.  These are my go-to cookies, my perfect-every-time cookies. I've made THOUSANDS of them. They keep their shape well and hold up to decorating, packaging, and shipping.

2. Gingerbread Cookies.  Oh, gingerbread...how I love you. This is my favorite gingerbread; you can also find it in my first book.

3. Cinnamon-Sugar Cut-Out Cookies.  One of my new holiday favorites. Perfect for when you're craving cinnamon, but not full-on gingerbread.

4. Royal Icing. Whether you're constructing a gingerbread house, or decorating cookies, this is the recipe you'll need.

The supplies:
1. Meringue Powder. You'll need this to make royal icing.  Look for it online or in kitchen and craft stores.

2. Gel Paste Food Coloring. Bright, vibrant, and won't dilute your icing. Look for the kind that come in squeeze bottles.

3. Disposable Icing Bags.

4. Couplers and Icing Tips. Start with basic tips, such as plain #1, #2, and #3.

5. Toothpicks. You'll use these over and over again for spreading icing and popping air bubbles.

6. Waxed Paper and Parchment Paper. For rolling dough and baking.

7. Squeeze Bottles. Find these in the candy-making section of craft and kitchen stores.  They're much easier to use than piping bags for thinned icing.

8. Cookie Cutters. You'll need some. You can always hand-cut shapes from a template, but it will take you 4 times as long.

9. Sprinkles, etc. Sprinkles, jimmies, sanding sugar, sparkling sugar, nonpareils, luster dust, disco dust...the more, the merrier.

Tips and Tricks:
1. Yes, You Can Freeze Cookies. Cut-out cookies can be frozen plain, AND decorated with royal icing. Thaw at room temperature.  More details here.

2. Prevent Spreading. Freeze the cut out shapes for 5-10 minutes prior to baking.

3. Even Steven. For perfectly evenly rolled dough, use these guides. No guides, not problem. Just eyeball it.

4. Time Management.  Decorating cookies can be a time consuming process. Bake one day, and decorate the next...or do big batch baking, freeze (see tip #1), then decorate as you have time.

5. Packaging and Shipping.  Make sure they all arrive in one piece.  Video (old!) here.

6. How to Marble Cookies

7. How to Make Flat Dots

8. How to Make Double-Decker Cookies

9. Drying Icing.  Here are three options for drying, but most importantly, make sure the icing is completely dry before packaging.  (I learned this the hard way.)

10. Decorating Cookies with Kids.  Breathe. Here are my favorite tips.


Christmas Cookie Decorating Inspiration:
(from my blog)

1. Charlie Brown Ornament Cookies. A really simple way to pay tribute to the Peanuts Christmas Special without replicating the characters.

2. Vintage Truck with Christmas Trees. One of my favorite sights over the holidays...in a cookie.

3. Faux Bois Christmas Packages. These are made with fondant and a wood grain stamp.  The only piping and flooding you'll do is for the bow.

4. Elf on the Shelf Cookies. Think you need a special cutter for the elves?  Nope...here's how to make them without a cookie cutter!

5. Painted Tree Cookies. You'll need one color of icing for this cookie...white! The trees are painted with simple brushstrokes.

(from other blogs)


1. Jingle Bell Cookies from The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle

2. Pink Peppermint Candy Cookies from Bakerella

3. Santa Belly Cookies from Tidymom

4. Holiday Stamped Chalkboard Cookies from SemiSweet Mike

5. Pretty Piped Pastel Christmas Tree Cookies from Sweetopia


REMEMBER! Christmas cookies are not meant to be perfect! They're meant to be shared...and EATEN!!! 
Repeat after me, "It's just a cookie!"

Happy Christmas baking, my friends!

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Sweet on Trader Joe's Saturday: Amaretti Cookies

For today's Sweet on Trader Joe's installment, we're heading to Italy!

Kiddo and I are reviewing Trader Giotto's Crunchy Amaretti. Amaretti are crunchy little cookies, typically made with almonds. I love Amaretti cookies, especially when they're sandwiched together with a little Nutella. ;)

Trader Joe's describes these as "traditionally served with wine or liqueurs and are equally at home with a cup of coffee or some ice cream or can be enjoyed all on their own."  A 5.2-ounce box runs $3.99.


A mom's (my) take: First, the packaging on these is so, so pretty.  Each cookie is wrapped in crisp, printed paper (the cookies are sealed in plastic inside).  I'm a big fan of Amaretti cookies, but these were not my favorite.  They're almost a little too sweet.  When I checked the ingredients, I saw that these are not made with almonds as is typical, but with apricot kernels.
Overall rating: 3 of 5 stars

A teenager's (kiddo's) take: Even before I knew what these looked like, I was impressed with the wrapping (which made me expect them to be very good quality!). They have that classic amaretto flavor (based on amaretto desserts, not actual amaretto) that one would expect, and have a nice crunch to them. The only issue I have is that they are a little bit more substantial than I would like; that is, the inside is entirely filled with cookie which is just as crunchy as the outside, and makes it a bit harder to enjoy the flavor. In my past experiences with amaretti cookies, I've found that airiness makes a very flavorful cookie. Nevertheless, these are still flavorful.
Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Trader Joe's Crunchy Amaretti Cookies: 

pretty packaging! 

Read all of our Sweet on Trader Joe's dessert review posts!  See you next week!

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Mini Gingerbread Houses (from ONE cookie cutter!)

Here's another one of those cutters that I've held on to for a couple of years before using.  I found it in my grocery store...gotta love HEB...but I saw some LAST WEEK in Target!
(You can thank me later for giving you another excuse for a Target run.)

*update: there is one at Fancy Flours, too!*


This cookie cutter is pretty nifty.  With one cut, you get all of the pieces to assemble a mini gingerbread house: front and back, 2 walls, and 2 roof pieces.

I was not entirely sure that this would work.  So, I'll let you in on a little secret.  I didn't not use my most favorite gingerbread dough in the world.  I tested it out with pre-rolled, refrigerated Nestle gingerbread cookie dough.  Yep, I did.  Guess what?  It worked AND it was tasty!

OK...first, you'll bake the cookies.  I froze the shapes for 5-10 minutes before baking like I normally do.

Once they cool, you're ready to assemble and decorate.

I used my regular royal icing recipe.  (I quartered that recipe.) To assemble the pieces, I used a #3 tip.

(It occurred to me after putting them together that maybe I should have decorated the cookies FIRST, then assembled.  Oh well.  Next time.)

Once the royal icing set (I gave it about an hour or more), it was time to decorate!

Once again, I used royal icing and lots and lots of sprinkles.


Loving this Gingerbread Boy sprinkle mix...


This one is a snowy little cottage.  I used Bakerella's mini marshmallows for the roof.  The way I did it kind of makes the roof look like it has a mohawk.  It's a punk snow cottage.


Oh, and this one looks like it may collapse under the weight of the sprinkles on the roof.


This little guy is pretty traditional.

Making these really got me in the mood to make a gingerbread house...or lots of them.  These minis are nice because they're not so intimidating. Which begs the question...why am I intimidated by houses made of gingerbread???

The other really cool thing about these minis is that we actually ATE them! ;)  I've been sending them to school in kiddo's lunchbox.
(Because every 15-year-old boy wants a mini gingerbread house in his lunchbox.  Am I right?)

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