"Sugar, Sugar"

Some of you (those of you with great taste in music no doubt) might start singing "Sugar, ahh, honey, honey" when you read the title of this post. I made this fun upbeat song from the 60's the title to this post because a) as I made sugar cookies today, I started signing it to myself and haven't stopped yet. And b) to hopefully allude you to something yummy, because if your like me, when you think of sugar, you think yummy! In my last post I promised I would share a sugar cookie recipe that I recently made for Valentines Day. This recipe makes the very best sugar cookies, in my opinion, and for that reason, it's worth sharing here. This sugar cookie recipe is by Alton Brown, who, as I mentioned before is Jack's culinary hero. I found his recipe on the Food Network website at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/sugar-cookies-recipe/index.html

Ingredients 3 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten 1 tablespoon milk Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Directions Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

Trust me, it's worth making these cookies homemade and not just buying them prepackaged from the store. On Valentines Day, Madi and I topped our sugar cookies off with icing, white chocolate and chocolate, but we left a few of the cookies not decorated in order to taste the "original" cookie without all the added sweet stuff. After tasting the cookies both decorated and plan, we all agreed that we liked them plan the best. So, today I didn't decorate them. Plus, my "expert cookie decorator," Madi, was over at a friends and not here to help me. So, decorating was not happening anyway! And since Jack was out getting our garden ready and working in the yard all day, these two were the only ones in the kitchen with me...

and they weren't helpin' ~just beggin' for something to eat! I did carve a few little messages in the cookies for Madi. Stuff like, xoxo, smiley faces, hearts and even a snow flake.

And I did put a cinnamon sugar on top of a few to see how that would taste.

Tasted really good, but we still enjoy them better totally plan.

If you add Gel Food Coloring while perparing the dough, you can make colored sugar cookies. That's next on my list.

You, of course, can experiment however you like with your sugar cookies. I just hope you think they are as delicious as we think they are and that you have fun making them! So, with a sugar cookie in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other and the 60's hit "Sugar, Sugar" in my head, I wish you a great week ahead. Unbelievably, Tuesday, Feb. 23, is Madison's 12 Birthday!! YAY!! I'll post again then.