100 Best Cookies Take Four: Maple Sugar Cookies

Hello, all! Here we are on our third recipie already! Named number four, because we had to skip number two for the moment. 

I don't like typing out exclamatory remarks, but I'm finding it harder than usual to restrain myself with these. They were thin, sugary magic. 

Well, the first batch wasn't thin (aka the picture below). But I fixed it in the next ones. I'd recommend that you make itty bitty dough balls and smash them with your hands or a glass. They inflate in the oven, then collapse as they cool. Like I said, magical. 

I froze this dough too, and it also worked well! The cookies were a little crumbly, but I'm not fancy enough to know what factors contributed to that. It could have been the freeze-thaw, or it could have been something else. Whatevs. 

The icing was simple to make, but it was too thick to be drizzled. I added a few extra tablespoons of whipping cream, maple syrup, and a little more butter, and it did fine! When I got it out of the fridge to put on the cookies before my presentation, I warmed it in the microwave and it drizzled on wonderfully! 

I found them much too easy to eat, and people who tried them really liked them! Here's the rankings:

Taste: 9/10

Easy to Make: 9/10

Visual: 8/10 (because of the crumble issue)

Knock yourself out! I think these would be great for fall parties, but I'd keep them on the docket all the way through winter too.

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/cookies/soft-maple-sugar-cookies/

100 Best Cookies Take Three: Sweet Potato Pecan Cookies with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipie number three here! 

Yes, you're right, it should be number two, but Publix doesn't stock almond meal, so we had to skip one. No worries, I'll come back to it! 

I made this recipie and the next one (number four) for a class project; we found a way to (loosely) relate cookies to political science, so I was happy. 

The only special (not usually stocked) item for the dough was a sweet potato, and the frosting needed cream cheese, maple syrup, and pecan halves. 

The only thing that made the dough a little more work was the sweet potato, which you have to cook and mash. The magazine has microwave instructions that looked simple; Reble popped it in a pot for me, which was easy too. I didn't worry much about mashing it; it was cooked well, so I just smushed it a little with a fork. 

The icing was easy enough as well, though I'll say it did better after a day or two in the fridge. I froze the dough for two days, and they were delicious! 

I made square ones too, which I thought were cuter. This is from the first night, and you can see that the frosting is a little runny. 

I shared them with classmates, and they loved them! The sweet potato reminded me of pumpkin-flavored things; I think the consistency was similar in that it gave it a nice weight. The flavor wasn't overpowering, which is good. Here's a pic of them before our presentation:

Taste: 8/10

Easy to Make: 7/10

Visual: 9/10

Here's the link!

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/sweet-potato-pecan-cookies/

100 Best Cookies Take 1: Apple Cider Buttons

Oh Happy Day! Recipe #1!

The first recipe, as the title of this post suggests, is Apple Cider buttons. Here's the two special ingredients ("special ingredients" are ingredients that I didn't have already in the kitchen. maybe this helps your mental prep for your grocery list:): instant apple cider & raw cane sugar. 

They were easy to make, and though the dough was crumbly, it baked out wonderfully! I liked them better the second day, but that could've been for no reason. 

I shared them with one of my classes, and my classmates loved them. Someone told me it was one of the best cookies they'd ever had. I took it as hyperbole, or maybe they just have a thing for apple cider. 

Anyway, they tasted like apple cider-flavored shortbread encased in sugar crystals. Here's the verdict: 

Taste: 9/10

Ease to Make: 9/10

Visual: 9.5/10

Overall, they make a great fall cookie!! I'd completely recommend making them! Don't be afraid to make them small; they're great bite-sized. Here's the recipie, courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens! 

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/apple-cider-buttons/

Baking: A New Adventure

Hello, all! 

(or, perhaps, "none," because there is no audience. hey, who said I mind?;)

I have embarked on a new adventure. 

And yes it is baking, but no it's not baking. If you've followed my Instagram for any amount of time, you know that I've been baking for...ever. So that's not new. What's new is that I bought a  Better Homes and Gardens special edition magazine called "100 Best Cookies." And I have determined to bake through it. And I'm inviting you on this journey with me. Stay tuned for recipes 1, 3, and 4! (bc Publix didn't have Almond Meal so #outoforder) 

Fashion on Tuesdays

I was in Atlanta this past weekend (holla, t. swift!). After dropping the rest of the fam at the airport but before heading back to the Ham, I stopped off at SCADFASH. 

SCADFASH (that's fun to type) is a gallery by Savannah College of Arts and Design in Atlanta. Their current exhibition is "Oscar de la Renta: His Legendary World of Style." As Oscar de la Renta is easily in my top three favorite designers, I couldn't stay away from an opportunity to get closer to these designs than my usual webcam-runway watching. 

It was positively wonderful. It was $5 with my student discount, the displays were close enough to be able to examine the seams well, and there were over 75 dresses on display, including ones worn by Nicole Kidman, Taylor Swift, and Sarah Jessica Parker (yes, that one.). They were all marvelously beautiful. (repeat that sentence x382) 

Here's a few pictures; if you get the chance, please go. 

Sabbath Ponderings: Deserving Christ

This is from John 9, which is the story of Jesus healing a man who was born blind. The Pharisees are disturbed by this occurrence and bring the man before them to question him about the experience. The second time they question him, he asks why they want to hear it again, and if they want to become his disciples. They respond that they are disciples of Moses, but he is unwise to be a disciple of Jesus because they do not know where Jesus came from. His response is what I'm going to write about today: "The man answered, 'Why, this is amazing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 

We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 
Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.' "

I love the juxtaposition of these last two verses. The divide between the two verses shows perfectly the difference between the old and the new testament. And this is important because we get to live in light of the second verse, not the first. 

What does the first verse say? That you have to be good to go to God. That you have to not be a sinner, but a worshipper. 
Now, I don't know what this says about actual Jewish culture at the time. I don't know if the blind man is expressing what is true to him or what he sees the Pharisees doing, so I'm not going to address this historically. I'm going to talk about it in a different context, the context of today.
Christians today often believe this first verse without even realizing that it's not correct. Satan takes our sin and smothers us with it and tells us that we can't go to God until we can breathe again. We look at our sin and see its depravity and look at ourselves and despairingly realize that we cannot look to God until we look better. 
This attitude is false! Because we don't have to live in the first verse! We don't live in legalism like the Pharisees! Tell me, who is the main actor in this verse? and the entire New Testament? Jesus Christ! What does the second verse say that he did? "Opened the eyes of a man born blind."
Read that again. Who had the problem? (answer: the blind man) Who opened his eyes? 
Answer:
Jesus. Jesus Christ.
Christ, who "became for us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1). Why? "So that, as  it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.' " (same).

What does this mean for you? It means that Christ takes us out of our sin. So when we are saved and we sin, we do not have to clean ourselves up before we go to God. When we go to Him to repent we are covered in our sin, but he sees us covered by Christ's righteousness. 
What if we are not saved? "Never since the world began has it been heard." Do you know what this means? Jesus Christ came and healed the sight of this blind man, then he died and took upon himself all of our sins. Never before had anyone done this. Never until that moment. But Christ did, and he was resurrected, and now He saves us. So if you are tired of your sin, turn to him and realize that he will open your blind eyes and remove your sin and place a seal upon you. He says "Go and sin no more," not because you will never sin again, but because you are free to not sin. But when you do sin, he has already covered you. God listens to sinners because we are redeemed from sin through Christ.