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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

What's Been Movin' and Shakin' Lately?



Me!  That's what!  I don't know where the last 5 months have gone... ok, actually I do... We just moved from a Chicago suburb with a population of 75,000 to a small, quiet little Madison WI suburb of 12,000 (small as in, my directions often involve making turns at cornfields, and warnings to watch out for the tractors crossing the road!). Definitely a change of pace - Piggly Wiggly doesn't really carry my favorite ingredients, and craft stores are no longer conveniently a mile or two down the street (country road, whatever!).  Makes things a little difficult, but the trade-off is well worth it.  I LOVE living here!  (I especially love my new Wolf oven...!)



Anyway... I just wanted to apologize for my extended absence - we found out in March my hubby was being transferred here, and between fixing up & selling our house, finding & buying a new one, and all the fun involved in moving, things have been a bit crazy.  But I'm finally finding a little more time each day to get my baking groove back on.  YAY!

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So, in our crazy days of no-time-to-bake, my kids picked up some of those frosted animal cookies - I was SO grossed out by what came out of the package, I just had to make it right.  See below:




I mean, what are those store-bought blobs supposed to resemble, anyway?  Homemade ones hands down look better (even though I went a little too sprinkle happy!), taste better and, aside from the mixing (dough), rolling, cutting, baking, mixing (icing), bag filling and cleaning up, they are super easy-peasy to make:  


(that's an elephant...but you already knew that...)
 
So, if you are already doing all that other stuff anyway (you know, the mixing (dough), rolling, cutting, baking, mixing (icing), bag filling and cleaning up)  there is no excuse to EVER buy those crappy iced animal cookies EVER AGAIN!  And they are sooo perfectly cute for a baby shower or gift!  Even change up the colors of your icing or sprinkles - I personally love Wilton's Spring mix : )
 

I hope to be all back to "normal" soon - baking, posting, giving things away... in the meantime enjoy the rest of your Summer!