The ladies and I enjoyed ourselves tremendously yesterday at cooking club. This is Michelle and I… my right hand woman. Always dependable, reliable and a heck of a good cook. She also appears to have some form of OCD and cleans up every single piece of dishware the minute we are finished using it. She’s a keeper!

We made sugar cookies and TONS of royal icing. I made a double batch, which was way more than enough to make 6 colors for flood and 2 for detail work. We piped the extra onto wax paper to make candy dots for the kids (and us). BTW, I started using Ateco brand meringue powder and it tastes so much better than the other brands. I also add vanilla and almond emulsion for flavor.

We made spring cookies with spring colors for both our icing and our sanding sugar (another BTW, I buy my sanding sugar online because the type they sell in stores is too coarse for me). I hold my cookie over a coffee filter to sprinkle sugar… that way I can return the excess to the container.

I have always loved to decorate cookies with dragées, even though they are illegal. Ok, I’m exaggerating, you won’t go to jail for owning them, but they are “not for human consumption.” The FDA banned them in the early 20th century because the silver finish *may* have contained mercury. They don’t contain mercury now (and it’s questionable whether they ever did), but they are still not listed as edible in the United States (they are everywhere else). Anywho, I love eating them, I love decorating with them and I love that Ella always asked to decorate cookies with earrings when she was little. I took this photo to show that I use tweezers to place them on the cookie.

Michelle made the most amazing tortilla soup for lunch, recipe here.

I take cookie decorating very seriously.

Ok, really, I don’t. This is more accurate representation of cooking club activities. Fun is not even the word, we have a blast laughing and talking and laughing and baking and laughing.

Our group, from bottom left: Mom, Eleanor, Beth. Top row from left: me, Michelle and Riki Figas Dodds.

Everyone did so well with their cookies, it was the best day EVER!!!! Bringing the two things I love most (family/friends and baking) together is heaven!

My sweet sister-in-law Beth brought her mom, Eleanor, so we could celebrated her birthday.

Our cooking club meets once a month, but not on a regular schedule (we need to be flexible for those that work for “the man”). We will periodically hold open house editions of cooking club, I will post those events as they are scheduled!

Cooking Club March Recipes
Sugar Cookie Recipe
Royal Icing Recipe
I should note that both of these recipes were slightly modified, I used almond emulsion in both and clear vanilla extract in the icing.

You may be surprised to learn that one of my favorite hobbies is baking. I love spending time in the kitchen, experimenting with recipes and indulging in the wonderful aroma’s of freshly baked goods. Last year I started a cooking club with my friend Michelle. Essentially, we would get together and try new recipes or techniques (and talk. and eat. and laugh. and cry). One of our goals was to learn how to make a really good loaf of bread. Enter: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

A friend of mine on Facebook suggested this book, so I put it on my Christmas list. I was so excited when I made my first loaf, it was easy and amazingly delicious!!! The concept is simple: pre-make your dough and then use portions of it to bake fresh bread whenever you would like. The five minutes refers to the active time to create a loaf on baking day. Since I first opened the book, I have had dough in my refrigerator almost every single day. My family LOVES it, the crust is amazing and it is much healthier than store-bought bread. Look at that crust!!

I’ve had several friends ask for the recipe, so I thought it would be fun to invite them to my home and bake together. Our very first Open House Edition of Cooking Club will be Thursday, February 3rd at 10:30am. You can contact me for more information at heatherjl@gmail.com. We will mix the dough, learn the process and bake bread, rolls, breadsticks and pizza crust. I will ask everyone to bring some flour and a small side-dish to share for lunch.