Being Betty

My inner Betty arrived on Monday night.  

I made sugar cookies.  

From scratch.  

In my kitchen. 

By myself. 

First though, I had to go to the grocery store and buy white sugar and white flour because those don't so much exist in my every day life.  Hence the lack of cute storage for said white sugar and flour.  I do however, have almonds and steel cut oats in canisters if that makes you feel better.   

While at the grocery store, I only had to call Momma Debi once and Sil twice.  I had originally planned on using Grandma Audrey's recipe because it's a classic.  But then Momma D. explained to me I actually had to use margarine in them or they wouldn't turn out as well.  And the thought of using margarine gave me the shakes, so I promptly called up my sister-in-law who is baker extraordinaire and asked for her recipe which uses butter.  Real butter.  

Then I had to call her back while in the baking aisle and ask where to find cream of tartar.  I'm going to be honest and say the only tartar I knew of at that point was tarter sauce.  For fish and such.  I figured that wasn't what she was talking about.  Of course, Sil was able to direct me over the phone to the cream of tartar spice.   

I really have come a long way in my cooking abilities, but some things I still am learning.  And I figure with every new thing tackled, I get one more glitch out of my Betty self.  

Yes, I used a brown egg and don't you just love that little vintage table of weights and measures?  That's from Grandma Lee's treasures and I big hug and kiss it.  

I followed Sil's recipe exactly and the dough was the perfect consistency.  By this time, I was feeling confident in the entire endeavor.  It was rocking right along.  

Then I remembered from my childhood sugar cookie making escapades that chilling the dough helps in the rolling out process.  This also provided me with the perfect chunk of time to clean up the mess I had created so far.  I'm all about cleaning along the way.   

After wiping down the counters and washing a few dishes, I grabbed the bowl of dough out of the fridge and set it on my counter.  Then I retrieved my cookie cutters from the cupboard.  I put some flour in a pretty paisley bowl... 

And then I promptly put the bowl of dough back in the fridge and made a Target run to buy a rolling pin.  Turns out you need one of those. 

 

Once back from the Target, I rolled the sugar cookie dough out like nobody's business.  

 

This is my "Look Momma Debi and Sil!  I'm really going to do this!" face.  

 

This is the part I winged because I wasn't sure how thick the dough should be.  I went with what felt right.  Pretended for a moment I possess kitchen instincts.



The shiny objects.  They get me every time.  Every single time.

And voila!  Just like in life, following your instinct of what feels right also works in the land of thickness while sugar cookie making.

Random insert here.  During the cookie cooling time, I looked in my fridge and thought to myself, "Self.  What are you going to eat for lunch tomorrow?"  What I saw staring back at me was cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, and baby tomatoes.  It turned into steamed veggies and whole wheat pasta tossed with fresh garlic, a tish of squeezed lemon, a sprinkle of black pepper, and liquid aminos {soy sauce...it tastes just like soy sauce}.  After a sample bite, I thought to myself, "Self.  This is tasty.  Do this again."

And it made enough for three days of lunches.  Bam.  A successful fridge clean out.  

 

By 10:30 in the pm, the kitchen was once again cleaned and a quick trip to ask the neighbors to unzip my dress had occurred.  Because turns out, I couldn't reach it.

Then the frosting process finally started.  My original ambitious plan was to make adorable ornaments out of my three sizes of cookie circles. 

But quickly it became 11:30 in the pm and the only thing finished was the white base layer.

So the choice was made to leave behind notions of being super cute and instead go with medium cute polka dots and swirls.

By 12:30 in the am, my first solo making sugar cookies from scratch experience was complete and my inner Betty felt successful.



I took the cookies to work yesterday and by ten in the morning, all that remained on the trays were crumbs.  I never did eat one, but I'm taking that as a clue they tasted yummy.

Sil came through with her recipe and her knowledge of cream of tartar.  And when I was rolling out my dough, she was texting me pictures of peanut butter ball snowmen she was making with Firecracker for her kindergarten snack day.  That woman is amazing.  Four kids and she whips up homemade snowmen that actually stand up for snacks.  Pretty sure I'd send raisins. 

Like I said before, I followed the recipe exactly so here it is in case you want to have your inner Betty arrive at your house.  

Sil's Sugar Cookies

2 cups butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar   

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Combine butter, powdered sugar, and white sugar in large bowl.  Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy.  Add egg and vanilla; continue beating until well mixed.  Reduce speed to low; add the dry mixture of flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.  Beat until dough forms a ball.  

Roll out dough.  Make cookies.  Bake 7 to 9 minutes.  Let stand 1 minute and then remove from cookie sheets.  

Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar

4 Tbs milk

Little bit of vanilla to taste

If too runny, add more powdered sugar

Call for questions!  :) 

Well, she probably doesn't want you calling for questions but that is what was at the end of my email.  It's like my sister-in-law knows me or something.  Now, go forth and make sugar cookies from scratch.  If I can do it, believe me...anyone can.