Sand Dollar Cookies - not my best work

How hard should it be to pipe a basic 5-petal "flower" with a dot in the middle?  I can pipe outlines, I can now pipe a decent stripe (after much practice)...but the centers of my Sand Dollar cookies nearly undid me!

These are the last of my most recent batch of shell cookies and I was happy with everything...except the sand dollars. 

My thought was "oh these will be super simple" and that is probably what cursed me.  I got the 5 "holes" piped...and they were irregular. 

I had a real sand dollar I was looking at...longer "top" hole (or maybe bottom, I'm not sure) and then four more evenly spaced holes.  My piping icing was not stiff enough, despite it being a 25-30 second icing.  I used a 1.5 PME tip.  Still, it spread on some of the cookies. Then, I allowed them to dry and flooded and smoothed...working hard to get it really smooth since there wasn't much to these.  After they dried a bit, I added a bit of white disco dust. 

In the continuation of my apparent curse...this new disco dust tasted "grittier" than most.  Who knows why...but it was.  Same brand - brand new container.  I didn't use much and dusted off the excess when they were all the way dry.  Still, when I bit into them I tasted grit. (sigh)

To make it even worse, the next morning, before having coffee, I head straight for the table and start finalizing these cookies.  My hands were shaking.  The icing was too thin (ANOTHER batch) and I was piping like a drunken sailor...all wobbly and cock-eyed.  I reverted to dots... I was pleased with the dots.  I wish I had done all dots.  I really wish I'd had coffee and a steady hand!  What you see is what I ended up with AFTER using the boo boo stick...these are the better ones, believe it or not!

The pitiful attempts at piping a five petal flower (in essence)
on top of the dried sand dollar cookie.  Waaahhhhh...

The dots were much better.  These I could be happy with.

I guess I'm really glad I didn't make a lot of these!



So, the moral of the story is never assume something will be easy and don't decorate before coffee first thing in the morning :-)

I gave all of these cookies away.  Sorry my friends if they look wonky and taste gritty.  No one has complained...I'm not sure if they would actually.  Onward thru the fog (as we said in the 70s)!

BON APPETIT, Y'ALL!!!

Tejas Brew Pub & Smokehouse

Photo Credit:  Ian Hook

UPDATE 11/7/2013:  It was reported that the last day of business for Tejas Brew Pub and Smokehouse was 10/31/2013...said they were moving their business to Colorado. Good luck to them!

I finally girded my loins and headed to the island on a day in July ...at least it was a week day... happily no crowds to struggle against!  I visited my friends at Paragraph's on Padre Blvd, drove around a bit to see what was up...little things change all the time on the island.  In the Summer, I make myself a stranger on purpose.  When you visit the island in the Fall, you know what "real" island time is like.  There's a slower pace, less crowds, a different set of people.  It's my favorite time of year down here.

So, there are a few new restaurants that I've not been able to try.  I have a handful that I've been reeeeeally wanting to visit...and today, finally, I made it to Tejas Brew Pub & Smokehouse.  Good smoked meats have not been readily available on the island since I've lived down here.  There is a tasty new spot or two in Port Isabel, but until Tejas Brew Pub & Smokehouse opened up, nothing really special in this category on the strip of sand we all love so much!

Since I visited at the book store so long, we didn't get to lunch until 1:30... and not only was it not crowded, we were the only ones in the restaurant section.  We went in the front door (facing the street) which was the main entrance for the previous inhabitants of the building.  I have always found it a confusing building to enter.  At least they clearly have signs indicating bar to the right, dining to the left.  That's after you get in though.  We walked all the way through the dining area before someone hailed us.  Maybe it's less confusing when there are a lot of people there.  It felt like we came in the wrong door.  When we walked in, the first thing I smelled was not the luscious smell of smoked meats, it was the disgusting smell of cigarettes.  I almost turned around and left.

I guess it was folks in the bar smoking.  I used to smoke.  We rehabilitated smokers are the worse.  I don't want to smell it anywhere around my food and it is the reason I've stopped going to Tom & Jerry's.  Griff had really talked up the good food though, so I proceeded into the dining room.  Ahhh, the cigarette smoke odor was not prevalent there.  Whew.  I bring this up only to point out...keep walking to the dining room...it's worth the trip!!!

I was with the teen and he was not interested in conversing with me and had his nose immediately into the new book he'd gotten at Paragraph's.  Since there was no one in the restaurant but me, I rudely talked on my cell phone to Mr. Flip Flop most of the time we were waiting for our food.  I figured no one would be offended...the teen surely wasn't!

We got our drinks quickly - a soda for the boy and an iced tea for me.  Really GOOD iced tea I must say!  We quickly made our choices.  Ian is a smoked sausage lover but I had already warned him that they made their own sausage (which excited him) BUT that they used fresh jalapeno in the mixture. 

That required him to opt for the Beer-battered Shrimp Basket and Pepper Fries (the boy loves black pepper with his fries and ketchup).  I told him it was crazy to go to a smokehouse and order fried shrimp but he insisted.  When the waiter left he said "Mom, it's a brew pub...and it's beer battered".  Huh, well, he's right about that.

I wanted to taste all of the meats so I got Uncle Mel's Sampler Platter.  It came with sliced brisket, baby back ribs, sausage, and pulled pork.  Sides included charro beans, potato salad, cole slaw, pickles and onions.  Actually, when I check the menu on Facebook, it doesn't mention sausage.  I may have just gotten lucky.  I know why so many of the men are raving about this place.  The Sampler was enough food to feed a hard working ranch hand!  Wayyyy too much food for me. 

I negotiated a substitution of green beans instead of charro beans for a small fee.  Joni, at Paragraphs, had highly recommended the green beans.  If you like crunchy fresh green beans, sauteed in butter and bacon pieces with some onion and garlic - you will love these.  I couldn't eat them all, and they were the one thing I brought home in a "to go" box! That fact alone would speak to my enjoyment of that side dish!

Here's a summary of how we liked or didn't like the stuff we tried:

1.  Beer-battered shrimp basket.  The teen said they were "okay" - gave them a 6 on a 1-10 scale.  He said they weren't all that flavorful.  When we requested shrimp sauce (cocktail sauce) the waiter said they didn't have that.  In my opinion, you shouldn't serve shrimp if you don't have the condiments to go with them.  The teen is a shrimp basket aficionado...he knows what he's talkin' about!
2.  He skipped the charro beans and doubled up on pepper fries.  He gave them a 9...that is high praise from Mr. Picky Eater!  He said they were really good.
3.  Brisket - moist and delicious - some of the best I've ever had (and I worked selling BBQ as a teen...I know my smoked meats).  Also, good BBQ sauce.  I gots to have me some good sauce, or I don't want to eat the BBQ.  It's just the way I roll.
4.  Baby Back Ribs - they looked dry, obviously done with a rub.  Appearances ARE deceiving because they were fall-off-the bone tender and juicy.  Squirted a little sauce down the top and bit into pure-d HEAVEN.  I could have been happy with a big rack of those ribs and nothing else!
5.  Pulled Pork - a generous amount, very lean, would have been excellent (probably is excellent for most people) but for the hot spiciness of the seasoning.  I recently had a pulled pork meal that was fatty at another restaurant...and was so happy to see this big pile of piggy goodness.  I was so disappointed that I just could not bear the burn.  If I'd had some bread to put it on, with those pickles and onions...a little sauce... I would have eaten it.  However, just eating it with a fork was not happening for me.  I left it on the plate.
6.  Brew Meister's Hand-made Smoked Sausage - OMG what excellent texture and flavor...until the jalapeno bit my tongue in half.  The teen tried a piece and glugged his DP to cool the heat...and I sucked up tea as fast as I could.  Just too hot for my taste.  I was telling my oldest son about the visit and he CANNOT WAIT to try this place - he LOVES him some jalapeno sausage!  I was sorry about those being too hot for me... I could tell this was some quality ingredient sausage!  I used to have to make sausage during my BBQ stint...and it was NOT my favorite job...but I learned that overly messing with the product before stuffing in the casing was the downfall of many good sausages.  These guys KNOW how to make a good sausage.  Us wussy-mouthed folks can't handle the heat though.
7.  Handmade Potato Salad - very good.  Not great because I like some onion and pickle chunks in my tater salad, but it was definitely very good and obviously made in-house.  Will happily eat it again.
8.  Homemade Cole Slaw - freshly crunchy - mayonnaisey, light on the sweet/sour (which I'm particularly fond of in a cole slaw).  Also good. (BTW, what's the difference in handmade and homemade?)

Just look at the amount of food on this platter!
Just $12.99 (well, a little more for my substitution)

I won't talk again about the Green Beans since I already discussed them above.  They were excellent (but don't expect the usual soft well-cooked green beans you generally find in restaurants).  Really, bacon, butter, onions, garlic?  Who can go wrong with that?  You gotta like crunchy though - they are barely sauteed. (I notice I said I wasn't talking about them again...and I dove right in anyway...go figure)

Overall, I loved the food. 
Could have used some bread.
I love that the BBQ sauce met my standards and that they had it on the table in a squeeze bottle.
Volume and quality were exceptional. 

I now know, thanks to sampling the platter, exactly what I'll get next time.  I'm also looking forward to trying the smoked chicken, which got a very high rating from the inestimable Griff Mangan, and the Cow Patty Brisket Cakes...'cause they just sound interesting!

They are working towards getting their brewed beers up and rolling, but they aren't there just yet.  They do have a nice selection of draft and bottled beers.

I really hope this restaurant makes it.  The smoked meats are great and I know it is someplace my older boys and husband will enjoy going time and again.  We get tired of seafood eventually!  We need some MEAT.  Welcome to the island Tejas Brew Pub & Smokehouse...glad you are here!

SPI FLIP FLOP FOODIE RATING:

Ranging Zero to Five...

4 – Lip smackin’ - good quality – flip flops will definitely be parked under their table again!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

Scallop Sea Shell Cookies

Yesterday I showed how I completed the Conch Sea Shell cookies.  Info regarding the dough recipe and the royal icing recipe are included there. Today is a tutorial for the very simple Scallop Shells.  Even a novice decorator can do these.  They are very easy.  I used the same icing to pipe and flood.  I used a #2 tip to outline and a #4 to flood.  I used squeeze bottles for all of the various sea shell cookies.  Sometimes I use piping bags, but I was in the "keep it simple" mode for the past few days and bottles are an easy way to do this.  You can actually do all of these without the tips and just use squeeze bottles made by companies like Wilton.  I bought some bottles from Karen's Cookies that have a coupler which allows you to change tips.  They come in an 8 ounce size and a 2 ounce size.  They fit all standard decorating tips (Wilton, PME, etc.)  Karen is a wonderful resource for cookie decorating products and techniques...great tutorials!  You'll notice from previous blog posts that I love to feather wet on wet.  There's a reason for this.  I have trouble piping straight lines :-)  You can hide a plethora of boo boos with feathering.  See the next picture for an example (I reaaaaallllly can't pipe straight lines consistently).

Let's get to it!  You'll see how easy it is!!!

This is such an easy shape to do.  Outline the outside of the scallop but leave the bottom of the cookie un-iced for now.  Flood the center with white flood icing, pipe some alternating curved lines from the top of the cookie to the bottom.  Start the feathering, either up or down, in the center.  Use a toothpick and drag it from the bottom (or top - it doesn't matter which direction) and wipe the toothpick after completing the pass.  On either side of the center line, drag the toothpick the opposite direction of the line next to it.  Remember to wipe your toothpick (I use my alternate hand for wiping because it is quick) after each pass.

Here you can see the wet on wet stripes as they are turned into pretty feathering.  Next we fill the bottom portion - again, just outline and flood - with either of the two colors from the lines.  I then carefully place, using craft tweezers, five pink sugar pearls at the bottom of each scallop.  Do that while the icing is wet and they will stay put after drying.

Finish all the cookies and leave them to dry on a rack or tray.  Be very careful if moving.  That is one of the reasons I like to decorate on a rack in a baking sheet.  I just switch out racks and don't have to physically move the cookies.  I tend to run the a/c a little colder (it's humid here) when decorating as well as run a fan on the table with the cookies.  It helps my cookies not to pit and not to take days to dry to a point where they can be handled and packaged for "sharing".

I only made a dozen of these, and two got eaten, so I'm left with ten :-)  Easy and cute...you should try them!  I'm still deciding if I want to embarrass myself and write about the sand dollar cookies.  My piping sucked.  Some days it's good and some days...well, like I said, it's embarrassing!

I'll see how I feel about it tomorrow.  I've done scalloped cookies before...but never the conch or sand dollars.  I thought the sand dollars would be easy peasy.  Unfortunately, the devil is in the detail...and that is what tripped me up.  We'll see...we'll see!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

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Sea Shell Cookies

This week-end I decided to pull the sugar cookie dough out of the freezer and bake some of the shapes from new cookie cutters... some of which I won in a "Giveaway" from Sweet Art Factory!  I elected to work with a conch shell cutter, a sand dollar cutter, as well as a scallop shell I already had on hand.

I used some of the vanilla and almond sugar cookie dough recipe I found on Lila Loa's blog and had stored for future use in the freezer.  I took out two slabs of pre-made, well-wrapped, and frozen dough and put it in the fridge.  Saturday evening I rolled and baked (after allowing them to sit out for 15 minutes before starting).  I have only used the World's Best Sugar Cookie Dough from the class I took at Central Market in Austin...so I was leery.  However, the chocolate recipe was so good, I went ahead and made the vanilla too.  So glad I did.  I really enjoyed how easy it was to roll and cut and it didn't seem to crack as much as my generally favored dough does. 

So, onward I went the next morning, prepping my royal icing... I kept it simple - lots of white, a little bottle of warm brown (was more like tan) and a little bottle of mauve (more like a light pink).  I used AmeriColor squeeze gel paste.

I started with the conch shells.

I am not much of an artist but it really helps me plan my icing and the project if I draw it out.  To do that, I just trace the cookie cutter and write out my idea.  I find I can make more consistent cookies if I do that.  Sometimes, like when I make Easter egg cookies, I don't want consistent cookies...they are all happily different.  No drawings required for those projects!

Step 1 - set up your decorating area.  I like to decorate on a rack over a baking sheet.
Step 2 - I outlined the parts that needed a white outline, with piping icing.
Step 3 - I filled the bottom portion of the shell with flood icing.
Step 4 - I gently nudged the icing to the edges and gave the cookie a shake.  Since I knew I was going to feather, I didn't worry overly about getting it perfectly flat or ridding myself of bubbles.

Step 5 - I piped horizontal lines of light brown icing while the white icing was still wet.  Feathering requires a "wet on wet" procedure.
Step 6 - Using a round toothpick (or you can use a boo boo stick from Karen's Cookies), draw the toothpick down through the line - I start slightly above the line, end before the beginning of the next line, raise the toothpick, wipe it on the palm of my left hand (OK - it's messy - but efficient) and move on down the line.  I keep a damp cloth handy as well as a bowl of water for wiping my hands and cleaning my fingertips.

Step 7:  Pipe the mauve that looks like pink icing on the inner lip of the shell.
Step 8:  Again, using wet on wet, pipe a stripe of the brown next to the white, but on top of the pink.
Step 9:  Using the toothpick again, drag the brown into the pink, and, as I was going for a shaded effect I didn't clean the toothpick between every swipe.  These were fast light pulls through the icing, all the way to the bottom of the brown line.  That method sort of shoved the pink icing higher on the edge, which gave it some dimension.
Step 10: Using some of the thicker piping icing, I filled the dome outlines which gave them a puffy effect.  Use a clean toothpick to drag it to the edge if it doesn't get there by itself.  Take care not to go over the "dam" you created or you will lose the puffy effect.
Step 11:  After the pink and brown edge has dried for about 5-10 minutes or so, lightly sprinkle with some pink disco dust (also available at Karen's Cookies) just on the pink portion.  My original intention was to let it dry completely and then paint on some wet pink lustre dust (mixed with clear extract or alcohol).  I decided I didn't want to wait :-)

Always challenging to see the sparkly disco dust in a photo
and I don't have a light box so I got reflection on the white.
Oh well - I'll try to do better.

I worked on the other cookies as well...but will write a post on those tomorrow.  I've got to get up and get going on something other than decorating cookies today!!!  Here's what will be coming tomorrow. (And, yes, I know...my sand dollars are not all that great.  I piped the centers today before coffee...major mistake.  AND, my holes didn't stay open correctly.) (BIG SIGH)

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

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Trout with Whole Wheat Couscous

This is just a very fast post - home from a week in Austin going to doctor appointments (not the most fun of trips).  First meal I've cooked in about 10 days!!!

I sauteed some of the bay trout Ian and Jay caught in June.  Quick prep in EVOO, butter, and a couple of garlic cloves pushed through a garlic press...and juice from one half of a lemon.  Salt and pepper after flipped.  Perfect and fast.  Literally took 6 minutes.

For the couscous - I bought a box of Near East Whole Wheat Couscous when I restocked my kitchen this afternoon.  I put 1/2 of a large diced yellow onion and 2 garlic cloves (also pressed) into a sauce pan with 1/2 stick butter and 1/4 cup EVOO over medium high heat.  I salt and peppered lightly.  Once the onions were soft but not fully translucent, I added 1 1/2 cups water and brought to a boil.  Added box of couscous, stirred,  covered and removed from heat.  Five minutes later (while I cooked the fish and steamed some broccoli for a side vegetable), I removed the lid, fluffed the couscous with a fork and added a small amount of chiffonade of basil and some thinly sliced green onion (whites and green parts).

I poured all of the seasoned couscous on a platter and laid out the fish, pouring all of the cooking liquid from the fish pan over the fish.  Sprinkled with a bit more of the fresh basil from the lovely plants on my deck and more sliced green onion.  Lemons served on the side for squeezing.

Fresh basil from plants purchased at Veranda's in Port Isabel!

Bread of the day was two pieces of whole wheat Naan, gently sprinkled with olive oil and placed directly on the oven racks in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 3 minutes.

Store-bought Naan - it was incredibly delicious!  Soft and chewy.
Ian wrapped his couscous and fish up and ate like a tribal teen-ager.
He loved the couscous AND the naan!  Yay for new things!!!

The entire dinner was ready in under 30 minutes including prep time and everyone walked away stuffed to the gills!  Minimal photos because I was on a roll - we were late eating and I needed to get dinner on the table PDQ!  Best "fast food" we've had in weeks :-)

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

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Lighthouse and Starfish Cookies

I only decorated three lighthouses ...so I don't have a lot to show.  It was hard to get them cut out and transferred...anything with a small tip tends to be a challenge, especially in a warm kitchen.  Mostly, I was focused on patriotic cookies, however, I managed to get 4 lighthouses cut out successfully, unfortunately breaking one after it was baked.

The starfish tale has already been told.  It's pretty straight forward. 

Pipe the outline, flood, dry for a couple of hours, pipe large dot in the middle, then progressively smaller dots down the legs, add sugar pearls to the center and immediate surrounding slightly larger dots, dry overnight before stacking.  Ta da! 

Simple and I really love them.  This time I did use a different color - I mixed peach and yellow to get a color that could be used for the light in the lighthouse as well as the starfish.  Worked great!

My instructions for decorating this basic lighthouse are below each photo.  The Port Isabel lighthouse is a simple white lighthouse...and it sits on a grassy knoll. That's where the similarity between reality and cookie ends.  I should have checked a photo for details if I wanted it to be accurate, but I didn't...left off little windows, the top should have been black...and there's a staircase by the door I could have added.  Oh well... next time!

I piped and filled the crown, outlined the circles at
top and bottom, and filled the middle .
Left to dry overnight

The intent of the line piped across the top "circle"
was to make it look like the walk-around section
at the top of the lighthouse.
The under color of the dark cookie was to
represent the railing (in my mind).
I filled the base "circle" to give it some
dimension and then I filled in the
area representing the light shining in
the lantern room with the
blend of icing I made for the starfish.

After everything was thoroughly dry I piped some dark gray
vertical lines to create windows in the lantern room area. 
Outlined below the cap, above and below the top railing,
and along the top and bottom of the base. 
I piped a door above the base.
The grass was supposed to look more like grass.  I used a Wilton tip #233
that supposedly was for making grass.
I guess my icing wasn't thick enough because it
ended up looking like fancy stars.  Oh well. 
From a distance it looks like grass.
Sort of.

That's it for phase two of the tropical cookies on chocolate sugar cookie bases.  Remember to check out LilaLoa's blog for that yummy recipe.  I have more dough to bake - both chocolate (just a bit left) and vanilla (an entire recipe).  It may need to be sent to the freezer.  I have more coastal cookie cutters sitting out waiting for my attention as well....  Unfortunately, I have a lot going on for the next 10 days...so I might be disappearing again!  You may be assured, however, I always show up again!

The jellyfish post can be found via this link

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

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Making Jellyfish Cookies

I've had, for a while, this jellyfish cookie cutter that I won (along with several other cutters!) on a Facebook Giveaway from Sweet Art Factory a few months ago.  I haven't really baked and decorated cookies for fun since Easter.  I did make some baby shower cookies, but that was for an event...not just the pure pleasure of it all.  Sooooo, my goal this past week was to make some patriotic cookies to celebrate the July 4th holiday, and, use one or more of my new cookie cutters!  I started with jellyfish, star fish, and a few light houses (since I live near a town with a light house, it seemed the right thing to do)!  The jellyfish cookie cutter was from the Sweet Art Factory Beach and Nautical collection.

Since it was part of my winning bundle, let's start with the jellyfish.  I wanted it to be "sort of" real looking... but not necessarily anatomically correct.  I saw lots of examples of happy jellyfish, plain jellyfish, and fancy jellyfish as I trolled the internet...but, not what I was looking for.

I found a photo that looked pretty - I was looking for the blues that appear almost iridescent.  I don't want to steal any one's work, so I'll link you to the photo I tried to imitate (well, I guess I should say it was the inspiration - because it doesn't really look anything like my cookies look).

I started with a chocolate sugar cookie from fellow-blogger, LilaLoa.  I liked the flavor and the dark color as a background.  I am not posting her recipe because I didn't alter it at all, so please stop by her blog and check it out.  She is a great cookie decorator and her writing style is very entertaining.  You won't be sorry.

Back to the jellyfish.  So, I baked off just 7 of that shape.  Like the patriotic cookies, I had to wait a couple of days to get the right "atmospheric conditions" for using royal icing.  I knew this cookie would require a couple of days of "patience".  I sketched a pencil mock-up of the cookie components and how I would layer it up - laid out a time frame to ensure adequate drying time.  Since I started with these cookies, I was actually able to do the base coats over the course of one day...starting early and finishing late. 

I used a sky blue from Americolor, then a darker mixture of sky blue, royal blue and one drop of black (all Americolor)...and then I took some white and added it to the sky blue - just squeezed it straight into the piping bag and squished it around (kind of wanting it lighter and marbled looking), and then last, white for tentacles.  Sound confusing?  Yep, me too, that's why I wrote it all out in advance.

First, and foremost, I will again state...not anatomically correct - simply wanting to make it look "real" vs "cartoonish" and impeded in that quest by the limitations of this basic cookie cutter shape and my eye's inability to see dimension (or how to create dimension).  I am simply NOT an artist.   I view the cookie decorating more as crafting.  My high school art teacher tried to help me be a better artist...but I think I was pretty much one of those students she just helped get through the class!  So, with those points straightened out.  I began.

I outlined and filled the top of the bell cap (uh, the aboral surface?) and the poor attempt at making it 3-d with icing (really hard) by piping the bottom part of the cap with the same color.  Used the sky blue for that. 

I allowed it to dry several hours then filled in the darker shade of blue to represent the lower under inside of the bell cap.  That's not how it ended up looking...but that was the intention.  Allowed to dry a few hours also. 

Then, I did the marblized blue and white section where the tentacles would go.  It didn't look as marbled as I had expected. 

If you looked at the photograph, you saw there were some big thick things hanging down from the center of the underside of the bell cap ...the manubrium?  Then, white hangy down things...which I call tentacles...but I am not sure what they are called exactly.  I had to fit all that into the little cookie section obviously meant for "tentacles".

The next morning I piped white tentacles on the designated tentacle area.  Several hours later, I mixed up some dark gray icing. 

I piped small dots all over the "top" of the bell cap and drew a line across the bottom of the upper blue section. Then I used a damp paint brush to "shade" down towards the center of the darker blue middle part.  Confused much?  I was.  I found I didn't like the look of the manubrium...and left it off half the cookies.  It just looked sort of ugly to me.  (shrug)

Last, but not least, I very lightly sprinkled some disco dust over the cap to give it the iridescent look I was going for.  Unfortunately, it doesn't show as well in the photos...but "in person" it looks just the right kind of sparkly.

It was a satisfying project...wouldn't want to do a boat load of these cookies, but they did what I wanted them to do.  They looked pretty on the cookie tray I think.  Well, hmmm...now that I look at them, they might be mistaken as aliens.  I'm going to have to make more of these because I already see changes I would make. 

So, next will come the lighthouses...when I get around to writing it up :-)

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

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