Sugar Cookies

These are my absolutely favorite sugar cookie.

There are tons of sugar cookies. Some are soft, some are hard and crunchy, some have spices, some are chewy.

These cookies are chock full of vanilla flavor, they are rolled in sugar and are light and sweet on the tongue. They are have a crunchy tooth, but are tender, think of a crumbly cookie.  I think it's due to the oil/butter mixture of fats.

They are also
 very forgiving. I made these in various sizes and they all baked up very well. Only leave them in long enough to very slightly brown. That's it. We baked them for about 8 minutes.

I took the kids out Saturday morning to shop for the fireman's Christmas presents. Every year we make him a basket of his favorite stuff, plus some extra fun things. It's a nice way to get all the kids involved in his Christmas presents as they can all have a say in it. I was glad to have gotten all of the kids to go with me. With kids ranging from 8, 14, 16 and 20, that's no small feat.

While we were shopping, the fireman's mom called me and asked if I'd like to come to her house and help her bake cookies for her church. They're collecting cookies to take to the elderly that can't get out and about for the holiday's.

I will admit a part of me was expecting to go home and bake in my kitchen by myself. I wanted that quiet, calming baking. But when I got home I called her back and asked if she'd like to come over and use my kitchen. It's a little larger and I thought she'd have fun with the kids. She said yes, and I picked her up.

Honestly? We ended up having such a great time. I am so glad we did it. The kids got to see us doing something for someone else and I had a great time with her, chatting and listening to stories of the fireman as a kid. I told her we need to do this every year.

We made no bake chocolate oatmeal drop cookies, lemon cake mix cookies, and these sugar cookies.

They are easy to make and make a large enough batch that we were both able to keep a small plate of them for ourselves.

We used spoons instead of a cookie scoop and dropped them in granulated sugar to cover before putting on the baking sheet. I used Watkin's Madagascar vanilla, which is my favorite. It smells heavenly, but any vanilla would be great.

We left some plain like this, and the others we pressed down a bit and shook with red colored sugar and another tray with green colored sugar. They were very festive and looked pretty on the plates.

They smell rich and wonderful and when you bite into them they have a slight crunch, slightly crumbly texture. The granulated sugar is melty on your tongue and the sweetness and vanilla flavoring is warm in your mouth. Perfect sugar cookie.

Sunday, the annual Firefighter's Santa Breakfast was held at the labor hall. The two youngest kids went with us. They had waffles, scrambled eggs, diced potatoes, fruit, muffins, the larges cinnamon rolls you ever saw, and a plate of desserts with brownies topped in crushed peppermint and other yummy goodies.

We had fun chatting with the other firemen and their families. The girl got her face painted.

She danced and sang with the entertainment, a lady talented enough to have her own show on Nickelodeon. The girl was up there and dancing crazy. The girl has no fear.

And she sat on Santa's lap and told him what she wanted for Christmas. For some reason, the boy thought he was too old to do these things. So, he sat with us and chatted with everyone.

The Recipe:

1 cup butter

1 cup oil

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

Mix till blended.

Add 2 eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla, mix well.

Add 1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon of salt

4 cups of flour

Mix well and roll into balls or use cookie scoop, drop into granulated sugar, coating completely, drop onto greased cookie sheet and bake 8 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees until only starting to brown. If you want to use colored sugar, gently press down the sugared cookie a bit, just enough to hold the colored sugar.

Makes a large batch.