Brittany got married!

Niece Brittany and her Scotty got married in May, (Jeez Katie, where ya been? Having a summer that made me want to punch a kitten, but back to cookies) and since no one in my family is allowed to have a joyful life event without my cookies (like it even takes any arm twisting tho) i made her some lovely wedding favors.

Her decor was reminiscent of a lady's vanity table--flowers, feminine fabrics, a sprinkling of sparkles and gems like casually placed jewelry, gem studded picture frames with the couple in cute moments.
All that was missing was a make-up compact.  I tried making the cookies look something like that, and a bit like a miniature throw pillow, or the lid to a porcelain candy dish. Or the hardcover of an old romance novel. Or a box of chocolate. The back of a hand mirror... So many ideas.

The final product was tone-on-tone pink or green airbrushed stencils, with a brush of pearl dust, and either a fleur-de-lis, a monogram, or a tiny ensemble of pearl dragees and molded fondant flowers and gems. I even managed to match the pink and green really really close to the bridesmaid dresses.

But even lovelier was the bride... Wedding day highlights included veil vs wind humor, footage of my kiddo line dancing, and mother-of-bride Libby tearing up during the father daughter dance with Brit and step (up) dad, my brother John. It was a really sweet day; kisses and well wishes for you two!
Upcoming: i did make cookies this summer (and punched no actual kittens, nor would i, c'mon) and i'll get 'em posted in between my chores this week, as my "adulting" is finally getting some traction (saving all those poor kittens from my frustration) so hang tight, cookies are coming, have a fabulous week!

#EFFit

And the other pile of pictures I’m sitting on was from Elgin’s first annual Fringe Fest.  I took part because if I look at everything as a no, I won’t do anything, right?  So here was a never before art show for artist who were not quite mainstream and I thought, yes, let’s see what can happen here.  I inquired, was (enthusiastically, I might add) encouraged to join in the fun, and after much daydreaming, I narrowed it down to my five favorite (that week) shapes.

I participated on a Saturday, first at the Family Fringe Fest, in a wee park in the middle of town.  Here’s my table…

I chose shapes and techniques based on what I thought would demonstrate my skills as an artist.  I don’t usually use that word self-reflectively, as art is usually in the eye of the beholder, but if I were to attempt to convince you that lovely things can happen on a cookie, as well as a on canvas or stage, I’d have to bring the good stuff.  So I brought:

Rockets—a composite shape, and the airbrushed water-color spots make the moons look nice and cratered.

Asters--A mini fondant cutter added extra petals to a sun shape, with multiple shades of yellow to accentuate the wavy contours of the petals.

Grapes—each grape was a piped dot, sugared in 2 shades of purple, or brushed with purple pearl dust.  They were gorgeous up close.  It’s also a composite shape that I made with a mini maple leaf and an upside-down Christmas tree.

Geckos—aqua blue, like a gecko isn’t, with little arabesque gold dots.  Scales are so unevolved, right?  These were the hot seller—they might be my favorite too.

And the fest was selling stenciled t-shirts with the twitter hashtag #EFFit.  So I made a few myself with a homemade stencil and some “paint splatters” with my airbrush.

When the Family portion ended, I packed up and finished up the afternoon and evening outside the Side Street Studio Arts, so incoming ticket buyers would see my wares.  I did well, but probably could have gotten away with simpler designs for less.  The kids wanted cookies no matter what they looked like.  But I wasn’t there to “sell” my baking skills, though I always bring them of course, I really did want to make this hard on myself as an illustrator—making them in volume, and making them awesome.  And I did it.  And if I have the space and time this summer, I expect I’ll be signing up again.  So see you on the fringe ;)

what you've been missing

There is so much I've done, and so little I've posted for you.  Here's a speed round, and a heap of apologies for keeping you waiting:

Prettiest first, these were from a bridal show last summer.  

 

Also from last summer, ice cream...

...and patriotic pinwheel stars.

 

a Minion birthday...

 

...and a Scooby-Doo birthday (H is for Hannah).

 

my sister-in-law, Kristi's birthday

 

this poor little guy I found on my phone from late 2013!

 

 

Battle of the Books at the library.  (b.o.b for apples, eh?)

 

for the kiddo's Halloween fun fair at school

 

more Halloween fun, with airbrushing and plastic bugs

 

and a Clifford the Big Red Dog themed "Paws to Read" event at the library.  Those bone sprinkles did double duty in graveyard pudding dirt cups for Halloween.

Not far behind, I've got last summer's Fringe Fest where yours truly was the only food artist.  And coming up, a Midsummer Nights Dream, a vintage clothing show, barista aprons, and everything I've been taking pictures of at work with the work phone--just gotta email the darn pics to my computer and I'll be good to go!  I hope you all have a splendid week, and may stay warm!  Now I gotta run to OfficeMax...

 

 

dancing the cookie shuffle

And I’ve returned.  Where have I been?  Baking chocolate chip cookies and banana bread at the library.  Good feedback, more on the job later.  Also picking up my kid from the bus stop, and laundry, and I still have no internet at home, so getting more than 140 characters out of me can be tricky.  I’d save myself a trip if I could text on a smart phone while driving, but my phone is not smart, and I am, so in short (not really) it’s much ado getting my pics posted.   

These were from a weekend in [March?] when many dancers convened at The Hemmens in Elgin.  It just so happens that yours truly performed there—ballet, tap, and tumbling—in my very young days.  Recitals were at The Hemmens, but class was in Bartlett, a ride across town on the back on mom’s bike, at the park district’s odd little log cabin in a park off Oak St.  It was one of those little clubhouses where you’d have ballet class on Friday, and someone could rent it for a baby shower on Saturday, then next Tuesday the township trustees would have a budget meeting, or something.  Anyway, I twirled and tapped and tumbled, and our teacher would send each of us off after class with one of those daisy-shaped shortbread cookies with the hole in the middle, just the right size for a 5-year-old’s pinky, and I’d ride home in my yellow bike seat pretending my finger was wearing a tutu.  So imagine my happy little sense of purpose to be making pretty ballerina butterfly cookies for young aspiring dancers.  I had a 'gone-full-circle' kind of contentment. 

About the rest of the job.  Firstly, people keep calling me a pastry chef.  You need credentials to be called “a chef” and I don’t have ’em, and “pastry” actually encompasses more than I know.  I’m kind of hit or miss on pie crusts for example.  I didn’t take the class, and I rarely make pie.  Never made a scone, croissant, madeleine, popover, éclair, or benier.  I prefer say I’m a baker, and I’d like to think that because I’ve been baking since forever, and because my mom always said if you can read you can cook, I’m sure I can make all the things I just listed once I studied the recipe, and gave it a try or two.   

But what I really bake from week to week are:  cookies, especially chocolate chip; banana bread, or I switch out the bananas for zucchini, pumpkin, apple, carrot; bar cookies like brownies and what Grandma called “hello dolly” bars; “truffles” like brownie- or peanut-butter-pretzel-balls dipped in chocolate; and the occasional cupcake.  Basically the stuff a mom bakes, only I bake it in volumes to fill the front case.   

And when I stated that I’m the sole baker, that was a bit of a misnomer as well.  If it’s advantageous for someone else at one of the other locations to bake a couple pans of brownies, then they bake them.  And if they cater a wedding the weekend I’m having my fantasy butt-lift, they’ll find a way to dip some truffles.  It’s just that of all the employees, I’m the one that was hired to bake first, and then do sandwich stuff.  And when something fancy is ordered, like lemon bars for that thing at the library, or some footprint cookies for a baby shower, it’s my project.  And, more often than I’d like because I like baking all fresh and natural, some of our baked goods are from a boxed mix, or premade from a vendor, so again, I don’t do all the baking.  But yeah, I’m the go-to gal for dessert.   

And it’s pretty awesome that I can bake cookies and sell them at the library.  I can’t get over how quaint that is.  I get all nerdly about it.  Meanwhile, pics at this end of the post are the ones I had on my phone.  I make something neat at work and realize I don’t have my camera, so i resort to the cell, then when I’m on my computer, I don’t have the memory card thingy to upload them.  Yeah, baking by the seat of my pants.  And knowing me I probably sat in brownie batter.  Ha!   

So next I have some wedding cookies that weren’t for a wedding, and some evidence of my prowess in marketing.  And I will still be making pretty cookies.  And I will still be taking pictures of them.  I just have to sit down and do my homework.  

 Till then, happy lead in to summer, and we got all new fancy coffee at the library, so come on in…

*boneless recipe

happy Halloween early!  this week at the Meet Market, pick up some spooky skulls and chocolate chip cookies with your soup'n'sammiches.  and stay tuned for some fat lil' pumpkins.

boo!

i do... want cookies...

a bride to be liked some cookies similar to these, and i did my best to recreate their features on a dozen for a shower, and i hope the original artist won't hold it against me, but they were pretty, and my pleasure to make, and i came up with a great new technique for making uniform hearts:  sponge food coloring onto the back of a metal mini heart shaped cutter, and stamp the cookie.  i did the same with the square outline and got nice even lines and duplicated the shape each time. awesome.  Congrats and thank you!
coming up, info on the opening of the ITN "Meet Market," a baby shower, a birthday, and some yummy bugs...

Wall(y) flowers

Wally is a regular where i work.  a senior citizen, often in board shorts and a t-shirt, sometimes a suit, and always an earring, he gets a small half coffee, half cold water, and chats it up with us in the middle of the day.  the other Katie, a fine arts grad, recently finished a painting for him, and Pat got him a souvenir shirt from Mexico.  like the hubby would say, he's good people.  one day he got us lunch (really good bbq sandwiches that i felt guilty finishing without taking part of it home to share) so to say thanks, i made him a few cookies with my new flower stencil.  i chose teal because when do you ever see a teal flower?  and some pearl shimmer and yellow pearl dragees for some extra pretty.  but i can't decide if i should call them asters or mums.  (shrug)  thanks Wally! 
coming up, i know i have a baby shower, details on the way.  and also some details on my second job as (brace yourself) a baker.  boo-ya and shazam.  stay tuned...

i heart stencils

Wendy's daughter Lexi turned 11.  Lexi, Wendy informed me, loves green, and zebra print, and all the garish stuff the kids are wearing these days.  not much has changed, i guess, when i was her age, all the cool kids were wearing Hypercolor shirts. (remember those? "dude, your armpits are blue!")
so i got out the bright colors, some funky stencils (even made a new one for the zebra stripes), and the trusty airbrush and made some snazzy rock-star hearts.  and every time i use my airbrush, i re-thank Jeff for getting it for me.  [dilated eyeballs] it's so much fun...
Happy Birthday to Lexi! and on the way is some baby stuff, a get well batch, prolly some ninja stuff, and i heard talk of a book club project.  stay tuned!

cookies that defy gravity!

high school classmate (holy moly it was half my life ago that i graduated!) Dominique, inquired about cookies for her daughter's 6th birthday.  Jateme (say "Je t'aime" like "i love you" in French--how cool is that?) likes teal and gymnastics, and is soon to be the big sister to twins--twice the awesome!
we mulled over the idea of mini cookies, but settled on 1 each per favor bag of 2 medium cookies.  (although i suppose i could have combined all 4 circles into a regular-sized cookie, but anyway) i looked online for some leaping silhouettes, saved the pictures, resized them, and just taped a piece of paper to my monitor and traced them.  then i glued them to a clear plastic lid, flipped it over, and cut out teeny people and a star with an x-acto knife to make a stencil.  then i airbrushed them (yeah i washed the lid first, silly) onto the cookies, making sure the white was extra flat, but leaving the medals with waves and dips, a result of making royal icing in dry January air, to look like something malleable.  rings of dots and sugary ribbons unified them, and they were all paired up in favor bags with a silver bow. 
happy birthday Jateme, and congrats to your family for your new little brother and sister!  coming soon-- little baby owls....

Joe's 90th birthday

i had a temporary post of my sketches for these cookies, and the explanation of my doodles, but lets look at the cookies instead.

tada!  i mentioned that Benita was throwing a party for her father Joe's 90th birthday, and that the colors for the party were tan brown and gold, and that last senior i saw in brown was the endearing Mr. Frederickson in the movie "Up," which made me think of fabrics in masculine patterns--a favorite chair, or shirt...  in the end, when i had them all laid out in rows, these cookies reminded me of the table of ties at a department store, with their little patterns, and satiny finishes.  each was airbrushed with a different stencil, 2 of which were hand cut from plastic lids, the 3rd was a section of needlepoint grid. then detail lines were added with edible marker, then a border of gold, and a coat of gold pearl dust.
the whole time i was doing these patterns i was imagining them in different color combinations.  how awesome would some blue look for a baby shower.  right?  or some Christmas sweater cookies...  or red and pink argyle hearts for Valentine's day.... (losing focus)
baby owls and tiny gymnasts are next, stay tuned, and happy birthday Joe!

Thriller... Thriller night...

so happy belated halloween! now that i have a new laptop, and it's actually from this decade, i can now pop in the camera's memory card and upload to the picture folder instantly.  but then i still have to get my butt to Starbucks to get to the internet, so please continue to bear with me.
these lovely minis were for an 80's themed Halloween party--lace, stars and plaid, all via the airbrush. Jeff and i went as Peg Bundy and The Greatest American Hero.   i had many plans for other H'ween cookies, but either you can have cookies, or i can have a functioning household, but not always the 2 together.  don't worry, i did some house keeping and i'm ready for Christmas.  and i'm still ready to do this in someone else's kitchen, so if you know a bakery...  anyway, i had started to make ninja clowns, but the many steps took time and my icing went flat, so they sat there half finished and Jeff ate the good ones.  i said, "can't you tell the difference between an ugly unfinished cookie and a nice picture-worthy finished one?"  he can't.  and i'd scan the sketches i drew, but then we're back to the "computer issues" conversation.  so back to cookies.  coming soon: some baby birdies, pairs of pears, something for Nessa 'cause she rocks and helps Jeff do stuff with his stock options, and a ninja clown revival for Ryan for helping me figure out that IE was my Facebook problem.  that's right kids, i pay back favors with cookie awesomeness.  now who wants to hang some lattice or tune my car?  bbl, and have a great weekend :)

A is for Ava

so i'm trying out my new computer.  we'll see if i blow it up when i try to upload something.  so far facebook doesn't like uploading my pictures.  if you see a pretty white cross with little pink flowers in this post, then we're back in business.  these were for the baptism party for Ava, daughter of hubby's friend Gabi.  mini fondant cutters made the flowers and leaves around the base, and like Evan's baptism cookies, the A was stenciled. some pearl dust finished it nicely, and each were bagged in favor bags.  welcome little Ava! 

pretty in pink

hubby's cousin Dana had a lovely outdoor wedding in California last month--tons of flowers, hanging votive jars and crystals, all in a palette of pinks.  prior to, i was tapped by m.o.b. Aunt Donna to create the bridal shower cookies.  i went with a lacy umbrella, embellished with fondant flowers with dragee centers.  D for Dana, and J for Josh were stenciled on adjoining hearts.  Dana emailed back with exclamation points that she loved them.

so closer to the wedding, i offered to make cookie favors for the big day.  Dana was totally on board and described her midsummer-night vintage vineyard look, and i played with sketches and ideas and the clues i had from the invitation.

here's part of it...

here's what 12 dozen looks like...

and here's the final product.  "silver" curls and pink blossoms, with scrolly lettering on classic 3-tiered wedding cakes, and a final brush of gold pearl dust.  so many steps, but once you get to the end of the counter, the other side is dry and ready for another detail.  it was cookie after cookie, with that nice zen-like busy feeling.  (it ain't work if you like doing it!)
Jeff's Aunt Dahlas helped with the shipping once i got them baked.  humid late August is the worst time for waiting for icing to dry, so i was nervous that even Dahlas's painstaking saran-wrapping and double boxing, or however she did it, couldn't keep them from squishing, but in the end they made it from IL to CA in perfect condition. (whew! thanks AD!) Dana bagged them and added ribbon and a personalized label, and had one at each place setting.  Congrats to Dana and Josh; many more sweet and sparkly memories for you!

how now, flat cow?

i've mentioned that i have a temp job; i haven't mentioned that it's among commodities journalists.  Dad worked here till retirement (which is how i learned of the opening) and i remember him working on Christmas Eve when mad cow disease was found in the US.  i remember him bringing home swag from pork conventions [like a t-shirt with a pig in sneakers--"hogs are trendier than you thought"] and i was the only kid in my Spanish class that knew that beef was a big export of Argentina.  it's an interesting corner of the world to sit in for 8 hours a day.  i hear one-sided phone conversations about fertilizer, and livestock reproduction.  i heard about MF Global before you did.  and i have fine minds all around me that deliver breaking news about the journey our food takes. 
this area in the food-writing spectrum is much more interesting to me than recipes for fried candy bars, or whatever novelty is trending lately. i remember when kiwis were exotic. i grew up with a government that says ketchup in a school lunch counts as a vegetable. i know the difference between saturated and trans fats. and lately my attention will linger over stories about "pink slime," Monsanto, or what's going on with honeybees.  food isn't just something that happens between the store and your mouth. it's worth a little research time.  so for the dedicated reporters that translate farm calls and crop reports into easily digested (pun!) news stories, i made some beef chart cookies, and cow-print circles, in their honor.
i call it, "cow-modities."  i suppose if i used primary colors, they'd be Piet Moooondrian cow charts? (wink)
i piped in the colors so that they dried flat, then outlined them with edible marker. the circles were airbrushed with another yogurt-lid stencil.  folks were cracking up--there's something quite strange about a "beef cookie," and i enjoyed this design much more than a regular cow-in-profile image. i could do all kinds of diagrams. maybe for next Halloween i should do animal skeletons? meanwhile i have lizards on the way, and i found out there are baby shower and retirement party cookies in my future, details forthcoming. stay tuned...

some unrelated quickies...

often when i do a project i have some leftover dough, so i roll out a few, try a technique, and pass them along to a worthy someone.  recently, when it was snowing like crazy, hubby Jeff got a ride home from a coworker with an appreciation for pot-related humor.  so i made some pot-leaf cookies (got the cutter at Spencer's, btw) and some pot plants, made from Wilton's ice cream cone.  the first question with this  is always "are these special cookies?"  no.  just plain ol' cookies, i'm a good girl. but i got some green-marker practice in, and he got a nifty treat for being helpful. but i'm also thinking of making a Christmas ornament shape into a hooka...

then i tried a little plaid with the markers and airbrush.  i cut strips out of a big yogurt lid and sprayed once, then again after a 90 degree turn, then drew in some skinny lines.  these were just a test cookie; Jeff also brought these to work.  circles with patterns are nice filler cookies, like when you only need a few that are meticulously decorated, and a few dozen of something easy to make and share.  like pink on pink plaid would go so sweetly with a picture shape for a baby shower. or as you'll see coming up, cows and cow print circles.

and i did a Valentine's Day project for the niece and nephew, but we didn't head in that direction till the following Sunday when the cookies had gotten dry, so i sent them to work with Jeff.  they liked them anyway.  flood dots were outlined with edible marker on tiny hearts, with a few forget-me-nots.  maybe i'll do a Valentine's Day part 2, St Patrick edition, and make green hearts. :) green plaid hearts? 
and i'm still pondering a shape for an April Fool's Day birthday party...
and some lizards will be crawling this way...
and i know i'll make something for the office this month...  busy busy...