A Year in Review

Another year in the recipe books!

2013 has been quite a year. It has been a year filled with extreme joy, intense grief, and everything in between.  Sweet Eddie and I got married and it was wonderful. We happily became an Aunt and Uncle to both a beautiful niece and a handsome nephew. We devastatingly lost Eddie's loving, brave, funny, charming father.  2013 will be a year that we will never forget. I am so grateful to have had my Sweet Eddie by my side for every moment of it. I would be lost without him.

Throughout the year cookie art has been my therapy. It brings me great joy and some stress while it helps me to memorialize moments, celebrate holidays,  learn about myself, and hopefully bring a smile to some one's face.  On this final day of the year, I wanted to share images from my favorite posts this years. I loved these cookies for different reasons and maybe some of you did too.  So here is to a year of cookie creations:

Animal Baby Shower

Candy Crush Saga

Lucky Leprechauns

Cookies for the Troops 

And a special tribute to my Father-in-law 

Our Sweet Wedding

Betty Boop

Seinfeld Cookies for my Dad

Under the Sea

Pet Rescue Saga

Owl Baby Shower for Daisy

Go Bo!

Furry Bones

Movie Monsters 

Woodland Creatures

Hello Kitty Thanksgiving

Ugly Sweaters

As we roll into 2014, I wish for everyone a year of love, respect, appreciation, peace and joy.

 If a cookie makes you happy, may your life be filled with all the cookies in the world.  

Thank you for reading and supporting me.

Happy New Year!

Creature Features 2

Halloween is only 3 days away! Pumpkins are carved, the Salem streets are jam packed with people in costume,  an abundant bowl of peanut butter pumpkins are tormenting me,  and my Sweet Eddie is making me watch scary movies.  I will watch scary movies, but I will not like it. If I think too much about movies like Poltergeist or The Ring,  which I watched ages ago,  I still get freaked out.  I will make Sweet Eddie walk me to the bathroom and turn on all the lights, check under the bed and in the closet... it is all perfectly normal for an adult woman.
The other night we watched The Conjuring. In my attempts to not be totally terrified and my hope to be able to sleep that night,  I focused my attention away from the horror and onto the more amusing things like the music (yay Dead Man's Bones,) Ron Livingstone's complete lack of emotion, and Vera Farmiga's gorgeous ruffled collar dresses. It worked. I think Sweet Eddie was more scared than I was.  He loves it though.

Last Halloween I made some classic movie monster cookies in Creature Features. This year I branched out to a variety of scary Halloween movies and other films that feature creepy characters.  

Look into their eyes and face your fears!

Billy the Puppet - Saw

 Pinhead - Hellraiser

Pennywise the Dancing Clown - It

Pale Man - Pan's Labyrinth

Dr. Hannibal Lecter - Silence of the Lambs

Chucky - Child's Play

Heidi - The Lords of Salem

Jason Vorhees - Friday the 13th

Freddy Krueger - A Nightmare on Elm Street

Captain Spaulding - House of 1000 Corpses

Turning a bunch of creeps into sugary treats makes them so much sweeter. 

At least that is what I will tell myself, so I don't get scared. 

Happy Halloween! 

Creature Features

One of the many things I enjoy about Halloween, besides all the sweets and crazy costumes, is the creepy and scary movies. For these Halloween cookies I decided to pay homage to some classic movie monsters, with one specifically included per the request of my Sweet Eddie. They were so much fun to make and I think next year I will include modern characters.

Each cookie was hand-cut into a delicious orange-chocolate cookie dough. You might notice that there are seven blank canvases below, but only six made it through to complete decoration. Unfortunately Michael Myers, which I anticipated being pretty easy, gave me some trouble and didn't make the cut - pure evil.

 

Although some may say he is not a classic monster,  Eddie thought this would be a cool addition to the collection. Alex from A Clockwork Orange is an ultraviolent thug with his bowler hat and exaggerated eye makeup.

" There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening." 

(A Clockwork Orange, 1971)

Portrayed in the film by Malcolm McDowell

 Count Orlok, from the classic silent film Nosferatu, is a vampire who feasts on the blood of the living while himself looking like a walking corpse.

 "Is this your wife? What a lovely throat."  (Nosferatu, 1922)

Portrayed in the film by Max Schreck

 This year we went to a screening of Nosferatu that was accompanied by a live band. It is definitely a cool way to see this film.

Frankenstein's monster may be the most iconic creature of all the classic monster films. A menacing and unfortunate wretch, the monster is a towering creation of science fiction and horror.

 " Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... "(Frankenstein, 1931)

Portrayed in the film by Boris Karloff

 Every monster needs his mate. The Bride of Frankenstein (Eddie's favorite lady) is a haunting beauty with her shocked hair and deep stare.

 "It's a perfect night for mystery and horror. The air itself is filled with monsters." 

(The Bride of Frankenstein, 1935) 

Portrayed in the film by Elsa Lanchester

 Count Dracula is the classic, dashing, ancient vampire who passionately preys on the living; and drinks their blood.

 "Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make." 

( Dracula, 1931)

Portrayed in the film by Bela Lugosi

 A man cursed to turn into a beast, The Wolf Man is the classic tale of werewolf horror and overwhelming facial hair.

 "You think I don't know the difference between a wolf and a man?"

(The Wolf Man, 1941) 

Portrayed in the film by Lon Chaney, Jr.

Under a full moon the cookie dough was pressed,
just as Dracula awoke from a long days rest.
As her cookies baked warmly in silence,
Alex prepared for an eve of the ol’ ultraviolence.
Though the Wolfman’s howl provided a frightening scare,
it was at that moment Sugar Buff’s icing was finally prepared.
As she decorated each cookie with fine detail,
one could hear Nosferatu's victims screams and wails.
With the Monster Cookies now complete,
Frank and his Bride could finally meet.
Each orange-chocolate cookie a Sugar Buff delight,
but use caution - vampires are known to bite.
A Sugar Buff hauntingly beautiful display,
permitting her Movie Monsters to come out and play.

 - Sweet Eddie

HAPPY MONSTER MOVIE FEST!

My Pumpkins

October is a busy month, especially when you live in Salem, MA. The streets are full of people in a variety of costumes and the traffic is crazy, but it is still a really special and fun place to be. I love the crispness of the air, the smell of cinnamon and cider,  the enthusiasm for decorations, and all of the pumpkins in every form. October is also a big birthday month in my world. Both my older sister and my sweet Eddie were born in this lovely month. Their birthdays are just one day apart so we had a combined celebration for them. I dedicate this post and all the pumpkins in it to my pumpkins, Krystal and Eddie.

 I made pumpkin cookies in chocolate, pumpkin, and vanilla -orange flavors. I love the shape and texture of the pumpkin and I can't resist putting the curly stems on them.

 Even Buffy likes to take a peek at the pumpkin cookies.

Krystal is the mother (owner/friend) of Sage, who has made a few appearances on this blog. Krystal is an amazing musician, music therapist and teacher. She loves elephants and red velvet cake, so I made her a collection of cookies and a little cake for her celebration.

My Sweet Eddie is definitely a lover of all things pumpkin. His birthday request was for pumpkin pie instead of cake, so I made him a real pie and pie shaped cookies.

In addition to pumpkin, Eddie loves Elsa Lanchester in her iconic role as The Bride of Frankenstein. Not only did he get some cookies in her image (thanks to Pink Little Cake for the inspiration and template), he also got a framed print of the lovely lady.

 Happy Birthday to Krystal and Eddie and all of the other October babies. Happy Pumpkins!