Cookies for Fall

It's October in New England.  The air is crisp, the trees are full of color, everything is pumpkin and each day here in Salem feels like Halloween. It is fantastic. Sweet Eddie and I love to take weekend strolls and fill our senses with everything our home has to offer.  Last weekend we watched an old time baseball game, strolled through a park with some beautiful changing leaves, viewed an outdoor movie, and witnessed an amazing, full, orange moon beaming over the harbor. Happy days.

 It is easy to find cookie inspiration this time of  year. 

Fall Wreaths

Pumpkins

Apples

Candy Corn

Pumpkin Potted Mums

It is a beautiful world.

Here is to a happy and vibrant fall. 

Cookies for the Troops 2

I am so happy to be a part of another round of Operation Cookie Takeover!  Last spring more than 10,000 cookies were baked, donated, and shipped to Afghanistan for distribution to our brave and noble troops. For that first round I made patriotic themed cookies.  This time it is all about the Halloween season!  Also for this round, instead of a mass distribution of cookies, each volunteer was given the name of an individual to send our cookies to for them to enjoy and share with friends and coworkers.  I love Halloween and I love the opportunity to show my support for the courageous men and women who defend our Country.

In my first post for Cookie Takeover, I talked a lot about my father-in-law who served bravely in Vietnam.  Just this September, Dad passed away. He was a wonderful, generous, loving, funny man. Although I only got to know him for the last few years of his life,  I hear his stories and jokes, and see his spirit live on through his amazing son, my husband. I am so lucky and proud to be a part of this family.

To represent the fun and spirit of Halloween, I made some classic designs, but I couldn't resist making some cute cookies as well.

Candy Corn!

Jack-o-lanterns!

Owls!

Spooky Trees!

Bride of Frankenstein!

And how could I resist:  Halloween Hello Kitty!

Pumpkin Hello Kitty!

Witch Hello Kitty!

Devil Hello Kitty!

Spider Hello Kitty!

Bride of Frankenstein Hello Kitty!

Vampire Hello Kitty!

A Happy Halloween Collection

I hope these cookies provide some smiles and reflect my gratitude. 

As I ship these cookies off to a hero currently defending our Country overseas, I also dedicate them to my hero,  my father-in-law, Edward J. Ekstrom.  May he rest in peace. We love you, Dad!

Cookies for the Go Bo! Foundation Bake Sale

The Go Bo! Foundation is all about paying it forward by funding research, helping families, and supporting treatment for children with life threatening medical conditions. 

The foundation is named for Bo Johnson, a brave and loving boy who lost his battle to Leukemia, but left behind a beautiful message about life.

"You only live once so make it count. Just think about what you do. 

Think about what matters. Live your life like it's your last." 

- Bo

I am so happy to be a cookie artist and to be able to donate cookies to the 2nd Annual Go Bo! Foundation Bake Sale in Wisconsin. The bake sale theme is Halloween/Fall which happens to be my favorite cookie theme and time of year. 

I had owls on my mind and since I live in Salem, the Witch City, I used my witch head cookie cutter to make owls with witchy hats. 

I also placed a tiny owl in a tree full that was full of color changing leaves. 

And a few pumpkins!

Thank you to Jill from Funky Cookie Studio for setting up the bake sale and allowing me to send

 a little cookie love. 

Live, laugh, love!

Giving Thanks

A week out from the holiday really gives you time to reflect on what it means to be thankful. I am thankful for sugar, butter, cookie cutters, vanilla bean paste, dark chocolate chips, and perfectly piped royal icing. Also, and more importantly, I am thankful to have my family and my Sweet Eddie by my side. I would truly be lost without love. :)

I enjoy Thanksgiving. We laugh, we hug, we prepare tons of food, we eat, and we say thank you for the things in our life that make us complete.

Also, it really is the only day of the year that I eat stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce and tofurkey. Yes, tofurkey! Tofurkey is a vegetarian version of turkey (pretty much a delicious tofu ball filled with stuffing.) I dig it and my sisters do too, but Sweet Eddie and my parents stuck to the real deal this year. I also like to celebrate the day with dessert. As we were a smaller group this year, I resisted the urge to go wild with my sweets, so I only made three pies and my cookies.

To honor the food, I designed some food cookies of a standard Thanksgiving spread and some items that we have at our feast.

 Green bean casserole, creamed corn, homemade cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes

Mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, rolls

And of course the almighty tofurkey on a bed of carrots and roasted garlic

Altogether on the plate, bellisimo!

(Fun fact: some members of my family saw the above photo first and thought they were each separate cookies on a plate, only to find out in person it was one cookie with tiny food details!)

And the celebration wouldn't be complete without more mini pie cookies

And some festive decor

And some real non-cookie pies:

Upside-down Cranberry Chocolate, Swedish Apple, Pumpkin

And of course, Turkeys

What a bunch of turkeys!

As the holiday season rolls on, I hope it is filled with sweet joy and peace.

Happy Halloween!

                              

Perhaps it was the spirits of Olde Salem compelling me to cream together more butter and sugar, or the manifestations I was seeing in royal icing, but I just couldn't resist making a few more Halloween treats. I made a batch of browned butter pumpkin cupcakes with a cinnamon whipped cream cheese frosting and homemade fondant pumpkins for the top. They were frighteningly tasty.

I also created some cookies with wicked orange-chocolate cookie dough.

This cookie was inspired by a pumpkin that I carved last year.

 

A couple lovely ladies

More pumpkins!

Spiders!

Happy Halloween! Have some tricks and treats!