Don't call it a comeback.

o hai.

Remember when I was all, I'm gonna totally actually update this blog?

Yeeeeahhh.

I feel like I'm trying to start a normal conversation with a jilted lover. Not like I have tons of* jilted lovers, but still.
*any

So anyway, I've been busy all summer working and acting and stuff. Meanwhile, if my family was an internet meme, it would come with the message "BREAKING LOOSE-- ALL HELL IS DOING IT." So that's my excuse, I guess. But today my friend Emily and I went to Salvation Army for some retail therapy/treasure hunting. I got cool stuff.

I got a dress and a super warm sweatshirt and I got my dad an Oscar de la Renta tie and my brother a Pokemon cup and a freakin Bottega Veneta bag which I didn't even realize was cool until we googled it.

$5. God I'm a champ.

Relevant to you all, I got some new cake pans, a crank hand mixer, and a really old cookie press/cake decorator. Like, from the 1940's. Neato, right?

Salvo makes the hipster in me come raging out like the hulk.

It wasn't the complete kit, but what it has is in good shape and I'm working on getting the rest online so I can practice decorating. But here's what we've got.

Also the tube isn't in this picture, but it exists.

There are cookie recipes all along the side of the box, so I decided to try a couple and share them with you.

Right off the bat, I decided to divide the recipes by 4 (I'll write them out the way they are on the box.) I have enough experience with a press to know that the recipes make a LOT of cookies, and I was just experimenting. My other issue was that the recipes just said to put the cookies in "a hot oven," so I baked them at 350º and that worked fine.

The first ones I made were caramel cookies.

I LIKE PRETTY THINGS.

Ingredients
2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cups butter
2 beaten eggs
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

Cream sugar and butter.  Add beaten eggs. Mix rest of ingredients then add. Press through Cookie Maker and bake in hot oven 10 to 12 minutes (or until edges are brown.)


I used this cookie pattern-

hai

Here are the box's instructions for using the press--

Stand Cookie Maker on UNGREASED baking sheet or pan, press down on plunger until dough appears at edge of ring. Raise plunger slightly to break vacuum, lift Cookie Maker directly upward and you have a perfectly formed cookie.

Ok so that is not necessarily true.  If your dough is not too sticky and your tube is pretty full, you will have nice cookies. If not, not so much. The caramel cookie dough worked well. Here's the before--

Dear mom: sorry I am putting your weird cookie sheet on
internet. Also this post means I didn't clean my room yet.

And after--

Nothing too embarrassing yet.

The other recipe was for "Plantation Sour Cream Cookies."

NOMlicopters.

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup rich sour cream
1/2 cup butter (or shortening)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour (or enough to prevent it from being sticky)

Cream the butter and sugar and add the sour cream in which the soda has been dissolved.  Beat the egg well and add. Add the vanilla, nutmeg and then the flour. Press through Cookie Maker onto ungreased cookie sheet or pan. Bake in a moderate oven until brown, about 10 minutes.


This dough was a lot stickier. I should have added more flour. Soooo here are the good ones (pre-baking.)

Alright alright.

And here are the bad ones.

Oh.

So I ended up with this--

Yup.

Which was when I decided to try out my new mixer and make some frosting.

I divided this recipe by 8 and ended up adding a bit more sugar to get the right consistency.  I have always been kind of a brat about electric mixers, mostly because I am too lazy to clean them and spoons are easier, but I figured a crank one would be ok.

Oh my god it was so much better than ok. Look at that icing.

Again, pretty things.

It whipped up so fast and nicely. I've been wasting my life. There was love all around, but I never heard it singing, no I never heard it at all, till there was my cool new crank mixer.

My final product?

So much PRETTY.

Overall, these were easy and fast to whip up, tasty, and would be nice to bring to a party if I had friends.