Touch Down!!! Bring on the Football Cookies (Funny Faces)

Cole has started flag football and for his games we didn't have a real plan for treats, so of course I decide I would just take that over and do that!  I wanted my treats not to be something boring I wanted something fun!!!  I went to Pinterest and did some searching!  I found a cute picture (of course not linked to anything) of Football cookies made with funny faces.  I started with a ginger cookie for my footballs and went to town decorating.  They turned out GREAT I must say my favorite one in this theme so far!

For the ginger cookies I used a recipe found on food.com.  This was an easy recipe and I happened to have a football cookie cutter that I used when I rolled the dough out.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves until well blended.  In a large bowl (KitchenAid's great for this) beat butter, brown sugar, and egg on medium speed until well blended.  Add molasses, vanilla, and lemon zest and continue to mix until well blended.  Gradually stir in dry ingredients until blended and smooth.

Divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic and let stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours or up to 8 hours.  Preheat oven to 375°.  Grease or line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Place 1 portion of the dough on a lightly floured surface.  Sprinkle flour over dough and rolling pin.  Roll dough to a scant 1/4-inch thick.  Use additional flour to avoid sticking. Cut out cookies with football cutter. Space cookies 1 1/2-inches apart.  Bake 1 sheet at a time for 7-10 minutes (the lower time will give you softer cookies).  Remove cookie sheet from oven and allow the cookies to stand until the cookies are firm enough to move to a wire rack.

After the cookies cooled I went to town decorating.  I made a few different faces.  The boys loved it.

What you need:

White Gel (I recommend Wilton)

Black Gel (I recommend Wilton)

Wilton Candy Eyes

Baked cookies

Bottom shows a few different faces.

I found a football dish at the Dollar Tree Store

These were pretty darn simple the hardest part was making the dough a cutting out the cookies.  WELL of course also not eating them all, this is my favorite type of cookie.

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE. 

Pumpkin Gingerbread Cookies (Another PTF Treat)

We had our monthly PTF meeting and time to make a new treat to share with the other parents.  I looked in the cupboard what I had already to eliminate a trip to the grocery store.  I found two packages of Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cookie Mix and a can of Pumpkin.  Ok what can I do with that.  So to Google I went and stumbled upon a great recipe for Pumpkin Gingerbread Cookies on Seizing My Day's Blog.  Now she made rolled cut out cookies, I was not being that fancy.  I tweaked the recipe a bit and came up with some great drop cookies.  That is drop them in some cinnamon sugar and roll them around and they turn into round fluffy cookies!

First off sorry about the pictures I left my camera at my dad's house and had to use my iPhone which doesn't take high quality pictures but hey they are clear and we'll make it work.

Ingredients:

Betty’s Gingerbread cookie mix

1/2 Cup Canned Pumpkin

1 egg white

1/2 stick butter

Cinnamon & Sugar - To Roll the cookies in about 1/4 cup

1/2 Cup Flour

Blend the softened butter, pumpkin and egg white in your mixer (I threw mine in my kitchen aid).  Once this is combined add in the cookie mix, it will be sticky at this point.  Now add in the flour add in a little at a time to get a stiff cookie dough.  Once all mixed together take a scoop (I used my ice cream scoop) and then dropped into the cinnamon sugar and rolled around until the whole ball was coated.  I then placed them on a cookie sheet with wax paper.  Bake at 375 for 12 minutes (give or take depending on your stove).

I again didn't get to taste them but Cole told me they were yummy and I was excited to say every cookie was taken home with the people that were there!  Whoo hoo nothing for me to be tempted with.

One of those days ...

You ever just have one of those days, it just kind of takes you down. Well it was one of those days for me, now I know I'm a lucky girl and have been blessed with many things but some days you just want to eat that bag of chocolate. So instead of giving into my urge to ripe open that bag of Hersey kisses with the cherry center. Which if you know me know I hate anything cherry flavor reminds me of cough syrup when I was young, but when you're have a chocolate attack almost anything will do.

But isn't of letting it get to me I started to bake yet again, not sure what has gotten into me lately. Maybe it the idea of using every dish in the house to make Rick crazy, it drives him nuts when I've used every dish to make an item. Hey I actually washed while I went along and had all the dishes done before he even got home from work. First I started with some rice in the rice cooker, really what did I do with out these nifty things that cut my work in half? You know I don't usually get home until after 6pm from work and picking up the kids so these little gadgets are Godsend's! After the rice I decide that I couldn't have made enough cookies why not make the box (yes I said box) of gingerbread cookies my girlfriend brought over. The funny thing is I had these out yesterday forgot, washed up all the dishes and turned off the oven. This is the point that Rick then feels the need to say something about the cookies that didn't get made. No he couldn't have said something when I was in mid process of the other million batches, nope after everything is put away and the oven is cool! I have to love him right? A little mean thoughts doesn't hurt anyone does it, I only think of throwing that wood spoon at his head I never actually do it!

I then move on to a new batch of bread, the french bread I made Sunday smelled great but the loaf was too small for lunches. Plus it's a little dense, which is good for the PB&J sandwiches but not so good for the ham sandwiches I usually do. So throw all the ingredients in the bread maker and let it do it's magic. See I never could have gotten threw half of these things with out help from handy dandy gadgets. Then it's time for dinner brown up some onions and then throw in some meat. Ok some of you might want to turn your head at this point, some people think this is the worse meat ever. Yes I'm talking about Spam, the boys love it and actually eat really well with it so hey it's a keeper. Don't ever tell my mom I cook with it, she will disclaim me and let you know she would NEVER let this ever come in her house. She saw it in my cupboard the other day and I thought I was going to have to call 911 from her having a heart attack. She was in shock and let me know this isn't how she raised me. LOL ... like I'm sticking the kids in bed with no desert (wait I do that) ... hmmm well you get the idea. Back on track throw the rice, onion, spam (sorry had to say the word), cream of mushroom, milk and top it off with Cheddar cheese. Hey at least it's real cheese and not Velveeta I really love my mom and want her to stay around, that would surely throw her over the deep edge :).

So there you have it my baking night, here it is after 9pm and the dishes are done, Cole's lunch is made and the house is in good shape. Not bad for a days work, and I'm not in such a mood either! I do have to let you in on why so many Betty Crocker items, not because it's the easiest (which it is) but because of Box Tops. Cole's school is collecting box tops and the classroom that brings in the most gets a party. And you know me and competition, I'm all over it! I've already filled up one sheet and on to my 2nd one. Do you think that sounds a little aggressive? I didn't think so either. What I didn't let you answer? Sorry, I'm glad you agree with me :).

Back to my regular bread recipe (its the best I've tried)

My rice cooker! Thank you Black & Decker I love it!

Yummy Gingerbread Cookies! Yup don't get excited it's from a box, but still yummy!

Thank you Betty Crocker (see the missing box top)

Cookies are done, look it made exactly one sheet! Yup that had nothing to do with a certain person with sticky fingers typing that had "some" of the dough! Nope I know nothing!

The Casserole (See I saved you from the word)

And yummy the bread just finished too! Talk about a night well spent!