Christmas In July - Baking When You Are Less Busy

    Baking Christmas cookies in December is time-consuming when moms and grandmas have many extra tasks pulling at their time. We often reach New Year's longing to have spent more time in the kitchen baking, instead of time in stores shopping. We know time management is part of the issue, but sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day.
    Fast forward to July, when the hot sticky hours drag on endlessly because the springs are full, the yard is hot, and friends are away on vacation. Now is the easy time to turn frowns upside down, by scheduling a day for Christmas in July.
    After a not-so-happy day at the dentist last week, we made the best of a long summer day by putting on a good old Christmas movie and stirring up a delicious batch of sugar cookies, the pretty kind that we usually don't have time for at Christmas.
    The ingredients are simple, the time it takes to chill the dough was spent watching the movie with the children and eating popcorn and soon it was time to enjoy cutting out and decorating a batch of delicious cookies.
    Maybe it was the heat, or maybe it was just the joy of an extra day of unexpected Christmas, but fun was had and the cookies tasted great.
    We hope you mix up a batch of these to share with someone this week. It is a sure-fire way to enjoy a couple of summer hours.
Grandma’s Sugar Cookies
4 cups of sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup of melted butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup white sugar
3 Tbsp. of milk(almond milk is fine)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
    Cream the eggs, melted butter, milk, and sugar in a small bowl. Sift the flour into a big bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir into a big wet dough. Cover with plastic or tin foil and chill for one hour.
    Flour a cookie sheet or clean counter to roll out the dough. Pat into a big flat patty with your hands, then roll to 1/4 inch thickness with a well-flowered rolling pin. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Place on two or three large cookie sheets about 1 inch apart to bake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake at 350 for 10 to12 minutes. Let cool on paper towels or a wire cooling rack.
Frosting
2 cups of confectioners sugar
1 tsp. of lemon or almond flavoring and 3 Tbsp. of water.
    Stir together to make a thin toothpaste-like frosting. Should pour easily from a teaspoon. If it is too thick add a little more flavoring or water until the consistency is good. Use about 1/2 to 1 tsp. of frosting to coat each cookie front, then top with pretty sprinkles. They dry very quickly so don't be slow to get those sprinkles on while the frosting is still wet. Let dry on paper towels or wire racks then store in a large ziplock or plastic container. Makes at least 3 dozen cookies.
    Please send us the recipe for your summer favorites this week with a picture. Thanks for sharing your love of cooking with us. Food feeds our families and gives us something good to gather around and share. Please keep checking in and please share your recipes with me on Facebook, or email to: hollynewby1@aol.com or mail to P.O. Box 1099, Umatilla, FL 32784. Share what’s cooking…photos too!