Spritz Cookies

Another one of the cookies we make every Christmas is spritz.  These light, buttery cookies are really tasty.  You need a cookie press to make these - Wilton makes a pretty good one and so do some other brands.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 extra egg yolks
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• optional: food coloring (if you use food coloring, be sure to use the paste (or gel) kind - the liquid can mess up the recipe.  We use Wilton's, and it works well.)

Cream the butter in a mixer.

Add the sugar and blend.

Add the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and salt and mix.

Gradually add the flour while mixing.

You can add some food coloring if you want to - we used red . . .

and green!

Use the cookie press to form your designs.  Press the cookies onto an unlined cookie sheet.

Bake at 350ºF for 13 minutes.

Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and place on a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy and be sure to give your baking supervisor(s) a little taste too!

Brave Brinley Cocktail

Hi y'all!  Sorry for the long absence - I got sick with the nastiest cold - I just couldn't shake it.  And I haven't really been sick in years.  But I'm finally feeling better, and I'm back with another cocktail recipe I created.  I named this one after our almost one-year old westie puppy, Brinley.

Ingredients:

• 1 oz grapefruit vodka
• 1 oz orange vodka
• 1 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1 oz blood orange juice
• 1/2 oz orgeat
• 1/2 oz orange curaçao
• 1 cup crushed ice

I used Deep Eddy Grapefruit vodka and Absolut Mandarin vodka, but any good grapefruit and orange vodkas will work.  You can buy lots of different brands of orange curaçao, but if you can find the Pierre Ferrand dry curaçao, you should definitely get it - it tastes much better than the Hiram Walker or the DeKuyper.  If you can't find blood orange juice, you can substitute regular orange juice, but blood orange juice does have a distinctive taste.  I found this blood orange juice at Central Market.    

Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously.

Serve in a tiki mug or your glass of choice.

And here's Miss Brave Brinley herself!