Made with Altitude!

I am on location in Santa Fe, NM for 2 1/2 months, and I just couldn't resist the urge to make St. Patty's Day cookies.  Luckily I have a wonderful boss, who is renting a pretty awesome house.  The kitchen is a dream come true for me, since it is way bigger than what I use at home with a huge island.  You could roll dough for miles!  Since I, of course, didn't bring any of my supplies with me, I called my mom and had her fedex a package of cookie baking goodies.  My boss, was very conveniently, going out of town the weekend before St. Patty's day, so I was free to be at his house all day.  Since it was my first time making cookies in altitude, I was a bit worried about how it would affect everything, but I soon found out.

I didn't have a rolling pin, so I had to roll out the dough using a bottle of wine, which works perfectly!  One bottle for rolling dough and one for drinking!

I did my usual, roll out dough, freeze for 10 minutes, cut out shapes and then freeze again for 10 minutes.

As each cookie sheet of cut out clovers came out of the freezer, they went right into the oven for 9 minutes.

I made 2 batches of dough and ended up with about 52 cookies.  While the cookies were cooling, I started making the icing.  For some reason, not sure if it was the altitude, but I couldn't get the consistency quite right.  It may have been me being a bit impatient, but I made it work. 

Since I didn't have a lot of time to complete so many cookies, I wanted to go a simple as possible, just using light and dark green as well as white.

Once the cookies were completely cooled, I used the amazing wood island in the kitchen and went to town.  I ended up breaking a couple of stems off, but I just reattached them with some white icing.  No one ever noticed!

Empty cookie.

Outlined cookie.

Filled cookie.

I placed a white dot and a light green dot on the cookie and used a toothpick to make a heart.

I just kept decorating until they were all completed.  It was a long day, and a long process but always an enjoyable one.  I literally just listened to music, drank wine and decorated cookies.  It was a good Saturday night.

I had a couple of round cookies, since I didn't have enough dough to make clovers.  I got creative and made them St. Patty's day cookies. 

I hope everyone had an awesome St. Patty's day!  I know I did!

The following week, my boss really wanted gingerbread cookies.  Now, it obviously isn't the season for that, but I said I would make a batch if they didn't need icing and they could be clovers.  Well here is the result of that Friday night!  Another bottle of wine and a whole bunch of cookies.

Very strange combo, but still soft, chewy and delicious!

Happy Baking!!