The Lovebug

You may learn, if you haven't noticed already, that I am not a mom that is always on top of things or with it.  I tend to do thing a tad late, but hey, at least I do it eventually.  Ok, not always.  Like the Thanksgiving project I've been meaning to do for the last 2 Thanksgiving without it getting done YET!  Well, that's another story.  But we are talking about Lovebug Cookies today that I had planned to do over the weekend that instead was replaced by a large Tex-Mex feast, which was good, by the way (I'll mention that a little more at the end of this post).

I was exhausted on Monday (by the Tex-Mex feast and good company), so the Lovebug cookies were put off until Tuesday.  We got them cut out and baked. (I used a recipe from Bake at 350).  The kids helped me a bit with the cutting out.

What do you tend to do with the left over bit of cookie dough that is too small to role out?  Do you eat it? Throw it away?  Stick it on the baking sheet to cook up as a blob to eat as a "casualty cookie?"  What is a casualty cookie??  The ugly and broken ones, of course!  You know casualty cookies have no calories, right?!  At least that's what a friend and I choose to believe!  Ha!

Well, maybe ALL of you have been doing this for a long time and I finally got smart and figured it out. I came up with this little trick to take that small, last little bit of dough and press it down into the cookie cutter, like this!

 Can you tell which one is the pressed cookie?

It's the one on the right in the middle.  Hard to tell, isn't it?!  I was so proud of myself for figuring that out!  Ha!

We didn't have time to decorate that evening, so I told the kids that if we had time at our lunch break on Wednesday, we would do it then.  I got the colors all ready Wednesday morning.  They ate their lunch quickly and could not wait to start decorating!

The cookies didn't all turn into lovebugs, but that's ok.  They got creative and had fun! 

 Here is my lovebug!  Isn't he cute?!  He was tasty!

They had so much fun!  I cannot believe how much time they chose to sit and decorate cookies!  We didn't get them all done at their lunch break, but they were right back at it after school to finish up.

Look at how creative!

Oh, and about that Tex-Mex feast.  We had some friends come over for dinner on Sunday and I decided to go all out and make homemade tortillas (I can get store bought, but homemade are a treat!), homemade salsa, marinade some beef & chicken and finished up the evening with sopapillas!

I could not believe how easy sopapillas are to make!  One recipe blog I like to check out from time to time is the Homesick Texan (She now lives in New York).  I can relate to not living in the great state of Texas with good Tex-Mex all around.  So she has learned to create some of her favorites at home.  Sopapillas being one of them.

Cutting up the dough. 

 Fry!

 Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and serve with honey!

I made so many we couldn't eat them all, which they are no where near as good warmed over.  But we ate a few heated up in the toaster and they were still good!

So there ya have it.  My cooking/baking adventures for the week!

Happy Thursday!