Happy 4th!

Holidays are usually for laying around and eating, but in the 3 hours that I've been up, I've made pancakes for breakfast and a banana pudding for later on. Tonight we're eating catfish for dinner with our church family at someone's house out in the country. No fireworks for this 4th, though. Texas is in such a bad drought that we're under a strict burn ban. *sigh* 

Friday, me and the little girl I babysit made and decorated sugar cookies for her to take out to the party tonight. She doesn't spend much time in the kitchen, so I think she had a lot of fun with me. Yeah, I'm kind of a cool babysitter no big. ;)

We got the recipe from Allrecipes.com, and it turned out really well. It made about 3 1/2 dozen soft and easy-to-decorate sugar cookies. I mixed up a can of white icing with some powdered sugar and gel food coloring to make red and blue, then put it in piping bags for her to use.

Here's the recipe we used:

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.