Soap Cookies

Christmas is fast approaching and the rumbly tumbly's thoughts turn to all the treats of the season. It's a rare belly that can resist the wonderous treata of the season.

On Miss Prima's last day of school, her class was having a Christmas cookie exchange. Each kid was supposed to bring in two Christmas cookies per child in the class. While picking her up from school the day before, I noticed the cookies had started to arrive. Much to my disappointment, yet not to my surprise, all the cookies so far were store bought. Being the Uber-Dad that I am, I figured "Well, we're just going to have to show these lazy parents what's up!" We still had a package of sugar cookie mix in the pantry, it should be no problem to whip those up, and what fun would it be for all three kids to play with the cookie cutters? Bubba's been bugging me almost every day to make cut out cookies for the past month. Miss Prima's would be the only homemade cookies in the class.

All went reasonably well, the three of us endedup with 3 dozen cookies shaped like stars, Christmas trees, snowmen, angels, bells and snowflakes. I made up a couple quick batches of simple icing, made out of powdered sugar, butter, milk and vanilla. A bit of red and green food coloring, and we have ourselves a party! At this point, unbeknownst to us, thing went horribly wrong.

We always remind the kids to wash their hands before handling food, or sitting down to eat. In someone's eagerness to get started on the fun, he or she missed the crucial "rinse" step in the hand washing. The cookies ended up tasting like soap! Luckily, we taste-tested them right after bed time that night and caught it in time, before we accidentally washed out the mouths of those poor, unsuspecting 1st and 2nd graders. Some of them probably deserved it anyway, but since we didn't know exactly which cookies were tainted, we couldn't be sure the right kids would get the right cookies.

We decided to not send her to school with any cookies at all. It didn't matter in the end, really. Many parents sent with their kids multiple packages of store bought sugar bombs; Chips Ahoy!, generic, store brand "m&m-style" cookies, as well as many from the bakery departments of all the major local grocery stores. Only two kids brought in anything homemade: One package of star shaped, decorated sugars, and a batch of snickerdoodles. Miss Prima came home with a sack of cookies she'll never (be allowed to) finish on her own.

Here's the recipe for the cookie frosting. (The soap is optional!)
- 1 cup sifted powderd sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- milk or orange juice

Mix powdered sugar, vanilla and 1 teaspoon milk or OJ at a time. Stir with a kitchen whisp or use an electric mixer. Ad food coloring of your choice to make it any color you want. For cookie icing, you'll want this frosting to be very stiff. Placing this frosting in the refridgerator for a while will help.