Loft House Cookies

We made Loft House sugar cookies!  Ours are pink with black and white cow sprinkles because the girls convinced me that everything is better when it is pink with sprinkles.

These are like the super-soft, extremely sweet sugar cookies they sell at the grocery store.  I used a crusting buttercream and let them dry for about 8 hours, then the frosting was firm enough to put the cookies in the cookie jar and they were still very soft cookies.

This is not an original recipe, but I can not find my source.  The majority of "Lofthouse" knockoff recipes I find call for sour cream.  A few call for shortening and butter, but the shortening and oil combo worked best for me.

Loft House Style Sugar Cookies

1 cup shortening (butter flavor if you have it)

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons almond extract (vanilla is fine, but I love the way almond extract perks up a sugar cookie)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 

Soften the shortening and cream in the sugars.

Scrape the bowl.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.

Beat in the oil and vanilla.

Scrape the bowl.

Beat in baking soda, cream of tartar and salt, mix thoroughly.

Scrape the bowl.

Add flour one cup at a time until well mixed.

Dough will be VERY soft.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.  Scoop ping pong ball sized balls of dough onto a cookie sheet, roll into a ball with your hands.  If it's warm or too soft/sticky, refrigerate the balls again before baking.  It is important that the dough be cold before baking or it will spread too fast and you will lose the loft of your cookie.  Leave room on the tray for cookies to spread.  I put 8 on each tray in staggered pairs.

Bake at 325 for 8-14 minutes (took 12-13 for mine) until the edges are just firming up (if they're browning, they're over-done)

Cool and frost generously with your favorite buttercream frosting.

Makes 32 large cookies.

I'll have to remind my sous-chefs about the dress code.

Matilda goes to Madison

Matilda attended her first Badgers game in in the Varsity Club (vs. UTEP) on Saturday.  She wore her cheerleader costume (she calls it a football dress) and had a great time!

 She devoured cookies,

 She got fun one-on-one time with Daddy,

She met a real cheerleader and got to shake her pompons (Matilda was shy,)

She also brought her own camera along!  Here are her photos:

Camp Randall (you can see her reflection in the glass!)

Self portraits:

UW won, and Ed said Matilda was so well behaved he would take her again!

Adelaide Prewalking

Adelaide is almost ready to walk.  She pushes this little cart and the chairs, and the trash can, and the highchair, and really, anything she can find, back and forth across the kitchen most of the day.  She's starting to attempt to span larger gaps between furniture and is building her confidence.  She'll get it any day now--she has powerful motivation: to keep up with her sisters!

Back to School!

We are in our new house, we have internet back, and, now, the kids have gone back to school!

Tuesday, September 11 was Evelyn's first day at the Mother's Day Out WCEP program at Geneva Lutheran.  It is close enough to walk, hosts kids 2-4 years old and she plays and plays and plays.  And! She gets to stay for lunch.  She really enjoyed filling up her little baggies to help pack her lunch today and she comes home good and TIRED!

Matilda is at the Growing Place Preschool at our church and it is a more academically focused program for 3-5 year olds.  We toured the school last month and gave her a chance to meet her teachers.  She is going to learn so much and gain so much independence there this year.  I'm excited to hear all about her new friends and the projects she works on and all the interesting things she will learn.  We couldn't be happier with her program!

Matilda wasn't too interested in the pictures at first--she was mad 

at me for brushing her hair--but she warmed up at the end.  

And she loves wearing her 'Pop Star' shirt.

The girls miss each other while they are at their separate schools, but I think it is good for them to make some new friends on their own and they are obviously having a great time!