rusty_halo

soundingsea posted picspam. Fun!

And look, here's one with me in it. Dude, I love that Common Rotation shirt.

In other news, it turns out that it's very difficult to find holiday-shaped cookie cutters in NYC at 9pm on a weeknight shortly before Christmas. I spent two hours hitting every imaginable store for blocks. I found heart shapes, butterfly shapes, and bear shapes, but no stars or bells or candy canes or snowflakes or anything remotely holiday-ish. I would've even settled for some goth-type Halloween shapes, but nothing was to be found. Oh, well... my office will just have to deal with plain circle-shaped cookies.

Oh, and if you were wondering about vegan cookies, here's a recipe for butter cookies:

2 sticks of vegan margarine (Willow Run makes soy margarine, and I believe that Fleischman's Unsalted is also vegan)

1 1/2 cups powdered vegan sugar (you can buy this--Hain makes a version--or make it yourself by combining 1 cup unrefined sugar [sucanat, sugar in the raw, etc.] and 4 T. cornstarch and blending in blender until powdery)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 vegan egg (you can use commercial egg replacer, or make your own by mixing 2 T flour, 2 T water, 1/2 T. corn oil, 1 tsp baking powder)

2 1/2 c. unbleached white flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1/4 tsp salt

Cream butter. Add powdered sugar, cream until light and fluffy.

Add egg and vanilla, mix.

Sift together the dry ingredients. Slowly blend into the wet mix until you have dough.

Roll out the dough; cut it into pretty shapes. (Or use an upside-down glass for round shapes.)

Bake for 8 minutes at 400 degrees.

These are fine on their own, or you can make icing.

(Sorry I can't give exact proportions, I just mixed these together until I got the right consistency and a good taste)

Vanilla icing
Mix about 1 cup powdered vegan sugar, 1 - 3 T of vegan margarine, vanilla to taste, maple syrup.

Lemon icing
Mix about 1 cup powdered vegan sugar, 1 - 3 T of vegan margarine, juice and grated rind of a lemon

Spread onto cookies after they cool; sprinkle with vegan sprinklies or other decorations if desired.