I love cookie cutters. I have a weakness for them. Can’t hardly pass them by in a store without stopping and looking at them. Invariably, one or two jump into my shopping cart. Don’t ya just hate it when that happens??

Needless to say, I have a rather large collection of cookie cutters. I have the normal ones like circles, stars, hearts, and diamonds. Ones for holidays (Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving.) I have some that are music notes, letters in the alphabet, a lion, a shamrock, a strawberry, a rocking horse, a gingerbread man, a birthday cake, a train, a teddy bear, a camel, a pig, a snowman, and a couple of horses to name a few. Whew!

Of course you can use cookie cutters for the normal cookie making activities. (Check out my post Fabulous Sugar Cookies for a great sugar cookie recipe.) Instead of letting all of your great cookie cutters gather dust in your kitchen drawer between uses at holiday times, there are several other things that you can do with them.

First, use them to make fun shaped sandwiches. We all know that children don’t particularly like the crust of their sandwiches. So, if you’re going to cut the crust off anyway, might as well make the sandwich a fun shape by cutting the bread with a cookie cutter. If you are using lunch meat, cut the lunch meat in the same shape. This adds a wee bit o’ fun to lunchtime . . . and lots of bread crusts to turn into homemade croûtons or stuffing for Thanksgiving.

You can also make Jell-O Jigglers. Use your cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes in the Jell-O and serve them with your sandwiches! Here are some directions for making the jigglers:

Get 2 large boxes of Jell-O. Stir in 2 1/2 cups boiling water. DO NOT ADD COLD WATER! Dissolve completely. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9 inch pan. Chill at least 3 hours. To cut Jigglers, dip bottom of pan in warm water for 15 seconds to loosen gelatin. Cut shapes with cookie cutters. Lift from the pan with your fingers or a spatula. (For easier removing, lightly coat the pan with cooking spray before pouring in gelatin mixture.)

Another idea is to make Jell-O Jigglers. Then, set addition Jell-O in a 9 x 13 pan made in the traditional way with cold water. When that is set, spread Cool
Whip over the Jell-O. Then, cut out the Jell-O Jigglers and decorate the top of the whipped topping with the Jigglers cut outs.

Then of course EVERYBODY who is ANYBODY knows to use cookie cutters with Play Dough.

A variation on the theme of using cookie cutters is to get a bread press. You use it to press a design into a piece of bread. And when you toast the bread, the design becomes visible. This is a fun thing to do for breakfast or for toasted sandwiches for lunch. Here’s a picture of a bread press that I have. (Click on it to see a larger version.

One of my children’s favorite activities to do on holidays (especially Valentine’s Day and Halloween) was to make holiday shaped sugar cookies. We had great times mixing, (and snitching tastes of the dough), rolling out, cutting, baking, frosting, and decorating the cookies. The recipe that I use is a favorite that I got from a friend. It’s for soft sugar cookies — and everyone that eats them loves them! (The secret to the softness is that there is sour cream in the recipe!)

Here’s the recipe:

Soft Sugar Cookies

1 C butter softened
2 C sugar
2 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla

Cream this mixture for 2 minutes. Then add:

1 C sour cream
3 1/4 C flour.

Cream this mixture for 2 minutes. Then add:

3 1/4 C flour

This will be a soft and sticky dough. On a floured surface, roll out to 1/4 inch thick and cut out shapes using your appropriate holiday cookie cutters. Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.

When cooled, frost with the following recipe:

Frosting

1 cube soft butter
1 3/4 C powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
desired food coloring

Mix until smooth and apply to cookies. Decorate with candies that fit the current holiday.

Bon appetit!
Digi-Gram

Lanette, from Salt Lake City, Utah, shared some of her ideas of what she does to develop a strong relationship with her grandchildren. She writes:

“I want to be known as the “Book Grandma”. Reading has always been important in my life and I have a love of reading. I wanted my grandchildren to love to read, too, so I started a book giving tradition at Christmas time.

“I enjoy looking for books that fit their interests. Or, sometimes I search for books that will help them develop a new interest or that will broaden their exposure to new things. One year I found some fun bug books that came with small plastic bugs. They were just perfect for my 4 year old grandsons. I also found a cook book for my 6 year old granddaughter and we have had a lot of fun trying the recipes in that book. I also made her an apron to wear when she cooks.

“It seems that my grandchildren get so many toys that it is hard to give them something that they don’t already have. That is why I started my book giving tradition for Christmas.”

She continues with another suggestion:

“Since some of my grandchildren live across the country, I have had to come up with things to keep us connected to each other. I e-mail my older grandchildren so that I am able to find out what is going on in their lives. Sometimes I put a joke in my e-mails and then scroll down and add the answer. Sometimes they e-mail me jokes, too.”

Thanks, Lanette, for sharing your ideas! I love the idea of putting jokes in an e-mail and making your grandchildren scroll down the message to find the answer. What a great idea — and one that is easy to do.

If you’re not sure what might be a good book to give for Christmas (or any other time), almost ANY Newbery Medal winner would be a good choice. You can click here to see a list of their books.

Enjoy
Digi-Gram