Frosted Sugar Cookies

This is a family recipe.  We  used this same sugar cookie recipe during the holidays throughout my entire childhood.  I used to be the official hand mixer, literally.  Now I use my KA stand mixer, much easier, much less messy too!

Sugar Cookies

• 2 Eggs
• 1 C Granulated Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 C Milk
• 1 Tbs White Vinegar
• 1/4 C Vegetable Shortening
• 1/4 C Butter
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 3 C A-P Flour

1. Mix the vinegar and milk and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a stand mixer, or large bowl, mix eggs sugar and vanilla.
4. Add milk mixture.
5. Mix in butter and shortening.  The original recipe is all shortening.  I changed it to half butter this year.
6. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix thoroughly.
7. Refrigerate dough for at least a couple of hours.  We usually wait overnight.

The Next Day:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Roll and cut dough into shapes, using as much flour as you need and re-rolling as many times as you want.  This dough is very soft and can take a lot of flour!  I’ve never had a problem with working too much flour in, but if you do, you’ll know.
3. Bake until bottoms are light golden brown, about 12 minutes.  Be careful not to over-bake.
4. Decorate as you wish (we use buttercream) and store with a piece of bread to keep moist.

*Dough and cookies also freeze well.

The winner of our Amon Maternity give-away is:

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Min: 1  Max: 43   Result: 17

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Comment #17:

Amanda

I would love to use the Amon maternity band when baby #2 makes it’s entrance, it really looks like it provides support that is so essential and unlike others I have seen it is meant to go over the whole belly (not just the lower part so it constantly slides or rolls down). I wish desperately someone had told me about the bodyshaper after my little man was born. The post-pregnancy body is a strange thing indeed!

Congratulations Amanda!  I’ll be contacting you via email shortly.
Thank you to Amon Maternity as well as all of our give-away participants.
Don’t feel bad if you didn’t win this time; there’s more to come!

Holiday Baking Guide

It’s no secret that I do a lot of baking, especially during the holidays!  This year I even wrote myself a schedule so that I can get it all done in time!  Whew!  Baking Day 1:  Make Sugar Cookie Dough begins tomorrow.  I have something every single day from now until the 25th.  I don’t fool around when it comes to holiday baking!    I did leave one day, the 22nd, open for redos or catch up.  I thought it might be nice to share with you, sweet readers, some holiday sweet treat favorites to help get you started, should you need inspiration.

Let’s start with cheesecakes:

I made this Dorie Greenspan cheesecake last year.  It was so incredibly good, I’ll probably be making it from now on.  Last year, I used a mixture of mostly heavy cream (left over from truffles) and a little (maybe 1/3 C?) sour cream.  This year, I’m going to go all sour cream.  It took me much longer than the recipe indicates to bake this cheesecake.  Of course, my apartment oven could certainly be to blame.  I was so excited about the cheesecake itself, I completely forgot to make anything to go with it.  We found, thankfully, that it didn’t need anything at all.  I won’t be making anything to accompany it this year either.

I’ve made this Pumpkin Cheesecake with Bourbon Sour Cream Topping a couple years in a row for Thanksgiving (but I’ve skipped the last two Thanksgivings due to baby).  It’s very very yummy and doesn’t require a water bath.  So if you fear the water bath, and you absolutely should not, then this might be a good choice.  Plus, my husband always enjoys having a little extra bourbon hanging around to sip.

I’ve also read very good things about the Baking Illustrated Cheesecake.  I haven’t tried this yet, but it’s on the list for sure!  America’s Test Kitchen rarely gets it wrong!

If cheesecake isn’t really your thing, here are a couple of non-fruitcake items I think make nice host/ess gifts:

Glazed Pumpkin Bread-  A family recipe.

Banana Cranberry Bread- A family recipe.

Brioche and/or Pecan Honey Sticky Buns- This is a Dorie Greenspan recipe.  My mother in law loves these!

Lastly, but certainly not least, cookies!

World Peace Cookies-  These are my favorite cookies!

Chocolate Chip-  Everyone loves these!

Frosted Sugar Cookies-  Family recipe coming soon!

I also usually make truffles with a chocolate shell, but I just don’t have that kind of time this year.  So, what are you baking?

Winner: Wahmies

The winner of our Wahmies give-away is

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Min: 1  Max: 39   Result: 10

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Jackie

I became a fan of you on facebook!

Congratulations Jacki!  I’ll be contacting you via email shortly.
Thank you to Wahmies as well as all of our give-away participants.
Don’t feel bad if you didn’t win this time; there’s more to come after the holidays!

Holiday Sabbatical

Hello readers!  This is just a quick note to let you know things are going to be a little slow on Oh Baby O for the next couple of weeks.  I’m taking bit of a blogging sabbatical so I can make time to bake like a madwoman and perhaps relax a bit with my family.  This year we’re making frosted sugar cookies, world peace cookies, fudge, and gingersnaps.  Do you have any holiday sweet treat traditions?  Holiday traditions in general?

In the meantime, you can look forward to a family Christmas cookie recipe and another holiday sweater, or just sit back and watch it snow on Oh Baby O.    I’ll be sure to post the winners of our current give-aways as well.  New give-aways and blogging as usual will resume January 4th, 2010.  2010!!!  Can you believe it!?!

Review & Give-Away: Amon Body Shaper

By the time Baby O was five months old, I had lost approximately 60 lbs.*, making me 35 lbs lighter than when I got pregnant.  I chalk this weight loss up to breastfeeding, babywearing my big baby boy, and just having a small frame to begin with.  When I got pregnant, I was a little heavier than what is normal for me (marriage=35 lbs, who knew?).    It’s nice to be back to my usual weight, but I have to admit I’m a little mind-boggled over my post-baby-body.  What a strange creature she is!  A 60 lb weight loss has me looking decent in my jeans, but my tummy isn’t even pretending to flatten.  I keep weighting (ridiculous pun) for some well-meaning stranger to ask me when I’m due.  Oy!  Needless to say, when Amon Maternity contacted me to see if I would like to review their body shaper, I said yes yes yes!

I don’t have a lot of experience with body shaping garments, but I can say what limited experience I do have hasn’t been terribly pleasant.  The thing that stands out the most to me about the Amon body shaper in comparison to the others I’ve tried is how comfortable it really is.  It smooths my tummy without squishing me or rolling down every time I move.  The microfiber fabric is smooth and silky which is quite comfortable, but sometimes causes the backs of my shirts to slide up over my hips.  I also found I needed to size up one from what the size chart indicates.  Once I got the proper size though, the fit was perfect.  I’m not sure I’ll be slipping back into a cocktail dress anytime soon, but I think if I had an occasion to do so, this body shaper would help give me the confidence to try it!

I wish I had known about Amon Maternity while I was pregnant.  More supportive undergarments would have been nice, especially when I was pushing 43 weeks!  I tried other belly bands and ended up returning them because they were uncomfortable.  If any of you give the Amon Maternity pregnancy undergarments a try, please let me know what you think!

*I lost 20 of the 60 lbs just giving birth!

Would you like to try Amon Maternity for yourself?
Amon Maternity is offering a $50 gift code to one lucky Oh Baby O reader!
The gift code will conveniently be redeemable on amonmaternity.com and will include free shipping!

Amon Maternity is also offering 10% off especially for Oh Baby O readers.  Just use the code OHBABYO10 on amonmaternity.com for a 10% discount!  This code is good until 12/31/09.

Here’s how to enter:  (Required Entry)

• Go to the Amon Maternity website and comment back here which product you would most like to try.

Other optional ways to enter:
(Optional entries only count with participation in Required Entry!)

• Follow/Subscribe to Oh Baby O (see sidebar).
• Place the Oh Baby O badge on your blog (make sure it links) .
• Become a fan of Oh Baby O on Facebook.
• Become a fan of Amon Maternity on Facebook.
• Follow Oh Baby O on Twitter (see sidebar).
• Check out Amon Maternity’s Get Comfortable blog.
• Tweet about this Review/Give-Away (one per week).
• Tell us a second product (any at all) you like from Amon Maternity.

and for two extra optional entries you can:
(Again, optional entries only count if you participate in required entry!)

• Blog about this Review/Give-Away linking back to Oh Baby O as well as to the Amon Maternity website.  I’ll give you two entries since it requires two links!  (Be sure to leave two comments!)  Make sure to leave me a link so I can see your post.  The blog post has to be about this give-away only.  For two entries, it deserves it’s own post.  Thank you.

The more entries you have, the better your chances of winning!
Remember to leave a separate comment (2 for the blog post) for each entry along with a valid email address so you can be contacted if you win!

Please, for your own privacy, do not publish your email within the text of your comment.  I get all of them along with your comments in my account.  I have in the past deleted email addresses from comment text for you to protect your privacy, but I really don’t have time to edit every comment (though I do read each and every one).

Winner, to receive $50 online coupon code, will be posted in two weeks (Dec.22nd).  Good Luck!

This give-away is open to U.S. and Canadian addresses only.  Thank you.

~Carrie

Thank you to Vanessa and the rest of the folks at Amon Maternity for their help during our review process.

Disclosure:  Please note, although an honest review, this review is based on free product samples provided to the author.

All images courtesy of amonmaternity.com. 

Winner: Rockin’ Baby Sling

The winner of our Rockin’ Baby Sling give-away is

True Random Number Generator

Min: 1  Max: 58   Result: 19

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Comment #19:

Erin

my baby loves babywearing — i think b/c she can hear my heartbeat… very soothing and beneficial!

Congratulations Erin!  I’ll be contacting you via email shortly.
Thank you to Rockin’ Baby Sling as well as all of our give-away participants.
Don’t feel bad if you didn’t win this time; there’s more to come!