Decorated Apple Cookies: Teachers's Appreciation Week

Apple Sugar Cookies

Last week was Teachers' Appreciation week and Alya's preschool planned many fun events to show appreciation. The kids made cards and got flowers. I volunteered to bring in cupcakes for the dessert day and I also decided to make sugar cookies in the shape of apples to thank them personally for all the great work they do for my child. These cookies, like most prettified things, are time consuming, but they brought so much joy to the teachers. I only prettify my cookies on special occasions because I dont like to use food colorant. I hate those cookies that are very pretty from the outside but taste like cardboard. My cookies are the same old delicious sugar cookies but prettier!

Cutting the cookies out

I found this beautiful copper apple cookie cutter and I fell in love with it although it is ten times more expensive than a regular cookie cutter. I used my sugar cookies recipe here. Follow the instructions until you have baked cookies. It is up to you if you decide to make them cookies or cookie pops. I baked the cookies on one day and stored them in an air tight container. I decorated them the next day.

The cookies are ready to be baked

I used my royal icing frosting recipes here for both outlining and flooding the cookies. In the link you will also find the instructions on how to outline and flood the cookies. 

Tinting the piping royal icing with black

I outlined the apples, my piping frosting ended up on the tougher side, so piping was not easy and left me with a sore right hand and not perfect outlines. You can outline with any color you prefer, I decided to go with black because I was on a time crush and did not have time to make red, brown and green piping royal icings.

Started the outline with the stem of the apple

The cookies are outlined

The flooding icing was perfect. It worked like magic. I started with the red body, then the brown stem and last flooded the green stems.

The red flooding icing is ready

I like to place the flooding icing as such

Then spread it with the mighty toothpick

First flooding step is done

Repeat the step on another cookie

Next step, flood the stems with the brown flooding royal icing

Stems are looking good

Last flooding with green royal icing

I left the cookies to dry for couple of hours. I had to use every ruse in the book to convince Alya not to touch the cookies. I caught her couple of time trying to touch the wet cookies with her fingers. I had to bribe her with an undecorated cookie with milk.

The decorated cookies are drying

While the cookies were drying, I found these free thank you tag printable that I printed out on off white cardboard paper. I used my circle puncher to punch the tags out. I also designed a square tag with my name on it with the blog information for recipe. I used a school font from my Mac.

The tools and material used for presentation

The cookies are ready to presented

I placed the dry cookies in transparent treat bags with silver twists and added the punched out tags. I think they turned out very nice, and delicious I might add.
Happy Teachers' Day!

Happy Teachers' Day

The Sugar Cookie recipe and baking instructions here

The Royal Icing Recipes and decorating instructions here

Middle Eastern Snacks 101: Green Fava Beans فول أخضر

Green Fava Beans

I am not much of a snacker. I am the kind of girl who likes to eat all my meal from appetizers to desserts in one sitting. I dont like to snack during the day. If I feel the need to eat something between meals, I either gulp down some more plain water or drink some herbal tea. However, I have a weakness to few Middle Eastern snacks. The snacks that grow on trees and are limited to a specific season. I will be writing a series about my favorite Middle Eastern snacks.

Reinventing Nadine just turned One!

I started this blog a year ago, on April 5th 2012. I had the idea a year earlier but I just did not have the time to do it. I also thought that it is going to be too much work, especially with a baby in the house. I was right! this blog takes a considerable chunk of my time but it is one of the best things I ever did on my own. This blog brings me daily excitement! Everyday, when I open my blog and check the statistics; I get a feeling of anticipation...how many views?

Homemade Granola: A nutritious Breakfast and Snack خلطة الشوفان مع المكسرات والفواكه المجففة

My husbands goes to the gym everyday at 5:00 am (I just drag myself to the gym every other day out of sheer embarrassement). He usually eats breakfast at work. Don't get me wrong, they got a cafeteria that can easily compare to one of the best restaurants in town. I mean we have our lunch date at this cafeteria. He eats granola with yogurt, fruit and nuts everyday and he pays 4 dollars everyday for this super healthy breakfast. I challenged him that I can make him an equally delicious breakfast for a fraction of the price. Hence homemade granola.

Seville Orange Marmalade: Not For the Wimps

Seville Orange Marmalade for breakfast

Seville Orange Marmalade brings me back to vacation mode because I often eat it for breakfast when I am on vacation in some fancy resort. I love to smear it on a well toasted piece of bread with some butter. It is like an explosion in your mouth: the bitterness, the sweetness and when you bite into the peel pieces; you are transported into another world! Seville Orange Marmalade is not for the wimps, not for the faint hearted that consider store bought generic strawberry jam is a safe bet (sorry).