Seasonal Sugar Cookies

    As I mentioned in my first and last post, I am a big fan of movies.  About two years ago, I saw the film Julia & Julia with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. It was based on the true story of an unpublished thirty-year old blogger who was determined to cook every one of Julia Child's recipes from Mastering The Art of French Cooking (534 recipes in 365 days.)
      Viewers were generally entertained as they watched Julia Powell try to keep up with Julia Childs in the kitchen on a daily basis. 
    As actress Lili Taylor sings while she strums her guitar in 1989's Say Anything:  "That'll never be me...that'll never be me."
     It will never be me.
    The kitchen and I have proven to have a somewhat  unpredictable relationship. But, while some of my cuisinary experiences have turned out be to as disastrous as a few of Powell's attempts, I have come to rely on certain tried and true recipes that even I can't seem to mess up.  The one I will share with today is certainly not French or any kind of gourmet meal.  In fact, it's just what this time of year calls for:  cookies. And these cookies are easy, require just a few ingredients, and are guaranteed to be a hit for today's NFL games, any early Christmas visitors, definitely the kids, and throughout the entire year.
     Here you go:

     Seasonal Sugar Cookies

     Buttercream Icing (one container)
     Sprinkles (red, green, or Christmas mix)
     Butter (one and a half cups & softened)
     White sugar (two cups)
     Eggs (four)
     Vanilla (one teaspoon)
     Flour (five cups)
     Baking powder (two teaspoons)
     Salt (one teaspoon)

     Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a big bowl, mix butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla well.  Add the baking powder and salt to the flour first, mix them in, then combine flour with the wet ingredients.  Once mixed completely, determine if you need more flour.  The dough should not be sticky, so add flour a little at a time if you need to get it right.
     Take just over a teaspoons worth of dough, roll it into a ball, and press onto cookie sheet.  You can also roll out the dough and use seasonal cookie cutters.  Whatever you choose, they should be about half an inch thick. Place on a cookie sheet about an inch apart from each other.
     Bake for about 10 minutes or until edges are golden brown.  Allow them to cool before spreading icing and sprinkles onto each.
     The nice thing about this recipe is that it gets used all year long since you can change the cookie cutters to autumn leaves, pumpkins, hearts, shamrocks, butterflies, stars, & all else.  You then use the color of the sprinkles that suit the holiday or occasion.  You can also make them for a son or daughter's school or sports team using the school colors. And the only real way to mess these up is to burn them.
     It may not be Julia Childs, but it is generally entertaining. Have a wonderful Sunday.