Here’s the cookie order I was working on this week – little cutouts of the state of Iowa! Aww, I love my state. 
I started by lining my sugar cookies in thick, royal icing.
After the outline dried, I filled it in with thinned out royal icing.
I use the sugar cookie and egg white royal icing recipe here (made with pasteurized egg whites,) and add a little flavoring to it. They changed the sugar cookie recipe, for whatever reason, since I first started to use it – but I’m sure it would taste the same!
Next, I added little red stars to mark the state capital, Des Moines.
I thought they turned out cute! The woman who I made them for is having a bunch of college girlfriends come into town and wanted to hand the cookies out as edible souvenirs…the best kind of souvenirs, IMO!
They all attended Iowa State University – whose colors are red and gold – so the color scheme was very fitting.
All packaged up with a sweet, red ribbon. 
Hey Obama, why choose chocolate chunk, when you could have iced sugar?! I kid, I kid… Seriously though…call me.
omg, I must confess my cookie delivery fail. It was so windy last night and just as my client opened the door a giant gust of wind came whipping by, distracting me, thus causing me to DROP THE BOX. I repeat – I dropped the box of cookies!! Ugh. She must have thought I was a raging lunatic as I frantically went through each cookie to make sure they were ok! Thankfully they were, and thankfully she was totally cool with it.
Anyways, all’s well that ends well – I hope they like ‘em!
In other news, I made a super tasty bowl of oatmeal this morning – Peanut Butter & Jelly Oats!
In the mix:
- 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 banana
- Peanut Butter
- Raspberry preserves
The thing about this Trader Joe’s peanut butter, is that it get’s almost rock hard in the fridge. It’s definitely not suitable for spreading on a tender piece of bread when it’s cold.
But it’s absolutely perfect for glopping on my oatmeal!
As it melted, it formed a warm, luscious layer over my hot oats. Divine.
Oh – so remember when Ben and I had our 2 year wedding anniversary dinner FAIL?! The folks at Gateway Market (scene of said dinner fail) sent me a giftcard with the promise that my next experience would be much, much better! Ben and I are putting it to use today at lunch. We’ll see how it goes!!
With all the KFC drama yesterday morning, I skipped three question Thursday! How about we give it a go on Friday? Answer away! 
1. Where do you place your hands on the steering wheel?
2. What state do you live in?
3. What’s your favorite board or card game?
My answers:
1. I’m a total 10 & 2′er. Ben always makes fun of me… 
2. Iowa!
3. I’m going to go with BLURT! for favorite board game – omg I need to break that out ASAP – and my favorite card game is Spit! I remember playing that game with my Mom for hours when I was young!
Those cookies are awesome! And I’m sure I’m a bit biased, being I grew up in Iowa, AND graduated from Iowa State…
1. I’m 10-2 all the way.
2. California.
3. Songburst!
I love your blog too.
And I had almond butter+raspberry spread oatmeal today (my favorite combo), so pretty similar!
1. 2 and maybe 9? haha I usually only have one hand on the wheel…I got voted worse driver in my high school senior year :/
2. AZ
3. Balderdash or Scattergories. Oh and I used to LOVE Boggle!
I love the cookies, they’re so cute! Do you do cookie orders out of state? I live in IL but my mom is an Iowa native (Indianola) and we still have family there (which is how I heard about your blog) and I bet she would LOVE some Iowa cookies
1. I’m usually a 10 and 2 person too, my boyfriend makes fun of me all the time too
2. I’m from northern IL, about 30-40 minutes north of Chicago
3. I love, love, LOVE card games and board games. We don’t go to bars anymore so a fun night is friends, a bottle of wine and a good game. We love Settlers of Catan, Scrabble, Risk, Apples to Apples and Phase 10 the best.
Am. In. LOVE! (with your Iowa shaped cookie cutter). Please tell me where you got it. I have to have one….
1. 6ish. But sometimes 9 and 3.
2. Minnesota! But Iowa-born. Alas, a Hawk rather than a cyclone
3. I don’t like games… Not any of them.
1. 10 and 2 because I’m a dork.
2. From FL, but living in Okinawa, Japan
3. I LOVE Settlers of Catan and Scrabble (as stated in number 1 – I’m a dork, but I’m ok with that!)
Cute cookies!
1. I usually place them around 6 oclock. But I had an accident a few weeks ago, so I now think I drive like an old lady and grip the wheel to death at 10 and 2.
2. Cali, baby!
3. I’m not a big game person, but Apples to Apples is fun, and Scategories is a classic.
Very cute cookies.
1. This is sort of embarrassing, but around 7 and 5. Not good, right?
2. Georgia
3. Trivial Pursuit
those cookies are SO dang cute! i want to make some for utah! that is where i live. PBJ oats are a staple of mine. yours look great. have an awesome weekend, lady!
1. Right hand on the wheel (sometimes toward the top), Left hand resting elsewhere.
2. Minnesota
3. Pictionary! My husband and I usually make a great team. But I also love Balderdash and Spicy Farkle.
1. Where do you place your hands on the steering wheel?
On my wheel where the horn piece connects to the wheel there is a little ledge and I hook my thumbs on it…
2. What state do you live in?
Alberta Canada -home to the largest shopping mall in the world…it’s a tiny bit migger than the mall of America.
3. What’s your favorite board or card game?
The Cranium people make another great game called Whoonu…it’s really fun you get card with things on them (ice cream, soccer, shopping) and you have to pick the 2 cards in your hand that the person will like the most. Then theyorder the cards that they get in order of what they like and you get points for your cards based on the rankings…it’s really fun because you learn a lot about your friends and also sometimes you get the perfect card for someone- like baking for you or the least perfect like suntanning for me…