Wednesday, June 16, 2010

May The Cookies Be With You

It all started here. I saw Bakerella's post about these new products at Williams-Sonoma (the horrendously expensive but way cool kitchen store) and immediately started madly obsessing musing about how I was going to get a package of these into my Cookie Cutter Collection. Yes, I do have a cookie cutter collection and yes, it is insanely large and involves way too many obscure designs but I am completely irrational about it fairly extensive.

But the reason I was prepared to pay $20 for 4 little Star Wars cookie cutters was this: my kids love the entire Star Wars oeuvre: movies, LEGO, light sabres, Halloween costumes (please don't ask if I made two brown Jedi robes with matching undercoats and wide belts for the boys for Halloween because I won't admit to it). And the idea of making a batch of cookies, a batch of royal icing in shades of green, brown, black, white, and red, then spending several hours hunched over the counter with way too many bags of icing decorating those little cookies so that they exactly resembled...

Wait.

Did I really just say that?

Anyhow, I saw that box, gnashed my teeth when I saw that it was too late to enter the draw for a free set (but let's face it, I never win those blog contests), and immediately phoned my mum, aka the Cross Border Shopping Queen, to tell her that we needed to drive down to Seattle, where the nearest American Williams-Sonoma was, so I could buy a box of Star Wars cookie cutters.

After listening to her guffaw loudly for a few minutes, I hung up and decided on another tactic. I would subtly encourage Richard to consider another trip down to Seattle. So what if we'd just been there? Surely there would be an academic conference or something nearby that he could go to why I quickly dashed to this store? Sadly, that didn't work either. "What do you want from that ridiculously expensive store now?" was his response. "We are not going down there for a box of silly cookie cutters." He might have accompanied those words with a withering look or three but I didn't let that stop me. Silly cookie cutters indeed. We'll see who gets a Darth Vader cookie, won't we? And then, wonder of wonders, my friend announced a trip. A trip to Seattle. It was fate. So what if she didn't live anywhere near me. She would have to drive right by a Williams-Sonoma store at some point in that trip, right? Sure she would! And we have Canada Post to connect us, right? So what if it sometimes take a month within the same city? Anyhow, I gave her some links to really fun places to take her kids, all of which involved a huge and totally out of the way detour past the Williams-Sonoma store.

Of, for goodness sakes, I am just kidding. I would never be so crass.

Of course not. Never. Not me. No way.

(Sheila coughs self-consciously then looks away)

Fortunately she is an extremely reasonable and kind to irrational people who pester her about cookie cutters person. She agreed to mail me a box. Look! Darth Vader! Boba Fett! Stormtrooper! Yoda! There they are, reclining enticingly on my counter, along with a batch of sugar cookie dough. To heighten the experience I even used the recipe that came with the cookie cutters. It was enough to make one giddy.



Here is the cookie dough after I'd rolled it out and pressed the cutters into it. These are actually quite sensible cutters: if you dust them with flour they don't stick a bit.

Luke, I am your father.

Cookie dough, I am.

Look, sir, droid cookies!

In the interests of not ending up with a mass of smooshy Darth Vaders and Stormtroopers, I put each tray of cookies into the freezer for 5 minutes before baking. I don't know if this made a difference or not, but look...

Here's how they turned out.

And there's FDPG's hand, snaking in to steal the first Boba Fett. Our friends came over shortly afterward. Thankfully they came before I was forced to consider the aspect of royal icing.

And all the cookies disappeared.












Cookie, I am.
Good, I am.
Earless, I am.





Getting deaf, I am.
Disappearing, I am.
Delicious, I am.






Silly, I am.

21 comments:

Suji said...

Some day I swear I will be able to afford something from Williams and Sonoma other than colorful measuring cups.

"Eating my ears, you are?"

sheila said...

I have to close my eyes when I see their $28 sanding sugar containers. And the $18 bottles of salt. And the $400 copper pans. And the $68 aprons. It compromises my devotion a bit, to be honest. But I love my butterflies and bugs baking tin and I love these Star Wars cookie cutters.

Michelle said...

IwantemIwantemIwantemIwantemIwantem...

Well, my son wants them anyway. He *lurves* Star Wars (and Lego, especially Star Wars Lego)

Alas, like so many other things (a John Pike watercolour palette, goldfish crackers, candy corn, pie plates, Lincoln Logs, snack-sized Ziplock bags...) I cannot get them here. (sigh)

Enjoy! :)

Samantha said...

Oh my gosh!!!!!!! I want those so bad!!!! I want those more then I've ever wanted anything before!!! They are the best!!!!!! Let me know if you are ever heading back to Seattle and I will be your excuse for heading to this store!!!!!
Do you think they would work for gingerbread men??
Do you know if they have other stores besides Seattle??

reescoi!

sheila said...

Michelle, you're even more constrained by American consumer items than we are! I feel for you. Your only consolation is that you have David Tennant living on the same terra firma.

Samantha, I should have said something to you! I will DEFINITELY send you a box when I go down there. Not that that is any consolation for a summer of Star Wars cookie-lessness. You could always come visit...

sheila said...

Michelle, you're even more constrained by American consumer items than we are! I feel for you. Your only consolation is that you have David Tennant living on the same terra firma.

Samantha, I should have said something to you! I will DEFINITELY send you a box when I go down there. Not that that is any consolation for a summer of Star Wars cookie-lessness. You could always come visit...

sheila said...

Repeating myself, I am.

Samantha said...

Too much sugar, I think.

They have some pretty neat stuff in that store. I see they are all over the US so now a part of me is hoping we move down there... although I really don't think it's a good idea for me to actually go into this store and I think going into the store with you would be deadly to my pocket book (although I imagine we would have a lot of fun)

Rob's friend is working in OK, so I'm tempted to send him out looking for me - fairly bold since I've never met him, ha ha, but yes, a Star Wars cookie free summer does sound way too sad.

ipsa said...

Vancouver has a Sonoma Williams on Granville street...

We plan to get an All-Clad waffle iron and ... we want to get some of these, too.

I will be jealous of you. But only for a month or so.

Tacksne,
Rebecca

sheila said...

Don't laugh TOO loud, Rebecca, but I phoned them. They wanted an extra $10 plus $18 shipping. It seemed a little, err excessive, even for me. The clerk I spoke with said no one was buying them! Where are all the irrational SW fans?

Suji said...

I would gladly give up W&S if I lived on the same terra firma as DT too...sigh...

'gortie'-ly yours
Suji

Michelle said...

>Your only consolation is that you have David Tennant living on the same terra firma.

That's not much consolation; he just doesn't do it for me. (I can hear you gasping all the way over here) Blasphemous, I know. I've never even *seen* an episode of Dr. Who. Please don't block me from your blog.

Kez said...

That is so cool :) I love the Yoda ones!!

ipsa said...

I'll have to call them and ask them to put a set aside for us. My kid will be out of the moon thrilled.

I had looked on line at them when they showed up on geekdad a month+ ago but hemmed and hawed. Seeing the finished product here has convinced me that these really are a must-have item.

I think you are a bad influence, Ms. Shelia.

prentru: [prehn-troo] n. a small mammal of extraordinary intelligence that inhabits piles of washed but not-yet-folded laundry.

Samantha said...

$29 on Granville Street.

It's funny, I can totally see paying $20 for them, but $29 seems like so much.

Of course, people pay more then that for a bottle of wine, right? And that goes in a night and is gone forever, while the cookie cutters will last forever, right? right???

Aye, aye hopsieri...

Wonder Woman said...

I love how it says 'Choose Your Identity' at the bottom. I want to think of a superhero or super spy identity. HA HA HA! I need more sleep.

sheila said...

Michelle, I am plugging Suji's ears in case she hears you. She'll cry if she knows you said that. But I'm okay with this - less women to elbow out of the way should he pass me by on the street one day.

PRENTRU? Do they also create all that ground cover they live in? I think I have some of those here.

Samantha, I struggled at the idea of paying so much for them, but that's because in my heart of hearts I'm horribly cheap when it comes to ephemera (which this is). They're nice cutters though.

Wonder Woman - I'd like to see some Tardis cookie cutters. Maybe I should write to WS. I could choose my own companion...

Wonder Woman said...

I do have to watch how many cookies I eat... I'm sure you have seen my outfit - it doesn't hide much. Luckily my super-speed seems to burn a lot of calories (although not as much as when I was younger, sigh)

Heather said...

Wow, I'm impressed with how well the imprinted facial details show up. Now we'd like to see how they look iced, please. Cool, they are.

subedsoc - I've looked under the bed, on the drying rack, and under the covers at the foot of the bed but I just can't find my subed soc.

Becky said...

Those are very, very cute, and I say that as a) a WS fan from way back (it pained me to leave NYC where the streets are littered with WS stores, for the back of beyond) and b) someone without a Stars Wars bone in her body.

And you get an extra gazillion Good Mother points.

But I am still swooning to realize that if I find something in a 'Mercun store, I could easily ask you to buy it for me on your next trip, schlep it back to Kanata, and then mail it to me? Be still my heart.

PS Do I dare ask, who Dr. Who?! Just kidding. But think I am missing that gene too...

sheila said...

Hedder, do you hab a code? I hab lots of subedsocs too. Hate subedsocs.

Will get on the icing stat. Ta again, eh? Cheque's in damale.

Becky, of COURSE I can do that for you. Talk to me around November. Or maybe September. And to think I had no idea about Star Wars either. Sigh. Ignorance really IS bliss, in some cases.