Thanksgiving Sugar Cookies

Thanksgiving is almost here!! Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. Is it because of all of the delicious food? Well yeah. But it's also the holiday itself. You get to give thanks for all that you have: your family, friends, life. There's no worrying about if you got your sister an amazing gift, or what costume you are going to wear. It's simply sharing a great meal with people you love. Last year for Thanksgiving, my sister Amy and I went to Scotland to visit Katie, our younger sister. Katie spent the semester studying in Stirling. We didn't want to Katie to be all alone for a holiday (at least that's what we told our parents) so we brought Thanksgiving to her. These cookies made the trip from Madison to Chicago to Scotland in a tupperware. Talk about sturdy cookies right! Amy and I may have had a few on the way there... it's a long flight. We spent a few days in Edinburgh and then took a train to London. For Thanksgiving we ate at a Mexican restaurant and then saw the musical Lion King and then skyped with the entire family. Pretty interesting Thanksgiving if you ask me. Nothing like being in a country that doesn't celebrate the holiday. It reminds me of the time I celebrated 4th of July in Denmark. I'll spare you of the mishaps of the rest of our trip until a later date... maybe I'll make something that I had on the trip and uncover the misfortunes of Amy and Megan in the UK. It could probably be a movie on Lifetime. I'm definitely looking forward to a more traditional Thanksgiving this year with my family!

Ingredients:

Sugar Cookies

Royal Icing

Gel Food Coloring

   Red

   Orange

   Yellow

   Light Brown

   Black

Directions: If you want to make the turkey feather designs, here's what you need to do. While the brown icing is still wet, you make a line of yellow, orange and red. Then, with a toothpick drag in toward the center of the turkey. Do this three times so it makes feathers. Wondering how to do the yellow line of the leaf cookies? Fill a squeeze bottle with thinned yellow icing (it should be the same consistency as the orange). While the orange icing is still wet, make the lines of the leaf with the yellow. It will seep into the orange icing and create a marbling effect. Have fun!