Summer of Celebrations (Part III): Milk & Cookies Shower

Back to what we actually did this summer. 

Incase you missed Chelsea and Heather's posts about this baby shower, (who actually blog about events shortly after they occur) I introduce to you a Milk & Cookies shower...

(Isn't Chelsea beautiful at 8 months pregnant?)

I had seen several Milk & Cookies showers/parties on...what else but blogs? (here and here)...and thought it would be so easy (and unique) to pull off. And it was!

Each of the sweet hostesses baked several dozen cookies.

We had Chocolate Mint Cookies, Sugar Cookies, Ranger Cookies, Shortbread, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chunk, Molasses, Snickerdoodle, and White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies.

Charlie made our cute labels, of course.  And we used fabric (VERY, starched fabric...nothing else would work) to line the inside of the cookies jars. Some of cookies had to be stacked on bowls to make the cookies seem higher so they weren't too low in the jar.  Presentation is everything.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup butter, melted

1 cup packed light brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1½ cups chopped macadamia nuts

2 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

Beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the egg, then beat in the egg yolk, then beat in the vanilla.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until just moistened. Stir in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips by hand with a rubber spatula.

Roll into balls or drop by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheets, and press down on the cookies with your palm a bit to flatten (not too much!).

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges look golden brown and the middles don’t look quite set. Allow to finish cooling on the baking sheet. 

Snickerdoodles

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, plus 4 tablespoons for coating

1 1/2 cups Sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons Cinnamon

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar for 3-4 minutes, until light. Add eggs one at a time, mixing completely after each.

Stir together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Beat the dry ingredients into the butter-and-sugar mixture until well-blended. Refrigerate dough for about 20 minutes, or until firm enough to roll into balls.

Combine the cinammon and remaining sugar (you may need more of either of these if you're running out--I just kind of eyeball it)

For each cookie, pinch off enough dough to roll into a wallnut-size ball; roll into c&s mixture and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

(Makes about 4 dozen cookies.)

Sandi's Shortbread Cookies

2 cups butter

1 cup sugar

4 cups flour

1 tsp. vanilla

(This recipe does NOT contain eggs...I always wonder if it was left out by accident on the directions...but, nope, the buttery goodness does not allow for them! ;) Mix butter sugar. Add vanilla. Add one cup of flour at a time. Roll into balls and drop on cookie sheet. Sprinkle top with sugar. Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes.  (Thanks for this divine recipe, Mrs. Sandi!) 

 

I got this cute mason jar spigot from a garage sale but I've seen them at Hobby Lobby.

Of course, we needed several different varieties of milk in cute glass pitchers that used to hold HEB brand organic Apple Juice.

And mason jars...milk always tastes better in mason jars...these were from garage sales, too.

We always elect Kendra to create her precious prayer cards for our prayer showers and she was generous enough to share them here!

Extra cookies were sent home in a brown bag with the baby's initials...Chandler Owen Groves.  Don't you love that name?

And here is the precious little guy: