Fall Leaf Cookies

I've been wanting to make these fall leaf cookies since I saw them a while ago.  We got everything out to make the cookies and then low and behold in the over 200 cookie cutters we have there was no leaf to be found.  They've probably been used in the play dough table.  Well, I improvised and used grapes instead. 

 For this simple project, I just used 1 roll of premade sugar cookie dough.  Leave it out for about 20 minutes before starting so you can knead the dough.  I cut it into 4 pieces and put each piece in a ziplock bag with some food coloring.

 Kamille kneaded the coloring into each ball of dough, mess free I might add.

 Once the color was blended into the dough, I put it into the freezer for about 10 mintues just to chill it down again.

Here you can see the four colors we used.

 Next, you tear the dough into little balls and arrange them on a piece of plastic wrap or parchment.  This way you avoid a mess and you don't need to add extra flour into the dough.  Smaller balls with make a more marbled look.

 Once you have all of the dough in place, cover the sheet with more plastic wrap or parchment and roll it to about 1/4" thick.

Then you can cut out your shapes and bake as directed. 

Our Preschool Thanksgiving

Thanks to some awesome tutorials, we had a blast at the preschool Thanksgiving "feast". 

I made the paper bag popcorn turkey, corn on the cob cupcakes, and a preschool staple - carrots. 

 Here is the turkey.  The kids loved it and it was so easy and cheap to make.  Here is the tutorial.  It took about 10 minutes to make this turkey start to finish.  I used air popped pop corn to make it healthier but I'm sure premade or microwave would work just as well.

 These are mini muffins.  For my version, I used M&Ms instead of jelly beans.  They are cheaper and the kids like them better.  I also just make the cupcakes in the mini muffin pan because I didn't want to give every preschooler a huge cupcake right before lunch. 

Here is the inspiration version made in full size muffin tins with jelly beans.  You could actually get more of the oval shape with the M&Ms too if you poked them in on their sides instead of flat.  I used chocolate chip muffin mix so the chocolate buttons went better with the flavor.  I think that the whole batch was about $5.00 and it only took about 30 minutes.  The mini muffins cook in 10 minutes, then I pop them into the freezer to cool them and then I just tinted a tiny bit of premade frosting yellow.  The tutorial is here.

Here are all of our happy Pilgrims and Native Americans after their big feast.