Blogmas Day #3 - Kathleen

Hi my lovely little Christmas elves! How are you?

So everybody know about the Lofthouse cookies right? The soft ones with the delicious frosting on top? Those things are so festive.  Now I know they are super unhealthy, but every girl needs a cookie every once in a while... Maybe every day is more like it...

Anywho, I found you a copycat recipe!!!!! That's right, I found a copycat recipe on Pinterest, and I'm super excited to share it with you, so lets just get too it!

Here are the ingredients you are going to need:

For the Frosting

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla, coconut, almond, or peppermint extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 5 tablespoons milk
• Food coloring and sprinkles, optional

For the Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 6 cups all purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

And here are the directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Line a baking sheet with a baking mat or parchment paper, set aside.

2. In a stand mixer fitted with a scraper/paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sour cream until smooth and light in color.

3. Add in the sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix until just combined.

4. In a separate mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (if using). Add the dry ingredients to the wet in three additions—mixing well after each.

5. To form drop cookies: using damp hands, roll dough into 2" balls and place 2" apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Using a flat-bottomed glass dipped in water, press the cookie balls flat.

6. To form rolled cookies: cover the dough and chill for 20-30 minutes. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until ¼" thick. Using a biscuit cutter, cut cookies and place 2" apart on the prepared cookie sheet.

7. Bake cookies in preheated oven for 5-7 minutes, until the cookies just begin to set up and the bottoms are lightly brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet and let cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting.

8. In a stand mixer fitted with a scraper/paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer, cream together the butter and extract of your choice

9. Add in the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing until smooth after each addition. Add in the milk and food color, and beat until fluffy and smooth.

10. Spread onto cooled cookies and immediately sprinkle on sprinkles.

Now you have your delicious Lofthouse cookies! Now go impress your family with your baking skills! I'm sure they will enjoy the fruit of your work very much!

*Note: I got the recipe and the picture from this website:

http://wholefully.com/2015/12/14/lofthouse-sugar-cookies/

 I'm not THAT good of a baker!

Kathleen

internationalbffs.blogspot.com

twodorkswithablog.blogspot.com

#2 Holiday in the Park- Emma

Hello all! Long time no talk! Today I am doing my first blogmas post and I am SUPER EXCITED! There are going to be so many great posts coming up this month and I can't wait for you all to see them!

This past weekend I went to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags St. Louis. It was soooo much fun. This was the first year for Holiday in the Park and we went on opening day, so that was pretty cool. My mom and I went with my aunt, uncle, 2 cousins, and my aunt's sister and her son. So we had a pretty big group.

There was this gorgeous Christmas tree where you first walk into
the park. There were also carolers that sounded absolutely amazing!

Once it got dark out, everything lit up. It was so amazing.
They had Christmas music playing to really set the mood.

Here is the other Christmas tree they had set up by
the Mr. Freeze roller coaster and the ferris wheel.

Here's my cousins and I taking a photo in this photo-op thing. 

I'm the blonde by the creepy Santa. We went on so many

roller coasters so I was super hyped up. 

I thought this photo looked super artsy xD. It was so pretty

in person. 

My mom, uncle, cousin, and I decided to take a selfie before
we got on the Metropolis ride. (It's one of my favorites)

Even the ferris wheel was lit up. It was super pretty.
I just don't want to think of how they got the lights on there..
yikes.

While we were there we also went to a show about the true meaning of Christmas (meaning the birth of Jesus) and they had live animals! A camel walked past me that was probably twice my height, it was huge! 

Those are all the photos I have! :( If you live in the St. Louis area, I highly recommend going to Holiday in the Park sometime this December. It really gets you in the Christmas spirit. 

I hope you all enjoyed this post! See you all in two days! :)

-Emma

Blogmas Day #1 - Kathleen

Yay Yay Yay!!! It's the first day of Blogmas! How excited are you guys for all the YouTubers and their vlogs, and the Christmas festivities? I'm soooo excited!

So I put together a gift guide for you; it's for teen girls. I kind of went at this from the beauty guru kind of girl that I am, so these are all things I am interested in. I'm not saying that every girl has to want these things for Christmas. If you don't know what the girl you are getting gifts for likes, I probably wouldn't go by this, but if she is anything like me, this is a pretty good list.

I have three categories to make things easier. Category #1 is the in-expensive gifts, Category #2 is the middle range, and Category #3 is expensive. I'm also not going to go into much detail about the item, because most of them are pretty self explanatory. Let's get started!

Category #1

(-$10)

• Cute Beanies and Hats
• Nail Polish
• Cool Water bottle (glass, fruit infuser, etc.)
• Scarves
• Candles
• Cozy socks
  

Category #2

($10 - $40)

• Nice Face Mask (Glam Glow is a good one)
• Lipstick (I really like Smashbox Matte Liquid Lipsticks)
• Fuzzy PJs
• Good quality fake nails (one's that won't fall off in 5 minutes 😛)

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

Category #3

(+ $40)

• Clarisonic

         This is one of those things that could be taken the wrong way, but I would not mind (in fact I would FREAK) if I got a Clarisonic Cleansing Brush for Christmas. There are soo many good reviews on it.

• Makeup Brushes

So this one is a bit confusing. Personally, I really like the real technique brushes. You can't buy these in a whole set. If you bought the individual collections, it would be under Category #2, but I decided to put this in this Category, because other makeup brushes are more expensive.

• Naked Eyeshadow Pallette
• Matching Passport and Luggage Tag

This one seems kind of boring, but if you get a really cute one, I find it super exciting! The one above is from Ted Baker and I just love how gorgeous it looks! The blue has such rich colors and I love the contrast of the gold.

That is all for my gift guide! Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this and that it helped with your Christmas shopping!

Come back tomorrow for a post from Emma!

Note: I didn't take any of these pictures.

Kathleen Pederson

internationalbffs.blogspot.com

twodorkswithablog.blogspot.com