Happy 4th of July!

4th of July - our day to celebrate the freedoms we enjoy and usually take for granted (speaking for myself anyways).   Shouldn't we celebrate our freedom and the liberties we have every day? Earlier this year - we decided to fly the flag at our house every day - it is our simple way of saying we are proud of this great country!I love to drive up and see it fluttering in the wind...

I came across Martha's flag cookie recipe the other day.   Even though I have never worked with royal icing, I decided to give them a try.  They came out much better than I had hoped (the finished pictures really don't do them justice) and best of all - they taste great!

The recipe called for sugar cookies.   Not being a fan of sugar cookies - I used the Swedish Spritz recipe my boys love.   The shape was cut out of  cardboard and I put shipping tape on one side to keep it clean.   To mark the lines for piping the wells - I poked holes in the cardboard - these holes transferred to the dough.   A quick slice with a small knife connected the dots and gave me guides on the baked cookie to follow.

The cookie on the bottom was #1 with piping efforts; top cookie is #16 - big improvement with a little practice!

Blue and white frosting "flooded" into outlines.    This took a couple of hours but with some fun music playing, the time passed quickly (those who didn't care for my vocal contributions as I sang along usually left the room!).

These sat and hardened for about 3 hours while we went out for a late lunch/early dinner.

FINISHED! 

Thank to all veterans, soldiers and soldier's families for giving us the freedoms we enjoy!  We could not celebrate this day without your sacrifices and hard work!   Happy 4th of July!