Sugar Cookies for God's Team

Vacation Bible School starts this week at my church, which means I may be a little exhausted each day after working with 4 year olds! Yesterday we had a "tailgate" party to help kick off this weeks events and to get the kids excited about being a part of God's Team. The sanctuary is decorated like a baseball field, complete with a chain link fence and "advertisements." Other rooms look like a locker room, weight room, and a football end zone. We were told to bring our favorite tailgate food to share for the lunch after church. Although I frequented many football games in college, I really wasn't in to tailgating...mainly because we grilled out at my husband's fraternity house before heading to the games. I was struggling to come up with an appropriate dish and just decided to make some cookies in the shape of a football, helmet, trophy, and referee hat. I have a lot of sugar cookie recipes and never use the same one twice...because I have so many to try! The recipe I used came from Better Homes and Gardens and is titled, "Sugar Cookie Cutouts." The dough was very easy to work with, other than you had to refrigerate it for three hours before cutting out your shapes...so not good if you are in a hurry! However, I really wasn't impressed with the taste. I baked them for 5 minutes and they were still very hard and crunchy after cooling and not overly sweet. Needless to say, I will be tossing this recipe and moving on to the next when the time comes for me to make another batch of sugar cookies!

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup shortening

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbls milk

dash salt

Beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping bowl. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour and mix until combined. Cover and chill dough for 3 hours or until easy to handle. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough half at a time to 1/8 inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut in to desired shapes. Place on ungreased cookie sheet; bake in at 375 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on rack. Makes 24-36 depending on cookie cutter size.