One of Nick’s sisters lives in an Amish town. Every time we visit, I’m convinced we need to move away from the city, give up modern technology, and live the life of the Amish.

Then I remember I’m a blogger and 75% of my job requires a super fast internet connection, electricity and all things non-Amish. But still, with every horse drawn carriage I see hitched to a pole at the corner market, every yard we pass with clothes drying in the wind, and every hard working family I notice working out in their garden, I get a little twinge of wistfulness for a simpler life….

Read More

The post Amish Sugar Cookies Recipe and Video appeared first on Dine and Dish.

You are ok if I share the recipe with you without an end picture, right? Will you take my word that this recipe yields sweet, buttery, perfectly soft sugar cookies? Actually, I do have an end shot in this post for Milk and Cookies Cocktail that I created for Simple Bites. Looks good, right?

I can’t take credit for this recipe. Long before I started Dine & Dish, I hung out over at AllRecipes and Recipezaar (now Food.com). This was one of the first cookie recipes I tried from AllRecipes and it is our go-to cutout sugar cookie recipe each holiday season! If you need a solid cut out sugar cookie recipe, you can’t go wrong with the one I’m sharing today. Happy baking!

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies (From AllRecipes)

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

The post Our Favorite Cutout Sugar Cookie Recipe appeared first on Dine and Dish.

As many of you know, I recently returned from San Francisco where I attended a food blogging conference. I’m not going to write a whole recap. I’m not going to gush about all the wonderful people I met and got to see again. Connecting with those friends was a wonderful experience, but I’m honestly just not up for that. What I am going to do is get something off my chest that has been bugging me since I returned home.

Blogging has changed a lot since I began doing it 4 years ago. Success has been defined in so many different ways, even though I firmly believe that success, when it comes to something like blogging, is extremely subjective….

Read More

The post Defining Success (Recipe: Slice and Bake Sugar Cookies) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I have a ton of housekeeping to do around here! This post isn’t going to have a whole lot of substance, but I promise a great soft sugar cookie recipe at the if you hang in there through to the end.

Pay It Forward:

Sandi over at one of my favorite blogs, The Whistlestop Cafe, posted a little something on her blog last week about a Pay It Forward thing going on around the blogosphere. I decided to participate and with that you get the chance to participate as well!  Here’s the scoop:

“I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a
comment on my blog requesting to join this Paying It Forward exchange.
I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it
tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, which
is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it
forward by making the same promise on your blog.”

Adopt a Blogger

Thank you all for being so patient about the Adopt a Blogger event. What was I thinking starting this right around the holidays? My goal is to have everyone matched up by the middle of this week. We are still very top heavy on the newbie bloggers. If you are a blogger who has blogged for a year or more and are interested in participating, please add your request to join in the comment section of the original adopt a blogger post.

The post Nice ‘n’ Soft Sugar Cookies appeared first on Dine and Dish.