Orange Cookies. Just Because.

I hate it when recipes fail. I like to try new things, but it seems I often spend a great deal of time planning, shopping, and preparing, only to have someone turn up their nose. It can be really discouraging. At the same time, I love it when easy translates to delicious, and when the smallest efforts give the biggest payoffs. Today I plucked randomly from the pantry and fridge. It was all spur of the moment ideas, and everything just "worked". I wish more days turned out this way.

Roasted chicken with veggies. Too simple, and amazingly delicious.

A sweet, juicy, watermelon at its prime. Brilliant pink, too! This one has been sitting on my counter for over a week and I was sure I had let it go too long. What a great surprise.

An easy recipe for shortbread cookies happened to be sitting on my cookbook rack and caught my eye while I was washing veggies at the sink. They were going to be lemon yellow, but when I mixed the color into the frosting, it looked more like a horrible egg yolk, and I couldn't imagine it sitting on my delicate shortbreads. So, I added a tinge of red and got this pretty fall color. :)

EDITED TO ADD....

I'm sitting in the homeschool room, happily typing along about my easy and yummy foods. I went into the kitchen to check on dinner and noticed that an entire row of cookies had been snatched from my cooling rack. The row closest to the edge of the counter, of course. A certain small someone, with orange frosting smeared across her face and shortbread batter caked onto her new dress, appeared by my side and announced in a chipper little tone, "I had cookies!" Then, she darted off and dove under the coffee table to hide in a pile of crumbs.

Yes. Yes she did.

Now the only words I can think of to describe my delicate, autumn shortbreads are terms like "crumbly", "vividly colored", and "horribly messy". Cookies (and frosting) are on couch cushions, on the floor, in the rugs, on the wood furniture, etc. etc. etc.....feels like it stretches from the front door to the back!

All of the sudden my simple little pleasures don't feel so simple anymore. I think a failed recipe might be easier after all. :) Oh well, that's what I get for bragging!!