I have tried lots of recipes for cutout cookies and this is the best one I have found! NO FAIL SUGAR COOKIES This recipe is GREAT when using complex cookie cutters. The dough holds its' shape and won't spread during baking. Make sure you let your oven preheat for at least 1/2 hour before baking these or any other cookies. 6 cups flour 3 tsp. baking powder 2 cups butter 2 cups sugar 2 eggs 2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself) 1 tsp. salt Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together. Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below) Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe can make up to 5-dozen 3" cookies. HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess -- Rather than wait for your cookie dough to chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.

Adding in: coffee and tea, vinegar, mustard. Umm, wine. I seldom eat mayo or ketchup. grainlady, thanks for the seven survival foods -- I'd have to test the dried egg things to see if I react badly to them or not. One reason I plan to have chickens when I move! I know I am fine with whole eggs, and I go through about ten a week. I do keep coconut milk here, and will occasionally want milk-milk (as milk or as yogurt). I use butter or ghee, but it takes me about three or four months to go through a pound package. Fats - yes, to coconut oil, or to having some sort of healthy oil around -- I do use various types regularly. And there is plenty of coconut oil here. Citrus juice - I use a lot of lemon, lime and grapefruit, at the moment all fresh. Potatoes - I have a load of them from the farmer's markets I went to shortly before my accident. They are dwindling, but very good. I'll check out Golden Grill Hashbrown potatoes. Sound good to me! I have canned beef and pork (a friend and I put up); I have several packages of sardines (bought), I have canned cheese. I'm not really jonesing for the canned cheese, however. Not something that falls into the category of want to have every week/frequently. (Actually, the milk doesn't fall into that category, either...) Will have to check out freeze dried cheese. Maybe that tastes better. I still mean to order the tomato powder. Haven't really had any real urge for grains, beans/legumes or seeds. (And I have them here - grains being rice, wild rice, quinoa, and oatmeal) Seeds for sprouting micro-greens or just plain sprouts - great idea!!! Sweeteners -- Haven't touched either my honey, the maple syrup, or the palm sugar I have here. Yes, I did eat some dessert things people dropped off, but just out of obligation, not out of desire. Not a "staple" I really do want to eat every week!

shambo, I make nearly any kind of drop cookie ahead, freeze them on trays and then package them up in bags. When I bake them, I just let them thaw on baking trays and pop them in the oven, I find they come out better when thawed than when baked still frozen. I freeze Grandma's Chewy Molasses Cookies, then roll them in sugar when they thaw and bake them, they don't seem to get frozen as hard as some others. Chocolate chip freezes just fine, as do Sherry's Santa's Helpers, I just add the filling when I thaw the dough. Peanut butter works well, as does oatmeal. I've never tried freezing shortbread, but sugar cookies freeze nicely in portions or already rolled and cut out, then frozen on sheet pans and packaged. It's nice to have some cookies ready to pop in the oven, so I've pretty much always got some kind or another in the freezer. Plus, I can bake a dozen at a time and not be left with a couple dozen cookies that get stale before we eat that many. Annie

My mother (with a family of 7, plus friends, grandparents, aunt...) used to bake scads of cookies for Christmas. We were spoiled for choice! Almond crescents, pecan balls, mini pecan tarts, date pinwheels, hermits, jam thumbprints, cut out sugar (with a touch of nutmeg), a cream cheese pastry dough filled with various fruits or nuts (can't remember the name). Sometimes she would make fudge. I am sure that I've forgotten a couple. Over the years I've made all of these, usually just 2 or 3 in small quantity (almost always including hermits) but as the DD grew up and I became prone to gaining too much weight in November and December, I am down to making just one small batch. This year it is gingerbread.