Lemon Sugar Cookies and 10 Things My Mom Taught Me
Another Mothers Day come and gone. Which, for the record, is not enough in my book. We should celebrate moms everyday. Or at least once a month. But one day a year to celebrate what moms do? NOT ENOUGH. So not enough.
I was lucky enough to spend the entire day with my mom. In fact, I spent the entire weekend with my mom. My husband had to go to NY for work and my mom was gracious enough to move in this weekend helping with the kids, taking care of me and just being downright awesome.
In the last 4 days, she filled 16 ice packs, read 27 children’s books, washed 5 sinks of dirty dishes, played 108 games of Monkey Preschool Lunchbox, gave 5 baths, filled umpteen sippy cups, grocery shopped once, made every single meal and somehow still found time to lay in bed with me while we watched our fair share of Food Network and House Hunters. The most incredulous part? She did it all with a smile. Never a complaint. She just picked up where she saw I could not and she ran the Epstein House like a well oiled machine.
Mom mom has taught me so much about who I am today and the kind of person I hope to become. (Yep, even at 35 there is room to grow!) Here are what I consider to be her top 10!
- How to love unconditionally.
- Wash my face every night.
- Family comes first.
- Beautiful comes from the inside.
- Never underestimate the power of a hot cup of tea and a piece of chocolate.
- READING! The best escape is through a good book.
- Follow your heart.
- You can never hug your kids too much.
- Don’t buy a shitty vacuum.
- Be kind.
I will never be able to thank her enough. For this weekend. For every weekend she’s helped out in the past and for every weekend she’s going to help out in the future.
I LOVE YOU MOM. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY, EVERYDAY!!!!
Other recipes you might enjoy:
Zesty Lemon Cookies from Real Mom Kitchen
Lemon Bar Cookie Cups from Barbara Bakes
Meyer Lemon Bars with a Coconut Crust from Mountain Mama Cooks
Strawberry Filled Lemon Sandwich Cookies from Evil Shenanigans
Lemon Sugar Cookies with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
For the cookies:
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- zest from 1 lemon
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For the frosting:
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
- 3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (adjust as needed)
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, vanilla and lemon extracts. Stir the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and mix on low until well incorporated. Remove dough from bowl and on a piece of parchment or wax paper, roll the dough into a log. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours up to two days. When ready to make the cookies, remove dough from fridge and slice cookies into 1/4 inch slices. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Place cookie slices on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or baking pad and bake for 10 minutes. Take care not to over bake. Transfer cookies to cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.
For the frosting, beat butter and cream cheese with a hand mixer until smooth and well incorporated. Add lemon juice, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Adjust powdered sugar (if necessary) to give frosting spreading consistency. Frost cooled cookies and if desired, decorate with sanding sugar or more lemon zest.
18 Comments
Such a funny, sweet post. Your mom sounds amazing! How great that you were able to spend this time with her. Looks like a cookie I could love.
Hehe – I especially love #9. I learned that the hard way, too many times 🙂
These cookies look fantastic.
Thanks, Kristen. I, too, found out the hard way with the crappy vacuums. 🙂
Hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day! Love these cookies!
Same to you, Maria!
These cookies look wonderful! Reading about your mom reminds me of mine….they are so hard working and never complain. My mom is in her 70s and whenever we go over I’m amazed at how much work she does and without one complaint!
I feel so blessed to have her in my life! Sounds like you’ve got a keeper as well!
Your mum is a wise, wise woman. What a perfect post for Mother’s Day, Kelley. Those lemon sugar cookies would be gone in a flash at my house!
Happy belated mother’s day to you! And I love every single one of your top 10!! THe cookies sound awesome.
my gosh, if there is 2 things my momma loves, it is sugar cookies, and lemon! I just made her a lemon cake for her birthday actually! here: http://deelivingfree.blogspot.com/2012/05/lemon-love-affair-cake.html
I HAVE to make her these cookies 🙂 sometimes the best occasion for a special treat is no occasion at all!
These cookies look amazing, I love lemon cookies and the cream cheese icing probably makes them the best:) I also love the list of ten things your mother taught you, they are all very great gifts taught only by a mother, very sweet.
These cookies look right up my alley! And aren’t Moms the best? You’re so lucky your mama lives nearby. Now that we have John I’m much more saddened that mine lives so far away.
I know, having moms around to help us be moms is really important. I’m glad she got to at least come for the first week!
What an awesome post. Your mom sounds amazing. I love how the vaccum one made it to the top 10. And these cookies, they look fabulous. Frosting added cookies are the absolute best.
I agree, frosting makes everything better! I’ve been through my fair share of awful vacuums. It’s top 10 spot is well deserved!
Kelley, how many cookies does this recipe yield?
2 dozen
I know this is an older post, but we made these today and they were delicious 🙂 such a simple recipe too! We skipped the frosting as my kids and i were experimenting with leftover Halloween candy to make window panes in the middle, but they still had plenty of flavor. Hurray for lemon!