Happy Birthday, Mom!

If you've read the blog for a while, or have stopped by for a cut-out cookie recipe, you may have met my mom already.

{Um, how cool is that HAIR?!?}

Today is her birthday.  (Or was...I'm never sure how to phrase that.  I mean, this day always *will* be the day of her birth.  Gah!  So confusing.  See, my mom would know these things.)

I think of my mom every day.  This year, though...I've really wondered what life would be like if she were still here with us.  My sister had her 4th baby (a girl!), and I see so much of my mom in her eyes.  Kiddo is about to start high school, and I know she would have been so excited to hear all about his classes and activities.  My dad had surgery last month, and it was...strange...not having her there. (He's doing great, by the way....hi, Dad!)

Yellow roses were her favorite, so I thought I would make some to celebrate.  And, unless she figures out a way to get back here, I guess I'm going to have to eat them, too.

These are vanilla-almond sugar cookies topped with a swirl of crusting buttercream and royal icing leaves. (Keep scrolling for the instructions to make them.)

Here are some things I remember about my mom:

• she always had a project...a quilt, sewing costumes, making Christmas ornaments,
• her love of all things Irish,
• she would reapply her mascara and lipstick just before my dad came home from work,
• our house was *always* clean,
• going to a school open house and watching her ever-so-politely put my bully of a band director in her place,
• she loved the Miss America pageant and watched it every year,
• every time we drove from Houston to Tulsa to visit my grandmother, she would sing "Oklahoma" as we crossed the Red River,
• her grammar lessons,
• she fiercely loved her family and friends,
• her lasagna, chicken & rice, cabbage rolls, spinach salad, mint chocolate ice cream pie, cinnamon rolls...and a million other meals.

To make the yellow rose cookies, you'll need:

• one batch of vanilla-almond sugar cookies (I used 3.5", 2.5" and 1.5" cutters)
• royal icing, tinted with AmeriColor Leaf Green
• disposable icing bags
• couplers and tips
• Amanda's perfect crusting buttercream, tinted with AmeriColor Egg Yellow

First, make the royal icing leaves.  On a sheet of waxed paper, pipe the leaves and let dry.  The piping process is fast, but they need several hours to dry.  You can make these weeks in advance and store at room temperature.  Tips used: Ateco leaf tips #112 & #68

Bake and let the cookies cool completely.

Make Amanda's buttercream.  I followed the recipe almost exactly, just changing up the extracts a bit to 1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.  The rose cookie idea was inspired by Amanda as well.  Y'all, she makes the prettiest sweets!

{note: This crusting buttercream involves shortening.  You know when people say they don't like grocery store cake because of the frosting?  I'm the girl timing my approach to the cake table so I'll get the corner piece with the big ol' honkin' rose.  Apparently, shortening is my love language.  Anyhoo...I know we all have foods we don't do; mine is aspartame.  If this you don't do shortening, this is not the recipe for you. :)}

Place the buttercream in a piping bag, start in the middle of each cookie and twirl the frosting around.  It's almost like a fat number 6. (I used an Ateco #828 for the large and medium cookies and a #96 for the small.) Peel the leaves off of the waxed paper and place right onto the frosting.

{Don't even get me started on how much I love this little guy...}

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!  You are missed every day!  ♥