It's over! I'm done! No more cookies! At least not weekly. Thank you for coming on my journey with me. So. Much. Fun.
A final look back and overall review coming soon. Stay tuned!
Week 46:
Cookies - French Toast Sugar Cookies
Event - Dad's birthday
Review - These cookies were to celebrate my dad's birthday. My dad has always been the best french toast chef so I could think of no better cookie to celebrate him with. He likes about anything so the french toast was more in celebration of giving to him what he so wonderfully gives. These were yummy. I especially liked the extra sprinkle of cinnamon on top for both aesthetics and taste. I realized I didn't have a square cookie cutter (and I didn't trust myself to cut decent squares) so I improvised with a small Tupperware container which worked perfectly! The blog I found these on describes them as "insanely delicious pillowy clouds of cinnamon-y, maple goodness" and that is exactly what they are. I borrowed my mom's sifter for these since I didn't have one. She has one that you squeeze and is about a 2 cup size. Suffice it to say I went out a bought myself a sifter after this batch. The recipe calls for maple extract but I used more pure maple syrup instead since that's what I had on hand. Verdict, so delicious. It also made plenty of cookies for all to enjoy.
Week 47:
Week 47:
Cookies - Chunky Chewy Snickerdoodle Cookies
Event - Laura's birthday
Review - I felt like I was cheating on these and I feel like I don't have a choice but to tell you that. I didn't realize that this recipe called for using a bag cookie mix until I was ready to make it. I contemplated the idea of using a snickerdoodle cookie recipe but convinced myself (fairly easily really) that I needed to follow the recipe I had given myself. I felt guilt, I promise you, even in week 47. Nonetheless, these were so delicious. Snickers mixed in with snickerdoodles? Genius. This gave me all sorts of ideas, using other candies, using it with other base cookie doughs, mixing candies, all kinds of different possibilities! The work on these cookies came with the unwrapping and cutting of mini Snickers. I figured these would be a good option for the mail since I was sending them to my sister-in-law for her birthday. I was lucky enough to keep a few for myself. I think Brian liked these quite a bit, or maybe he just enjoyed the leftover Snickers I had lying around (not for long). 
Week 48:
Cookies - Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies
Event - Donald's birthday
Review - Yum! Donald requested white chocolate macadamia or oatmeal chocolate chip. When I told him I had neither, I let him pick from a list of remaining recipes I didn't have a plan for and these sounded like the most fun since there was a surprise! It was basically making peanut butter balls and wrapping them in chocolate cookie dough. They turned out both beautiful and delicious in my opinion. Look at that gorgeous cracking around the edges! I especially liked the extra sugar from the sugar coated glass used for flattening the cookies. Most people agree that you can't really go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter. I'm not sure there is much more to say about these.
Week 49:
Cookies - Butterscotch Pudding Triple Chip Cookies
Event - Rachel's birthday
Review - These are some of my favorite that I will certainly make again! My new favorite cookie recipe - anything with pudding mix added in. The pudding adds a perfect softness and keeps the cookies plenty moist! This is a fairly basic and simple chocolate chip cookie recipe otherwise. The addition of both the white and butterscotch chips adds loads of flavor to otherwise generic (though delicious) cookie. These were my last cookies to mail away! I learned my way around the self-service kiosk at the post office and was able to pack quite a few cookies securely in the flat rate boxes. I will be keeping this recipe handy to make when I am in a pinch. I can customize it so easily as well, depending on what I have on a hand. It is an easy and simple base recipe. If I only wanted chocolate chip they would still be delicious, and they might be good with pecans added in as well.
Week 50:
Cookies - Meltaway Cookies
Event - Geoff's birthday
Review - Not my favorite recipe (sorry Geoff!), but certainly an appropriate name for these cookies. They weren't bad. They had a nice smooth buttery flavor and soft of crumbled around the edges. The icing was tasty and could've been any color which is easy for a variety of celebrations. The addition of the icing wasn't too bad with these because they cookies were so simple. I definitely enjoyed the cookie better with the icing. I liked that the cookie only had 4 ingredients, and things you likely always have on hand. So if you needed a good homemade cookie last minute this is certainly a good option for whatever you may need. Mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as the ones from the recipe, but they weren't bad. I think sifting powdered sugar when making cream cheese icing is always a good idea. It makes the icing much more consistent and pretty.
Week 51:
Cookies - Lemon Bar Cookie Cups
Event - Difficult cookies at the end
Review - Oh. My. Goodness. These were some of my favorites. A secret - I was actually planning on making these earlier in the year, but had come home from vacation that week and decided to switch the one recipe to give myself a bit of a break. That's fine, I left these to challenge myself near the end of my journey. These were similar to lemon bars, but I think better. The cookie itself was so perfectly simple and delicious. Add in the homemade (!) lemon curd and the extra sprinkle of powdered sugar and I was done. So. Good! You have to love lemon, but I love that these weren't overpowering. The curd by itself was something I just wanted to eat spoonfuls of, but was much better combined with the sugar cookie cup. These were a great size as well, a few small bites and it's gone. I didn't have a specific occasion for these and I didn't plan soon enough to come up with something. Several family members and friends were able to eat more of these than normal, including me. I typically only eat a couple of my cookies unless it makes a ton. I ate my fair share of these... :)
Week 52:
Cookies - Pinata Cookies
Event - Cinco de Mayo/Graduation
Recipe - http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/slideshow/1328/pinata-cookies/pinata-cookie-tutorial-29
Review - These win for the most difficult. Hands down. I could've told you that week 1. This was the plan all along. I was terrified of these. I had to worry and fret about them for 52 weeks. I am incredibly proud of how they turned out, especially after seeing some other reviews online where they failed miserably (these are funny, though so you may want to check those out). Even during the baking I was sure they would be my biggest disaster. I was afraid I would end on such a sour note and be ashamed of my cookie making skills. Alas, they (sort of) came through for me. Although I only got 4 real pinata cookies out of this, I got 4 real, decent, legitimate pinata cookies out of this. They were a challenge and I felt accomplished in completing it. Particularly with the limited instructions. I mean, click on this link. It's a picture tutorial with very little specifics. I made it work for the most part. I found a donkey cookie cutter online. It was 4 inches which I thought was large, but figured it would have to do. I found a pretty good sugar cookie recipe to use as a base. I also ordered gel food coloring online. The mini M&Ms I found at easily Target, where I also found the cute mini pinata I decided I needed to take pictures with. I put my mom on assignment to find me good Tupperware containers to layer and freeze the dough in. She succeeded, luckily at the dollar store. Side note - these were some of my more expensive cookies. Anyway, the layering was so freaking difficult and I barely had enough dough. The container needed to be that wide to accommodate the donkey cookie cutter, but I didn't have enough height. I ended up making some dog bones since they were shorter and then stacked two slices of dough together for the donkeys. That's why it made even less than it would've. They stayed together surprisingly well. I think I lost one leg on each donkey. Overall, I was incredibly proud of these. The leftover cookie pieces were yummy, too. The cookie dough was certainly delicious and the bright colors were fun anyway. I will enjoy having the gel food coloring in the future. They look so cool and got a good reaction on facebook, because isn't that what life is all about?! (sarcasm) 
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