Smurfs, Surfboard Cookies & a bottle of wine

Love my plastic Baker Smurf--a gift from Emma--
perfect for the surfboard birthday cookies.

Last fall I took a trip to Charleston to celebrate my niece's 10th birthday. Happily we were also able to add a girl's weekend to Hilton Head Island. Julia's new surfboard and wetsuit, birthday gifts from mom and dad, became the inspiration for fun beach time, and a special cookie baking day together.
And as always, any trip to Charleston is cause for a a lot of good eating--South Carolina style.

Little sister--big sister and the new surfboard--inspiration for birthday cookies.

We sat on the empty Hilton Head beach on the most perfect autumn afternoon, bundled in layers to keep warm, as fall's crisp winds blew salty air into our faces. No one seemed to mind. We were back at the beach! Off came the shoes; we plunged our naked toes into icy saltwater. We walked the empty beach collecting seashells and the girls danced in the chilly water. Attempts were made at surfing (wet suits and silly looking toe shoes kept them warm), sandcastles were built, seagulls were fed and crossword puzzles begun. 

Autumn at the beach

 

My favorite view.

As the beach winds blew aggressively through the pine trees that evening, we ordered pizza and happily put on our PJ's. The girls wanted hot chocolate before beginning our baking evening. Thanks to a Daylight Savings time change, we had an extra hour to play. We cut out our surfboard sugar cookies in the rented condo kitchen and popped them in the oven. The girls sipped their hot cocoa--I sipped a nice Cabernet. We enjoyed what turned into one of the best baking experiences ever with my sweet little nieces.

I always just assume that all kitchens will have baking essentials. This baking naivete led to a rather innovative evening of cookie baking. We had lots of homemade cookie dough--prepared back in my niece's Charleston kitchen and brought down in an insulated container. We had an oven.  We had forgotten flour to keep the dough from sticking to the granite counter, a cooling rack and more important to our cookie baking party--a rolling pin. I had made a surfboard template that morning out of paper, and the condo pizza cutter and paring knife proved useful enough to cut out the dough. I turned the insert to the broiler pan over to make a cooling rack. A quick trip to the tiny market on site yielded a small box of Bisquick--but still no flour, no rolling pin.

Handmade cookie cutter templates, empty bottle of wine and Bisquick.

Making do and making memories.

A fitting template for beach inspired surfboard cookies.

Seemed it would be up to me to finish the last glass of wine after dinner so we could convert the wine bottle to a rolling pin for the cookie dough. With a dusting of Bisquick (don't judge--it worked), the empty green bottle proved a quite acceptable substitute. I placed it in the freezer for a few minutes to chill and voila--rolling pin! My nieces got a kick out of Aunt Debbie using her wine bottle.....I'm sure the story will become an family tale as the years go by.

Baked cookies ready to head back to Charleston.

I tried a new technique for filling the pastry bags 
courtesy of  a video on KarensCookies.net.
Easy clean-up and quick changing of colored icings when decorating cookies.

As I cut out 24 surfboards, the girls made smiley face, maple leaf and apple shaped cookies--all with homemade paper cookie cutters that we drew on white printer paper. We shared an evening of making do, making memories, and making a huge baking mess! Birthday girl declared it the best cookie baking ever and insisted the next morning that we bring our wine bottle rolling pin back to Charleston. Perhaps someday she will tell here kids about the night Aunt Debbie used it to roll out her surfboard birthday cookies--or maybe when I leave her mom will just put it in the recycling bin.

Surfboard cookies for class party--lots of blue mouths.

Birthday Girl.

Sweet memories.