One of my favorite parts of life as an American, is the freedom for everyone to dream, set goals, work towards those goals and enjoy accomplishments. I guess you could say I’m a huge fan of the natural right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. I’ve seen enough of the world to know how fortunate we are here. And this week, we accomplished a goal set nearly four years ago.
Four years ago, Ry & I sat down and tried to decide what our little family would do together. All the great families we knew growing up and those we’ve met along the way, have always come together as a family in their playtime. I grew up in a small town on Lake Michigan, so our family was a beach and sailing family. Ry’s family was a skiing family. My sister married into a big hunting family. Some families are sports families, some bike, some hike, some fish, some have a summer cabin, some garden, some have 4-wheelers and snowmobiles.
What activity would we do as a family? We tossed around the idea of a boat, or a cottage. In the end, Ry & I love travel too much to limit ourselves to a piece of land or a boat…but travel has been somewhat hampered by the food allergy situation. Day trips take a good deal of food planning, big overnight trips take a few days baking & cooking, plus trying to smuggle an induction burner, pots & cooler into the hotel rooms unnoticed. So far, our trips with the kids have been to big cities with hotels that have kitchens, not exactly the easiest to come across. We’ve never been able to go too far off the beaten path. So we started dreaming about a travel trailer.
It’s been a slow process of saving and planning. We first had to design & build an addition to store the trailer. Uh…that took a while. Like true nerds, we went on two factory tours in Ohio to watch trailers being built, keeping the dream alive for the kids. We dreamed big, and then tempered to a smaller financial reality. And in the end, it’s perfect for us. The Michigan map is now taped to the wall, littered with push-pins and a wish-list of trips. I can’t wait to show our great state and great country to the kids. It’s been a very good lesson for them in patience, dreaming, planning, working, accomplishing & enjoying. We celebrated the big day with some camper cookies, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty of camp recipes to share from the road!
May you all find the fun that brings your family together! Here’s to Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness.
Simple Iced Sugar Cookies
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 12 big cookies 1x
Description
This is my basic dairy-free egg-free sugar cookie recipe with a simple egg-free royal icing.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup shortening or dairy-free margarine
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup dairy-free milk plus 1T cider vinegar
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 t. baking soda
- 1/4 t. salt
- 1T. vanilla
- 1/8 t. lemon oil
- a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg
Cookie Icing
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 T. corn syrup
- 2–3T. water
- food coloring of your choice
Instructions
- In a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream the sugar and shortening together until smooth.
- Add in the thickened dairy-free milk and beat until smooth again.
- Add the vanilla, lemon oil or whatever spices/flavorings you are using and mix well.
- Add the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt. Mix until everything comes together.
- Wrap in plastic wrap, shape into a big disk and freeze for 1/2 hour.
- Roll to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out as you like.
- Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheets at 350. 10 minutes will give you soft cookies (they may seem barely baked, but they’ll firm up when cooled), 14-16 minutes will give you golden brown edges and they’ll be crispy.Cool completely before icing.
- Mix the icing ingredients together, getting all the lumps out. Add enough water for the proper thickness. I make my outline colors (like black in this case) thicker, and then dry completely before flooding with a thinned down “fill” color (like silver in this case). Here’s a great tutorial on flooding if you’re new to this stuff.
Notes
I used Silk Coconut Milk and Spectrum Palm Oil shortening in these today. See my post on dairy-free milk alternatives and dairy-free butter alternatives, if you need some product ideas.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes (plus decorating time)
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
“Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.” J.R.R. Tolkien
Love the bumper sticker! May all that is Tookish in you embrace your new adventures!
Congratulations on achieving your goal! What a great lesson for your children to be a part of. Now, may you all enjoy your precious time together! Happy RVing!!
What impressive cookies! I love the simple ingredients. Thanks for the recipe. Cute post!
Have a wonderful family time and thank you for the recipes.
I love everything about this post from the story, to the cookie recipe to the message.
We have a travel trailer, too! It’s wonderful to go different places, set up, and know that the food allergies aren’t even a concern because everything is right there with you! Where, oh where, did you find that bumper sticker?!
Deanna…I went and made it on Zazzle! I made one for our tow vehicle that says “Uncle Si for President” 🙂
Someone just linked to this post on my blog & I’m so glad they did! Congratulations on achieving your dream and what adorable cookies! We’ve spent the last three years working towards getting an Airstream & are getting a 16′ Bambi in August, so I can just imagine your excitement!
Molly, Congrats to you as well. The 16 foot is an absolute marvel, the efficiency of how much they pack into it is amazing. Have fun!