Nurse Cookies

I have a lot of respect for nurses. After seeing two of my close friends go through the gauntlet of nursing school and hearing about their experiences in hospitals and urgent care centers, I've realized that there is nothing soft or easy about becoming a nurse. I am so grateful to the many wonderful men and women out there who choose to go into this incredible profession!

When my friend Jenny joined the ranks of Hippocratic heroes, I was eager to help in throwing her a graduation party. Fortunately, Pinterest didn't let me down.

We had such a blast celebrating Jenny's accomplishment. It was the cutest graduation party - everything was themed around nursing, including the ice water ("saline"), lemonade ("urine sample"), and red punch ("AB negative"). I was so pleased with the way the cookies came out, although my idea of using glittery luster dust to make the stethoscopes glint didn't really work. Oh well!

I later had the opportunity to re-create these same designs for a co-worker's daughter as she was graduating from nursing school. There are some very minor details that I think I was able to improve, including sharper EKG lines on the hearts, as well as better red cross logos on the hats.

So for all of you nurses, doctors, and healthcare professionals out there, I just want you to dough that you are one smart cookie, and as much as possible, icing your praises all the time ;)

"But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’" Luke 10:33-35

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head

My very first batch of decorated sugar cookies for a specific event was in September 2016. My wonderful cousin Jacob was getting married to beautiful, smart Rebecca, and I was excited to help out with a shower for the soon-to-be-married lovebirds. When asked what kind of food item I could bring, I decided to try my hand at cookies.

"Is there a theme for the shower?" I asked.

"Yes - it's Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head themed."

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head?

The toys that have all those little attachable pieces?

That creative experience of mixing and matching, customizing, and making something unique?

I had an idea.

Just like the toy came with different pieces for the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears (and hat? and moustache? and shoes?) I would make little cookies to represent the eyes, nose, etc., and people could choose the cookies they wanted to make a unique face! Pretty soon, however, I ran into a problem. While Pinterest confirmed that I was not the first to come up with such an idea, I knew I wasn't going to be able to find a Mr. Potato Head cookie cutter set anywhere. How was someone supposed to cut out cookies without a cookie cutter?

After quickly giving up on the idea of trying to craft my own cookie cutters, I decided to make templates out of wax paper, then use the templates and a sharp knife to hand-cut each of the 120 cookies.

It's a good thing I was so excited about making these cookies. I don't know if other creative people feel the same way, but when I get my teeth on a new idea or project, I tend to jump in with both feet, my entire calendar, and an open wallet. A good dose of excitement about a project can carry you pretty far... the only question is, at what stage in the project will the excitement wear off? It always does eventually for me, especially if the process takes longer than I was expecting.

One of my favorite aspects of trying something new is discovering potential problems and playing around with different ways to solve it (I blame the mathematician in me). For this particular batch of cookies, I was having trouble moving the unbaked cookies from the cutting board to the baking sheet. The cookies kept tearing up or getting deformed! Fortunately, a quick Google search recommended firming up the cookies by popping them in the freezer for a few minutes. This is a trick that I've used on every batch of cookies since.

I thought that baking the cookies took a long time, but I was sorely underestimating the time needed to decorate. Don't get me wrong - decorating is the best part. I'd rather decorate than bake any day.

However, I was definitely new to the lining/flooding technique of applying icing. I hadn't realized that the liner icing needs to have time to dry before filling in the outlines with the thinner flood icing.

This was a very good lesson to learn. It's tough sometimes when a plan doesn't work out the way you anticipated, but if you focus on the learning aspect of a problem, then you're not too discouraged by issues and you can work on solutions instead!

I really did have a lot of fun decorating these - especially because I could sit in front of the TV and watch Good Mythical Morning episodes on YouTube while I worked. Have you ever seen their "Will It" series? So funny. The "will it dumpling" episode is my favorite!

Another issue that I discovered was icing discoloration. You can probably see it in the picture to the right... notice how the brown is darker in some areas and lighter in others? It's not supposed to be like that. At the time, I didn't know what went wrong or how to fix it, but it didn't affect the taste or quality of the cookies, so it was one of those wonderful non-issue issues. Those are the best :D

And here are the results: mix-and-match Potato Head cookies! If I ever decide to do these again, I'm commissioning someone to craft me some actual cookie cutters.

These were a very ambitious start to a cookie-making hobby, but I did enjoy making them and - even better - seeing my extended family enjoy them at the shower!


Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24