As everyone knows, red and green are the traditional colors for Christmas. Red Santa hats. Green Christmas trees. Red ribbons. Green garlands. Red and green icing on Christmas cutout cookies. Perfect. Unfortunately, I lost all but one of my photos of these cutout cookies, which leaves this page a bit wanting. Instead of complaining, I’m going to consider it a challenge...a challenge to make traditional red and green Christmas cookies this year. Come back in December and see how they turned out.

Ice cream is probably my favorite dessert. There are so many varieties — my current favorite is jamoca almond fudge — and so many ways to dish it up, from sundaes to ice cream sandwiches to ice cream cakes. These ice cream cookies are an homage to the unbeatable deliciousness of ice cream cones.

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.”

What are little boys made of?

“Snips and snails and puppy dog tails...” Popular 19th Century Nursery Rhyme

These adorable little bird cookies marked the arrival of a friend’s first grandson. The bird cookies were made for my friend, who had given me the cookie cutters for my birthday the month before. She knows me so well and I wanted the arrival of her grandchild to be the first occasion for using these perfect shapes.

Birthdays are time for celebrations. And that means cookies, as far as I’m concerned. Big-letter cookie cutters say “You’re the main attraction today!” These letters are 4-inches high so they definitely get your attention. And just in case someone isn’t sure what the occasion is, the cupcake cookie and the Happy Birthday plaque will let you know.

I started making my own vanilla extract and other ingredients because I was curious about the process. Once I found out how incredibly easy it is and how far superior the homemade versions are, I never looked back. Below are some of the ingredients I always make myself. It’s so worth it.