Cookie Recipes and Decorating Ideas

IN THIS ISSUE:
    Recipe of the Month:
       Pistachio Apricot Oatmeal Cookies
    Sites of the Month:
           Tips from Karen's Kitchen
    Decorating Inspiration -- Usual great stuff
    Hints and Tips -- Using a pastry bag
    Help!
    What's New at KCI
    FROM THE EDITOR

"If a man be sensible and one fine morning, while he is lying in bed, count at the
tips of his fingers how many things in this life truly will give him enjoyment,
invariably he will find food is the first one."
Lin Yutang (1895-1976)

Little Johnny and his family lived in the country, and as a result seldom had guests.
He was eager to help his mother after his father appeared with two dinner guests from the office.

When the dinner was nearly over, Little Johnny went to the kitchen and proudly carried in
the first piece of apple pie, giving it to his father who passed it to a guest. Little Johnny
came in with a second piece of pie and gave it to his father, who again gave it to a guest.

This was too much for Little Johnny, who said, "It's no use, Dad. The pieces
are all the same size."

********

Pistachio's have become a regular at our house. I keep a bowl of them on the kitchen island
for snacking -- with another bowl close by for the shells. The other day when I was trying to
think of something interesting to do with some dried apricots that weren't going well I found
this recipe. Enjoy!

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1/3 cup dried apricots (2 oz), cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/3 cup shelled pistachios (1 1/2 oz; not dyed red), coarsely chopped

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat
oven to 350°F. Butter 2 baking sheets.

Beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric
mixer at medium-high speed until fluffy, then beat in vanilla.
Add egg and beat until combined well. Stir together flour, baking
soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl, then add to dough and
mix at low speed until just combined. Fold in oats, apricots, and pistachios.

Spoon rounded tablespoons of dough about 2 inches apart onto
baking sheets. Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway
through baking, until golden brown, 16 to 18 minutes. Transfer
cookies with a spatula to racks. (Cookies will crisp as they cool.)

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SITES OF THE MONTH

Here is kind of a nice site with helpful information for novice bakers or the rest of us. Check out
"From Karen's Kitchen" at: http://www.wrenscottage.com/kitchen/tips.htm

Are you staring at this cookie with your mouth hanging open? Me too! Lynn was kind enough
to send us this picture of one of 83 cookies she made for friends and clients. She says the snowman
is molded from fondant and painted with powdered food color and luster dust, then she added the
dragees for his buttons. The tree is fondant as well. The globe itself is covered with fondant, highlighted
with luster dust and embellished with pearl sugar and edible glitter.

I asked her how long it took and if people actually dare to eat them. She said that decorating them took
about a half hour to forty-five minutes per cookie. Some folks actually ate theirs! She won't be
doing anything so elaborate next year. Thanks so much Lynn!

Miriam doesn't have a digital camera but she wrote about cookies she made for an after wedding
dinner with an oriental theme. She used KCI's fan cookie cutter and frosted some cookies in
reddish orange and some in black. (She used squeeze bottles and said they worked great) She
then took some powdered red food coloring and lemon extract and mixed it up. She then took
a sponge and sponged the surface of the cookies. She said it looked like felt. She then put tulips
and tulip buds on the surface of the cookie with moss green stems and leaves. She said the
customer was REALLY impressed. The sponging idea is one we can all try!

Heleen, from the Netherlands, shared some pictures of cookies she is making for a friend who's
getting married. They met online, talked for 5+ years then finally met
last summer when she and her husband were on vacation in the US. They
cannot attend her wedding, but Heleen desperately wanted to contribute something
to it, her friend agreed to let her make her cookie favors. They will be baked and
decorated in the Netherlands, and sent to the States for the couple and
their guests to enjoy.

She used simple, standard shapes for the cookies (the wedding cake is a KC
cutter) , iced them with royal icing and decorated with tiny, fondant ribbon
roses. She used our recipe for no-fail sugar cookies which she says has become
her standard.

What a great story and what incredible cookies. Her friend is blessed!

Louise is looking for a sugar cookie recipe using no eggs at all and soy butter instead of butter. Her
child can not have any dairy products and she's having kind of a hard time making fun things for him to eat.
If you have a suggestion please email it to me so I can pass it on to her.

If you have made and decorated some cookies you are especially proud of, don't forget to take a picture
and share it with us. You can generally find me sitting here: lesley@kitchengifts.com

For those of us who are in a hurry, we now carry Dixie's Whipped Icing, made right here in chilly Omaha,
Nebraska. It tastes GREAT and will keep, unrefrigerated, for up to six months. The container in the
picture contains a whopping 5 1/2 cups of vanilla flavored icing. It retails for $6.95. Ingredients include
powdered sugar, vegetable shortening, water, vanilla flavor, salt, meringue powder and a bunch of
other stuff that's too hard to type. With the meringue powder it will crust over so you can add designs
later. The directions say to get a flow consistency you slowly warm it to 125 degrees. We had
a family tasting last evening and everybody voted it "yummy". Al says he can also get it in 1, 2 and 5
gallon containers. Call our toll free # for information about those sizes.

Happy 2004! I hope you had a great holiday season and have all those leftover goodies eaten up.
My workout buddy Deanna and I call January and February "Stranger Danger" months at our exercise club.
These are the months when all the new year's resolution people show up and mess up our routine by
taking our usual machines -- the regulars all know that they are ours. Alas, most of them will be gone
shortly after Valentine's Day and Deanna and I will be back on schedule. If your new year's resolution
was to spend more time exercising, don't be a stranger. Find a workout buddy and get there
several times a week. You can eat more cookies if you do!

We will be switching web hosts in the next few weeks. Some of you are receiving a simple email notification
that the newsletter is up and running. If you are one of those, send me an email so I can add you to the
list of people who receive an emailed copy of the newsletter. If you don't, I will lose your email address
when we switch hosts. My email address is: lesley@kitchengifts.com

This is a terrible picture Al took of me as I was preparing icing for my December cookie decorating
class. We decorate about 100 cookies in each class. I make the icing at least one day early so the
red will have time to darken.

IN THIS ISSUE:
    Recipe of the Month:
           M & M Cookies in a Jar
    Sites of the Month:
            Tips for shipping cookies
            Tips for freezing cookies
            A great addition to "Need Cookies?"
    Decorating Inspiration -- Usual great stuff
    Hints and Tips -- Secrets to making great cookies
    Help!
    What's New at KCI
    FROM THE EDITOR

"Happy and successful cooking doesn't rely only on know-how; it comes from the heart,
makes great demands on the palate and needs enthusiasm and a deep love of food to
bring it to life." Georges Blanc, Ma Cuisine des Saisons

During the recent Karpov-Kasparov world chess championships they came to an adjournment
and left for their hotel. In the lobby of the hotel several chess enthusiasts could be heard bragging,
"I could beat Karpov with no problem".
"Oh yeah, I could beat both of them at the same time."
"That's nothing, I could beat both of them blindfolded!"
Finally, the hotel manager had had enough and threw them all out of the hotel.
But why?" a bystander asked.
"Because," the manager replied "I hate ..."chess nuts boasting by an open foyer!"

********

M & M Cookie Gift Jar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups mini baking M&M's
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Combine the flour with baking soda and salt.
In a clean 1 liter sized canning jar layer the ingredients in the order given, starting with the
brown sugar and ending with the flour mixture.

Attach a card with the following directions:

M & M Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line one baking sheet with
parchment paper.
Empty the contents of the jar into a large bowl and mix until all the ingredients
are well combined.
Using your hands work in 3/4 cup softened butter or margarine.
Beat 1 egg with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Work this into the flour mixture
until well combined.
Shape dough into 1 inch sized balls and place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking
sheet. Slightly flatten the balls with the palm of your hand. Bake at 350 degrees F
for 10 to 14 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Remove cookies to a
rack to cool. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Marci, a good customer and friend from New Jersey, decorated these cookies for an aunt who had
hip surgery and was going to be taking it easy for a while. Aren't they incredible???

The girls at Cookie Creations in Atlanta (see our "Need Cookies?" page) sent these adorable cookies to share
with you!

Carleene sent us this picture. She used our gingerbread man to create and Air Force cookie -- VERY cute!

Don't you just love all the holiday magazines in the grocery store check-out lines? They're always so pretty and
it's fun to see what unique ideas they come up with every year. The "Holiday Magic" magazine pictured below
is near and dear to my heart. Inside is a reference to me and to KCI. (Page 28, take a look when you're
standing in line. Then, you can make conversation with the person behind you by pointing to the page and
saying "I know this person" -- I've been doing it for a week now!)

********
Hints and Tips

Five secrets to making great cookies from Rachel Paxton author of What's for Dinner?

Make sure your cookie sheets aren't too thin. The heavier your cookie sheet, the less
likely your cookies are to burn. If you can't afford heavy-duty cookie sheets, you can
cover your thin ones with layers of aluminum foil.

Experiment with the temperature of your oven. My oven is always hotter than what I
set it for. I set my oven 25 degrees cooler than what a recipe calls for.

Always place your cookie dough on cold cookie sheets. If you don't let the cookie sheets
cool, your cookie dough will spread too much from the heat of the cookie sheets.

Don't bake the cookies for too long. They should be light brown around the edges. Keep in
mind that the cookies will continue to cook from the heat of the cookie sheet after you remove
them from the oven. I always let my cookies bake too long because I didn't think they were
done yet. Your cookies should look a little underdone when they come out of the oven.

Cool the cookies on the cookie sheet until you can lift them with a spatula without breaking
them. Cool them completely on wire racks, if you have some, otherwise you can cool them
on paper towels or waxed paper.

HELP!

No questions this month. If you have a question we'd love to hear it. If you have a great recipe, please share it.
If you have made and decorated some cookies you are especially proud of, don't forget to take a picture
and share it with us. You can generally find me sitting here: lesley@kitchengifts.com

*******

WHAT'S NEW AT KCI

We've added five new products to the line since October. All of them are sensational. The one you'll be
most interested in is the Lustre Dust. I get a lot of requests for it and a lot of
inquiries on how to get gold and silver icing. Lustre Dust is the answer. (Keep in
mind that although in Europe this product is listed as "edible", in the US it is NOT)
I played with it a bit this morning and it's as easy as I remembered. Use a small dish
and a clean paint brush to mix about 1/4 t. Lustre Dust with a few drops on vodka
then stir and paint it on where you'd like. It has no taste and you don't want to mix
very much at a time because the vodka evaporates quickly. We have Lustre Dust
in gold, silver and shimmering white. These 2 gram containers may seem small, but a little goes a LONG way.
Each comes in a little resealable cup that you can use to mix the dust. They sell for $3.95 each.

A second new item is call Royal and Picture Icing. As far as I can tell, it's confectioner's sugar
and meringue powder mixed together. I tried it yesterday and although I couldn't tell much if any difference
on the finished product, it was easier to use because it eliminated the step of adding meringue powder and it
was very smooth -- no sifting required and very little stirring needed. You just add water, flavor and color. Oh,
I also thought it required less gel color so go easy at first. A one pound bag sells for $3.25.

For those of you who are professional bakers or who have much larger ovens
than I do, our new Super Sized Baking Sheet and Exopat mat are available. The baking sheet is 25.5" x 18" and sells
for $19.95. The Exopat mat is 24" x 16" and sells for just $30.00. (That's my standard jelly roll pan in the top part
of the picture)

Finally, I have to tell you about our new knife sharpener. It is so easy and oh so practical. I can now sharpen
a knife in a few seconds and no longer "saw" tomatoes when I slice them. You can learn more about this
sharpener by going to: http://www.kitchengifts.com/knifesharpener.html

Sorry this newsletter is late. November really got away from me. This was the biggest month ever at KCI!
The girls at the shop were really moving and we certainly appreciate all their efforts in getting your orders to you
quickly.

I recently baked and decorated 100 cookies for a "Girl Trip" next Saturday. Lest you think all I do is write newsletters,
update websites, respond to email, and clean restrooms at the shop, check out: http://www.omahagirltrips.com Make
sure you click on "Take a look at our Scrapbook", it's about halfway down on the left side. You are welcome to
borrow the idea if you are interested in starting your own "Girl Trips" business.

I hope your holiday season is joyous and full of surprises. Happy Holiday's from my family to yours.

IN THIS ISSUE:
    Recipe of the Month:
        Classic Gingerbread Cutouts
    Sites of the Month:
          Two great cookie websites
    Decorating Inspiration -- Usual great stuff
    Hints and Tips -- parchment paper and red icing
    Help!
    What's New at KCI
    FROM THE EDITOR

"Hunger: One of the few cravings that cannot be appeased with another solution."
Irwin Van Grove

A dietitian was once addressing a large audience in Chicago.
"The material we put into our stomachs is enough to have killed
most of us sitting here, years ago.

Red meat is awful. Soft drinks erode your stomach lining.
Chinese food is loaded with MSG. Vegetables can be disastrous,
and none of us realizes the long-term harm caused by the germs
in our drinking water.

But there is one thing that is the most dangerous of all and we
all have, or will, eat it. Can anyone here tell me what food it
is that causes the most grief and suffering for years after
eating it?"

A 75-year-old man in the front row stood up and said, "Wedding
cake"

********

I see that the check-out lanes and the grocery stores are filling up with holiday magazines. I always
love to see what new ideas they come up with. This recipe came from the Good Housekeeping
Christmas Cookies issue which is filled with great recipes. Enjoy!

Classic Gingerbread Cutouts

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup fresh ginger

In a large mixing bowl stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves; set aside

In another large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30
seconds. Add sugar; beat until combined. Beat in egg, molasses, and vanilla until combined.
Beat or stir in ginger and the flour mixture. Divide dough in half. Cover and chill for 3 hours
or until dough is easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet; set aside.

On a lightly floured surface roll a portion of the dough 1/8 inch thick. Cut dough using desired
cutters. Place cutouts 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet. Bake 5 to 6 minutes or until
edges are firm and bottoms are light brown. Transfer to wire rack; cool and decorate as desired.

Editors Note: Of course, I rolled my dough between sheets of parchment paper so I didn't have
to add flour. Also, I let them cool on the baking sheet for several minutes before transferring
to a wire rack.

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SITES OF THE MONTH

I'm always on the lookout for web site with cute decorated cookies and here's a good one.
Sweet Creations (http://www.sweetcreationsinc.com/Cookie.htm) is a smorgasbord of
cookie decorating inspiration. Her prices aren't bad either so if you don't feel up to
making them yourself......

Here's another one -- Shelley and Charlie's Custom Cookie Website;
http://home.earthlink.net/~customcookies/   It looks like they're big fans of Lustre Dust.

********

COOKIE DECORATING INSPIRATION

The Hinton's had fun making T-shirt cookies for a bake sale at work. What a fun "retro"
idea for decorating cookies!

I know, I show you this one every year, but I just have to share with the new people. The Christmas
Light Bulb is my absolute favorite decorated cookie to make for holiday parties. It's easy and VERY
impressive when you do the lights in different colors of icing and sparkling sugars (especially if you
use squeeze bottles to decorate). When I teach cookie decorating classes in the fall we always do
this one and it is the one that EVERYBODY wants to buy as they leave the shop.

********
Hints and Tips

Becky wrote in with a parchment paper tip. She said if you can find a "nice" pizza parlor manager who will
order you a pack of their pizza papers for close to wholesale prices they work basically like parchment paper.
They are cut into squares, a perfect size for the dobord, and work great for rolling out dough.

Linda uses parchment paper to make small throw away cones for cake and cookie decorating. You just cut
your parchment paper into triangles and roll them into cones. Use these instead of pastry bags.

I use my parchment paper when cutting up a chicken. It makes clean-up MUCH easier and helps keep me
from spreading chicken juices all over my kitchen.

Also, I learned this from Martha, you can sift your dry ingredients into a sheet of parchment paper and then
easily pour them into your mixer while the mixer is running.

Red Icing

A local customer called me earlier this month in a panic. She had 200 cookies to get out the next day and the
red icing she had made and put on her cookies was turning black as it dried. Once again, the ugly red icing
monster had reared it's head. She ended up scraping all the icing off and redoing all of them. She and her partner
came into the shop later in the month and I went over the fine points of making red icing. Rule #1 -- make it
at least a day ahead of time. Red icing will darken, considerably, over time. If you add enough food coloring
to get to to the desired shade when you first make it (that's a lot of food coloring by the way) it will darken to
a near black before it dries. I use maraschino cherry juice as my liquid (and almond flavoring) to get the icing
to a nice pink. Then, it takes much less food coloring. When I have it to a dark pink, I put it away until the next
day. Generally, it's red in the morning.

********

HELP!

No questions this month -- but we're still looking for suggestions on humidity and iced cookies.
If you have a question we'd love to hear it. If you have a great recipe, please share it. If you
have made and decorated some cookies you are especially proud of, don't forget to take a picture
and share it with us. You can generally find me sitting here: lesley@kitchengifts.com

*******

WHAT'S NEW AT KCI

Al's Accu-Roller Rolling Pins are flying out the door. They are such a nice sturdy, wide pin and the spacers really
make rolling dough a cinch.

We've decided that our military designs are moving to new heights in sales at KCI. A client called "Hero Gear"; http://www.herogearstore.com/copper_cookie_cutters.htm has been ordering custom designs like crazy. Check
out all the airplanes I've had to photograph in the last month or so. Personally, I can't tell a B-2 from an F-4, but
apparently lots of people can and want these designs. If you have military folks in your family you'll love the entire
site!

Al put together this Deluxe Decorating Kit. The kit includes 53 tips, three squeeze bottles, 12" reusable pastry
bags, disposable pastry bags (10), small tip brush and plastic storage box for just $39.95. If you use a lot of
pastry tips, it's definitely a good buy.

Toba Garrett's Creative Cookies Book is going out of print! We've stocked up, but if it's a book you've
been thinking about getting, don't delay! Our toll free # is 888/593-2436.

*******

FROM THE EDITOR

Where has the month gone? Seems like I just put up the Halloween decorations and now it's almost
time to take them down. That gives me something like 4 weeks before the Christmas decorations come
out. Does time go faster the older you get?

I was in Seattle, Washington earlier this month and was able to take time to visit a few of our clients.
One was I stopped in at was on Market St. in Ballard, called "Cookies". Caryn and Betsey started this tiny shop
a few years ago and are doing an incredible business. If you're in the area, stop by and see them.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Lesley

IN THIS ISSUE:
    Recipe of the Month:
       Chocolate Espresso Cookies
    Sites of the Month:
        Lesley's Favorite Recipes
    Decorating Inspiration -- Usual great stuff
    Goodbye Dragees
    Parchment Paper
     What's New at KCI
    FROM THE EDITOR

"I am still convinced that a good, simple, homemade cookie is preferable to all the store-bought
cookies one can find." James Beard

This little grandmother was surprised by her 7 year old grandson one morning, He had made her coffee.
She drank what was the worst cup of coffee she had ever had. When she got to the bottom of the cup
there were three green army men in the bottom of the cup. She said, "Honey, what are the army men
doing in my coffee?" Her grandson said, "Grandma it says on TV that the best part of waking up is
soldiers in your cup."

********

In the last newsletter we had a recipe for the kids. Here's an excellent recipe for the adults!

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips - divided in recipe
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 large eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons finely ground dark-roast coffee beans, such as Italian-roast
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup walnuts

In a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water
melt unsweetened chocolate, 1 cup chocolate chips, and butter, stirring until smooth,
and remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat. In a bowl with an electric mixer
beat eggs, sugar, and ground coffee on high speed until very thick and pale and mixture
forms a ribbon when beaters are lifted, about 3 minutes, and beat in chocolate mixture.
Into mixture sift in flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until just combined. Stir in
remaining chocolate chips and walnuts.

Drop batter by heaping tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto baking sheets and bake
in batched in middle of oven 8 to 10 minutes, or until puffed and cracked on top.
Cool cookies in baking sheets 1 minute and transfer to racks to cool completely.

********
SITE OF THE MONTH

Lesley's Favorite Recipes

I love to cook. Fortunately, I have a son and husband who love to eat. We have some stand-by recipes but I love
to try new ones and have amassed a collection of what we now call our "favorites". I've started publishing many of them to
web pages -- had a lot of free time last month (see "From the Editor" below) to perhaps inspire others to take
up the frying pan and try some of these family tested recipes. The collection is growing as I try new ones or make old
ones again and get photos to include. If you're interested, bookmark the page and keep checking on it.
You can find "Lesley's Favorite Recipes" at: http://www.kitchengifts.com/lesleysrecipes.html. Also, if you
try a recipe and want to review it or let us know adaptations you made to it, send me an email and I perhaps
I can include those below the recipes -- lesley@kitchengifts.com

********

COOKIE DECORATING INSPIRATION

Mari Artinian owner of Cakes and Cookies by Mary-Lynn ( http://www.cakesandcookiesbymarylynn.com)
was kind enough to respond to my request for cookie pictures by sending us these incredible
pictures.

Lyn sent us these images with short explanations

.
This is a t-shirt cutter decorated with rolled fondant. It was a baby gift for a Taekwondo instructor.

This panda bear was done in rolled fondant as well. Again, a baby gift.

This scarecrow was decorated with royal icing.

This wedding cake was done with rolled fondant and royal icing accents. She did 135 of these for
her husband's nieces wedding!

Lynn did this watering can in all royal icing adding a mini bird cookie.

Carol sent us these pictures of cookies she did for a pirate themed party after the movie
"Pirates of the Caribbean" opened.

Thanks for sharing your pictures! They're GREAT! My apologies to anyone who sent them but wasn't
included -- see "From the Editor" below for an explanation.

********

GOODBYE DRAGEES

California's litigation regarding dragees seems to be paying off. Our supplier is getting out of the business of
selling them. (Our sense is that other suppliers are doing the same) After we sell out of what we have on hand we will no
longer be able to carry those beautiful little gold, silver and pearl colored balls that we all remember so
fondly. We are now out of 5 MM dragees but still have some 2, 3, 4 & 7 MM gold & silver and 4 to 6 MM pastel
and pearl dragees left. We're selling them, while supplies last, for $6.95. Note: if you live in California, Colorado,
Florida, Texas, Arizona, or New Jersey, you'll have to have them shipped to a friend in another state --
due to lawsuits pending in those states we can't ship to them. Our toll free # is 888/597-0980 if you want
to stock-up before they're gone.

********
HELP!

Carol has been fighting humidity and is having problems with her cookies getting soft and breaking. Anybody
from high humidity states have advice for keeping cookies alive??

********

PARCHMENT PAPER ANYONE?

I have website I check to get tons of stats on our web pages -- most frequently viewed pages, least viewed
pages, length of visits, top referring sites, etc., etc. etc. I can also check on the top keywords folks type into
search engines and lead them to our site. Of course, "cookie cutters" is #1, but "parchment paper" is a very
close second. Interesting, don't you think? Apparently the world is discovering the wonders of parchment paper.
You can use it to bake cookies on, line cake pans with, put it between board and roller to keep dough from sticking,
or as a disposable sheet when you're working with messy foods. I talked Al into buying me an industrial sized box
of the stuff and I use it ALL the time. Does anyone else have creative ideas for using parchment paper? Let
me know: lesley@kitchengifts.com

********
WHAT'S NEW AT KCI

Those of you who have been with me for a while know about our many discussions regarding
dough thickness and rolling pins. A few years ago we introduced the dobord and it has been
a great success and is still my personal favorite. However, many customers balk at the price
of the dobord or at the limitations it has regarding how much dough you can roll at one time.
Al came up with a rolling pin and spacers we call the "Accu-Roller". The pin is 20" long and the
four sets of spacers range in size from 1/16" to 3/8" so you can cut a lot of very thin or
very thick cookies. We tried it out (http://www.kitchengifts.com/rollingpin.html) and it really
works slick. It's just $28.95. (Those are Al's big mitts in the pictures)

Another new item is our Pizza Paddle. We love pizza so this was an item we used at home anyway -- just decided to add
it to the collection. It's great for rolling out pizza dough and then easily sliding it into the oven or, like we do, onto
the grill. Check out the page and let me know what you think. http://www.kitchengifts.com/pizzaboard.html

*******

FROM THE EDITOR

This newsletter is late. I've got an excellent excuse. Remember all those computer viruses you have been hearing about?
Well, my computer had just about every one of them. I can't tell you the hours I spent downloading patches, running
virus scans, taking my computer to the shop, and just sitting here staring at it while it did the most incredibly awful things,
including losing emails. Because of those viruses I didn't want to send any emails for fear of infecting most of my
newsgroup -- not good PR. Anyway, we're up and running again until the next virus comes around. For those of you
who are wondering why I got so many -- where is my anti-virus software? -- I have anti-virus software but because my email address
is on so many web pages I am much more susceptible. Also, because of the vast amount of email I get -- many of them
with attachments of designs people want made -- I have to open a certain amount of "questionable" email. It's kind of a catch-22.
My apologies for the delay and thanks to you for your patience.

If you have questions or feedback about this newsletter, send me a note:
lesley@kitchengifts.com

SCHOOL'S BACK IN SESSION!
Lesley