Red Hot Chili Peppers!

A peck of chili peppers? Not quite, but aren't they cute?

Brandon's office building had a chili cook-off today for lunch.  He was asked to bring in a dessert, so I decided, what better way to celebrate a chili cook-off than chili pepper shaped sugar cookies?  :)

I'm working on building a collection of cookie cutters (hint, hint to anyone looking for upcoming gifts for me), but surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly) I didn't have a chili pepper cookie cutter.  I did, however, have a pickle cookie cutter (gotta love growing up in Heinz-country PA!)  With some subtle reshaping of the cookie dough, I baked a bunch (I hesitate to use the word peck) of chili pepper cookies. 

It's important for me to take this moment to give a big shout-out to my wonderful husband who bought me a gorgeous Okinawa-print ("bingata") apron while visiting Kokusai Street with Kristin & Lee.  I love it!

I tried out a new icing technique for these cookies, outlining them first and then "flooding" to get better accuracy.  I liked the results.  Brandon also had a good laugh at me when I realized half-way through my piping that I have been piping right-handed since I started decorating cookies.  Huh.  It took a bit to get used to piping left-handed, but I will say, I had much better control once I got the hang of it.  Silly Arielle!  I truly am a South Paw!  Honest!

And I have to share my 100-Yen find of the week!  I found "Mayo" bottles, most frequently used for the Japanese-mayonnaise (it tastes different than U.S mayo, trust me) usually put on top of okonomiyaki (the festival veggie pancake.)  The bottles work excellent as icing bottles, too!  Very fun!  And can't beat the fact that they were only 100 yen!  :)

I'll leave you with one more fun tidbit - what better music to listen to while decorating chili pepper cookies than the Red Hot Chili Peppers, right?  :)  So much fun!  I can't wait for Valentine's Day!  Heart shaped cookies, here I come!  :)

---Arielle