I love this time of year! The weather is warm, the kids are on vacation and we get to celebrate my favorite holiday the Fourth of July! I spend my Fourth of July’s in the beautiful little lakeside towns of western Michigan. It’s so heavenly. I’m always trying to think of cute little food ideas for the fourth. These are my favorite sugar cookie recipe that a friend gave me. To make them a bit more patriotic, I simply added some blue and red berries. It’s a quick and easy way to be able to modify one your your favorite current recipes and make it special for a certain occasion. And they are so delicious-who knew how yummy fruit would be on top of a sugar cookie?!

P A T R I O T I C    S U G A R    C O O K I E S

Ingredients:
1 cup butter softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour

Directions:
Cream the butter with a mixer. Add in the powdered sugar and blend. Add the egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour one at a time. Mix until combined.

Wrap the dough in saran wrap and chill in the refrigerator at least an hour, but can be left overnight. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. The dough may be really hard but will soften as you roll it and work with it. Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut with cookies cutters. 

Bake on greased cookie sheets at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Do not let them brown. 

V A N I L L A    B U T T E R C R E A M   F R O S T I N G

(inspiration Betty Crocker)
Ingredients: 
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1-2 TBS milk

Directions:
Mix powdered sugar and butter with mixer on low speed. Stri in vanilla and 1 TBS of the milk. Gradually beat in just enough milk to make the frosting smooth. If frosting is too thick add more milk, if its too thin, add more sugar. 

I used the star piping tip to frost the cookies. Simply add some berries to the top of the cookies after frosted. Store in the refrigerator for up to two days or serve immediately.