Cook of the Week

All of you that are on facebook already know this, but I have to take every opportunity to spread the news of my fame. After all, it's temporary fame and will be over at the end of the week.
I logged on to allrecipes.com this morning to look for a recipe and happened to notice my picture on the homepage. I was chosen as Cook of the Week. Wow, I'm famous, I thought, I must spread the word. So I facebooked it and now I'm blogging it because I would hate for any of you to miss out on my week of fame. But now the pressure is on. You're all expecting me to post more tasty and visually appealing recipes. But not to fear, I just need a day or two to accept the fact that I am now a famous person, and then I'll be back in the kitchen.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot my speech, so....I couldn't have done it without you, my loyal fans, so thank you. I love you all. I also wanted to thank my mom who wouldn't let me give up after I added too much salt to something-I can't remember what- when I was a kid. And my Dad, who made me eat my peas out of the garbage can after throwing them away. Without him I may have never learned to like peas, and probably would have never learned to cook them. I must also thank my husband because on days that I don't want to cook-I know, hard to believe, but it happens occasionally-he doesn't mind eating Hamburger Helper that's 2 years out of date. I hope I didn't miss anyone. Just know that I love you all and it's YOU, my fans, who made this all possible. Now, I've got to get back to allrecipes to make sure my picture is still there. XXOOxOXo!!

Witch Finger Cookies

The kids had a lot of fun making these. Spencer got real creative making warts and rings for the fingers. A bit labor intensive if you make these yourself, so be sure to let the kids do most the work! Also, these will puff up quite a bit while baking, so make sure to shape them smaller than you want for the finished product.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup whole almonds* (I blanched mine, see below)
1 (.75 ounce) tube red decorating gel
DIRECTIONS
Combine the butter, sugar, egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer; gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt, continually beating; refrigerate 20 to 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Remove dough from refrigerator in small amounts. Scoop 1 heaping teaspoon at a time and roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie. Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail. Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance. Arrange the shaped cookies on an ungreased baking sheets.
Bake in the preheated oven until the cookies are slightly golden in color, 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove the almond from the end of each cookie; squeeze a small amount of red decorating gel into the cavity; replace the almond to cause the gel to ooze out around the tip of the cookie.
Let cool completely.
*To blanch almonds, pour boiling water over the almonds, enough to cover them. Let stand for one minute (don't over do it), then rinse with cold water. Skins should peel right off.