We refer to this cookbook for everything - basic cake recipes and general guidance for meat, poultry, fish and vegetable dishes. Photo by Dawn Hunter.

We keep the pantry stocked with items for cookies throughout the year, and most playdates end with a fiesta of cookie decorating. Everything is free form and improvised. The results are as creative as an art class. Photos by Dawn Hunter.

The recipe from the book is on the card that is featured to the right of this photo, and it is the one that we follow. We add 1/4 cup additional flour (or flour as needed) and refrigerate the dough for one half hour prior to cutting the cookies. Photo by Dawn Hunter.

This is it! We are pretty faithful to recipes that work for us. Cookies can be decorated before or after they are baked. Recipe card courtesy of Taste of Home, [Emily Racette Parulski, author: 10 Printable Recipe Cards That Belong in Your Recipe Box] www.tasteofhome.com, January 5, 2022.

Here are our favorites, but any cookie cutter is suitable. Because the decorating can get pretty elaborate, we like to select simple cookie cutters. Photo by Dawn Hunter.

The frosting is usually a combination of store bought brands with food coloring added, and frosting made from scratch. We follow the simple confectioner's sugar frosting in the Silver Jubilee cookbook when creating frosting from scratch. Photo by Dawn Hunter.