press cookies are tricky

sometimes they work well, sometimes a night mare....
the tricks are, the dough must be sticky enough
and the temps must be right
cookie sheets room temp on the coolish side
ditto on the dough
too hot they don't stick
too cold they don't stick
oh and the press MUST be a good one
i like a vintage wear ever, as i tried others and they did NOT work at all
i bought a wilton one year and broke it after pressing two cookies out
so now i have my mom's original one (which i can't totally find) and a 'new' old one i bought off ebay last year in frustration over three OTHER new presses i could NOT get to work

cream cheese spritz cookies
1 cup butter
1 (3 ounce)softened cream cheese,
1 cup white sugar
1 egg yolk ( it's really good with DUCK eggs, or free range jumbo very orange yolked chicken eggs)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange zest ( also i added some lemon and orange extract)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C ).
In a medium bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Beat in egg yolk, vanilla, and orange zest. Continue beating until light and fluffy. sift all the dry ingredients together, gently stir into dough . chill the dough a bit, this will be a sticky dough even cold
Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes until there is a golden brown rim around the bottom edge. Remove from cookie sheet, and cool on wire racks. i use the tree shape mostly and prior to baking sprinkle with green sugar crystals

now i would like to thank dorothy for the name of the book Sunshine to Dollars

while it didn't get a good review on amazon, she is using it to put solar in by her and it's WORKING....we'll be getting that book next amazon order.

i ordered the privacy fence, which will shield the ducks from the dogs up the hill

(and me from being told by the 20 year old permanent house guest to keep my F*CKING ducks in my house if i don't like his dogs barking at them... what ME mad? are you kidding, i want that kid filleted)

after that we'll be roofing and finishing the coop

then adding one for the chickens.....and expanding the GARDEN...... (i mean since bernie has the chain saw and all..... we can limb up the trees and i can have more garden space right?)

i already started the list of plants i plan on growing this year in the garden

merchant of venise white seeded pole beans ( taste like vanilla)

KY blue pole beans

jam pumpkin

eggplant

SWEET PEPPERS: banana, toillies, bell, italian frying, cubanaro ( which i spelled wrong)

leeks

red cabbage

savoy cabbage

brussels sprouts

broccoli

black plum tomatoes

amish paste

cream sausage tomatoes

patty pan squash

zucchini

yellow squash

butternut squash

acorn squash

pickling cuc's northern, boston, homemade pickle

beets

carrots

kohlrabi

rutabaga

ground cherry

and the deck garden

snow peas, spinach, mesclun, mache, new zealand spinach, swiss chard, nasturiums, eatable marigolds, skirret

i have to revamp the herb garden as well, replacing the plants that died while i was so busy doing other things

so that involves sage, lavenders ( about three or four different ones) thymes

the rest i will either salvage out of the garden such as agrimony, and valarian, or seed again such as marshmallow, basil, parsley, dill

now if only there were three of me