Admittedly best laid plans tend backfire and that’s exactly what happened with this idea I really wanted to do for Teacher Appreciation Week at my daughters’ school. The school is designated as an IB World school, part of the International Baccalaureate Programme and for a while now I wanted to do “thank you” message cookies in different languages. So I knew what I wanted to do, but when the blessed week arrived, my girls were sick! Thankfully they rebounded pretty quickly and I was able to bake the cookies, but … by that time, I was faced with another problem … my comrade in arms, Elaine, who does the icing (while I mix and play with colors) had two sick children on her hands!

Well, what do they say : “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!” (Or something like that). So braced with the idea of icing these bad boys myself while Elaine was holed up the Peds office, I dashed off to Wal-Mart and purchased everything I needed … I even found a hot, hot, hot pink food coloring we didn’t have (I can’t say how excited I get over icing colors, Elaine can attest to it, and let me say, this hot pink made me as giddy as a schoolgirl)!

So happy was I was with my purchases, I picked the girls up at school and promptly got to work while they did the balance of their homework. And so here I was, smiling from ear to ear – gushing over the perfection of the piping consistency I had achieved – my euphoric mood brightening even more with that hot, hot, hot pink … sigh …

And then it hit me … I was missing one very key piece of equipment! And though small, it was very important. A coupler, this tiny piece of plastic used to attach and keep the icing tip in place. So now, I think to myself … go back out to Wal-Mart (with two children shooting daggers at me) or try to make due. I telephoned Elaine and we chatted about what to do. In the end, I decided to push the icing tip through the corner of the Zip-Loc, then put the small little icing bag into said Zip-Loc and got to work with my shaky, rather unqualified hand.

The result is below and it isn’t all that pretty … certainly not our best work … but I guess what I have to remember is … it takes a lot of talents to make the world go around and though I’m not sure of mine just yet, I’m confident in one thing: we make a damn good cookie! So, crazy week and lack-luster icing job aside, I can rest comfortably tonight knowing that my daughters’ esteemed teachers  will at least have a tasty treat at the Staff Appreciation Luncheon tomorrow! –April