**I’m excited to announce my first guest blogger! This is a post written (and photographed!) by my BFF Mer, specifically for Fresh and Foodie. Not only has she made these “Mrs. Santa’s” cookies for me several times, but we’ve also made them together. I asked her to write up an entry to share with all of you, and I’m excited that she did. Not only that, but she sent me a batch. Score!**

For reasons unexplained, this sugar cookie recipe goes by the name “Mrs. Santa” rather than “Mrs. Claus.” Kind of like Pacman and Ms. Pacman, I guess. The 2:1 butter to sugar ratio explains why these sugar cookies are instead called “Butter Cookies.” They are by no means healthy, but if you’re looking for cookie recipes that really shouldn’t matter.

These are simple, humble cookies of the recipe card generation. But if you want to get foodie on it, throw in some grated lemon peel, use sea salt, scrape a vanilla bean and toss that in, bake them on a Silpat (the butter will mock you), and serve them with a shot of organic milk.

Mrs. Santa’s Butter Cookies
Recipe found in my mom’s recipe collection, passed on to her from my great-grandmother. True origins unknown.

What you need:

• 1 cup softened butter
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon lemon juice (I use more like ½ teaspoon)

How you do it:

For the cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Using a mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add in eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Slowly add this to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix well.
4. Add the lemon juice and mix to incorporate.  The dough will be very thick and somewhat crumbly but not dry.
5. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.  (You can make the dough well ahead of when you actually bake it, but the dough may need to rest for a few minutes before rolling if it is too cold).
6. When the dough is cool, roll out to ¼” thickness on a floured surface.  Cut into desired shapes and place on a cookie sheet.  Bake for approximately for 8 minutes.  The cookies should be very light with next to no color.  Allow cookies to cool to room temperature on a wire rack.  Frost and decorate to taste.

For the frosting:

1. For a simple, glaze-like frosting, mix about 2 cups of powdered sugar with a small amount of milk (orange or cranberry juice works, too) until a spreadable, not runny consistency is reached.  Add more sugar or milk as needed to reach desired consistency.

Cats love ’em, too!