Amish Sugar Cookies and a New Knitting Goodie

This recipe for Amish Sugar Cookies is from a dear family friend and I will reproduce it here:

Amish Sugar Cookies


1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup powdered sugar (Sifted, especially if it's been in the cabinet a while.)
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
4 1/2 cups flour (I use unbleached all purpose)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (this is one of those recipes where I don't use bean paste)
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 375º F.
2. Cream butter, sugars, and oil. (Use a low speed. You don't want powdered sugar all over your kitchen!)
3. Mix in eggs.
4. Mix in flour, cream of tartar, vanilla and soda. (All that flour requires a medium-high speed or you'll never get through it. Afterward, stir with a spatula to make sure all the ingredients are combined.)
5. Using a 1 1/2" ice cream scoop (one with the neat little release thingy), place the cookies directly on a baking sheet. Twelve cookies should fit on each sheet.
6. Cross-hatch and slightly flatten the cookies with the tines of a fork à la Peanut Butter Cookies.
7. Sprinkle each cookie with sanding sugar and bake for 10-12 minutes or until beginning to brown at the edges.

Yields approximately 3 dozen cookies

The dough is very thick and springy:

Oooh they're so yummy. These cookies taste like shortbread but have a soft, light, and sandy texture. I made them for Jane Austen-a-thon a few weeks back and I think they're a perfect accompaniment to Masterpiece Theatre, which is now just "Masterpiece" and they chucked their old theme song the idiots, but I will continue to call it by its proper name and pretend that they still use the right music.

When I was little, the Monsterpiece Theater segment on Sesame Street was my favorite. Here's a clip of The Taming of the Shoe:


Moving on...
This is my new knitting goodie, a Namaste clutch (my mom got it for me from Sealed with a Kiss in OKC). Isn't it just the classiest knitting accessory ever? I love it. Check out the knitting needle holder:
This is a photo of one of the inside compartments:
The other inside compartment:


In other news, since I finished The Pillars of the Earth, I am now reading E.M. Forster's A Room with a View because a) I've been wanting to read it and b) Masterpiece Theatre is showing a new version in April and I think I can finish by then. I like reading a book before watching the movie.