Sam´s Club cookies glow up & framing a card

A friendly acquaintance (we volunteer together) gifted me a pretty tin- I had no idea what was inside of it. When I opened it up, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with what I saw (don´t get me wrong, I appreciated the thoughtfulness of the gift and am hopefully not coming across as ungrateful. I´m just being honest about my first thought when I realized the contents). Inside the tin were cookies and the cookies were from Sam´s Club.  I consider myself a bit of a baking snob and generally don´t care much for made in a factory type cookies. I don´t dislike these kinds of cookies- (Keebler, Chips Ahoy, Oreo) they just don´t hold a huge appeal to me taste/ temptation wise.

The bottom of the tin said they were shortbread and the cookies did appear to be shortbread- they were sort of a bland yellowish color.   I almost didn´t open the package of cookies. But one evening when sleep eluded me, the tin was right there beside me on the couch (why was it on the couch?? I don´t normally keep cookies near the couch!) and I decided to open the package and try a cookie.

Ah, the cookies were really good. Like shockingly good. I had multiple, multiple cookies there at 2:00 am- me and my tin o´ yummy cookies just passing the night away. I went online to read reviews about them. Was I the only one who found them incredibly good? No, I was not! They have pretty rave reviews though there are some naysayers who proclaim them to be tasteless. Proof that not everything is for everyone...

I realized these would make a nice addition, taste wise, to a cookie platter or even to gift- you could put a couple in a cello bag and then place that inside a mug with a gift card to a coffee shop. But, the cookies´ appearance is so lackluster... They appear very much ¨factory made¨ and the color is so bland looking as to render (to me anyway) not a cookie worth wasting the calories on. I also couldn´t help but think, as I bit into cookie after cookie that the taste would be even better with mini chocolate chips inside. Just a little chocolate taste to add some dimension. Oh, I perfected this cookie in my mind, one cookie until the tin was almost done at a time!!

I could hardly add chocolate chips to a cookie that was already baked but I could add chocolate and I could add some color pizzazz to the cookies. My two additions would improve the taste and the appearance of the cookie.

Having consumed my tin of cookies, I needed to go out and get some of my own to test my theory (and for Donnie to try the cookies. I told him about how good they are and when he asked to try one (from the tin I was gifted), I had to confess that I´d eaten them all :(). We are Sam´s Club members so that helped- honestly, if we hadn´t been members,  I think I would have considered getting a membership just to buy these cookies!! Once in Sam´s Club, I made my way over to the seasonal food area and found the four tin package for sale. 

As soon as I got home, I got ready to give these babies a glow up- a partial chocolate bath and adorable festive sprinkles to go on top. These were going to be cookie tray worthy if I had anything to say about it :).  I melted chocolate chips with a dab of shortening and partially dipped each cookie in the melted chocolate. I half dipped because I thought a full dip/chocolate covering would be too much and the chocolate taste would overpower the shortbread. I also think it looks kind of cool to be half covered... after dipping the cookies in the melted chocolate, I added sprinkles to the chocolate covered part of the cookie. I set the cookies aside for the chocolate to dry and when it did, I tried one. It was really good- my favorite bites were the ones that had some of just the shortbread side and some with the shortbread and the chocolate. 

A couple of weeks ago, our church asked for cookie donations for an upcoming event. They asked for two cookies a bag. So in each bag, I placed two of the Sam´s club cookies- one was a glowed up version with the chocolate and the sprinkles and one was just a plain cookie (since the cookies were on top of each other, I didn´t want the chocolate layer to melt onto the bottom of the other cookie. 

Let´s go glow!

Getting ready to assemble the cookies with things that I needed and things that I wanted to surround me because they´re festive :).

Stars of the show!

The ingredient list is small- wheat flour, palm oil, sugar, egg, salt and natural flavor. They boast that there are no preservatives but the cookies in this tin are good until August of 26? I guess palm oil is preservative laden? These cookies will not make the cut for most people´s January commitment to eating healthier and cleaner but they´ll work nicely in December :).

Card frame project-

I received a beautiful homemade Christmas card by one of the most talented paper crafters whom I know, Joanne. When I saw the word ¨Joy¨ on the card, I smiled inwardly. I´ve purchased a couple of new decor items this season (mainly for the outdoor area) and most of them proclaim the word ¨Joy.¨ I decided to frame the card though admittedly, it looks pretty good here on its own :).

I sat literally right in front of the fireplace to work on this project! I had leftover frames from when I bought a multi pack to frame pictures of Abby at her college graduation. I used one of the frames and gold colored ribbon and a green linen looking ribbon for the project.

I thought about using the mat but decided against it.

I used the green ribbon to hide the crease in the card and I used the gold ribbon as a decorative mat. I thought it turned out cute and I like how it looks displayed.

Linking up with Joanne for Talking about it Tuesday