Italian Cookie: A Party Favor

*I wrote this post before baby girl's birthday party...I just never hit publish. I cannot wait to share all of  beautiful photos, and all the handwork and love that went into Brooke's first birthday.

With that said, I'm not sure when I will be able to blog this week, as we heard some sad news on Friday that my dear sweet grandma, whom I keep writing about lately, has passed.  While we were so happy to celebrate my daughter's first birthday, our hearts were heavy with that news.  I have so many emotions and feelings and I know I will turn here, when the time is right.

For now, I will share with you some of our preparations for Brooke's big day.

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I'm typically a procrastinator at heart.  It's definitely been one of my not so great qualities...I'm constantly working on it; I hate being stressed and when you don't prepare and use time management, it's just not cool.

One of our favorite sweet treats are Joey's grandma's Almond Paste Cookies.  We had them at our engagement party, our wedding, every holiday...they're so amazing!!   But?? They're tricky and I get so nervous when trying to learn or practice on cookies for someone else's big event.  So? My awesome mother in law came over to our house and showed me how to do them...and I wasn't so intimidated.

Oh, and they are being used as "favors" for little Miss Brooke's first birthday! I didn't want to give away something that wouldn't be used or thrown away...so yes, some delicious cookies for our guests!  Everyone who has one, thinks they're AMAZING and so it fits in with our whole "sweet theme".

First you need a crap ton of this stuff.  No joke, we made the WHOLE can!

These three ingredients.

And egg whites ONLY.

After you get all of it together, you'll need a pastry bag and a tip.  We used the vase to hold open the bag so that we could fill it.

I believe the cherries were quartered---warning they WILL stain your fingertips!

Mama Maria did the first one! {Oh and you can see one of "Brooke's cupboards" opened up in the background haha}

Then you squeeze the heck outta this crazy bag and try to make the cookies look as good as the Italians do.

See how intense I was?

Ignore my messy house.  It was right after Christmas...

Just spooning the batter into that crazy bag...

Bake until they're golden on the top.  The timing is never the same.

And we had some fun playing with our new toy...camera!  Lots and lots of cookies.

 Someone thought her cookies were YUMMY!

They're like little puffs of sweet sweet heaven.

This little girl has no clue how very lucky she is.

We just love her so, so much.

What is your all time favorite cookie?!?