Where is my spatula?: Retirement Cookies

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Retirement Cookies

After working at 3M for 35 (or so) years, my dad retired this summer. It was his first job out of graduate school, and he's been there ever since! His job took us to Washington, D.C. for a year (I was in 5th grade), which provided a very diverse learning environment for me coming from a not-so-diverse Minnesota suburb! His job then took us to Brussels, Belgium for two years (I was in 8-9th grade). I was pretty upset at the time, trying to get the hang of junior high, but those two years in Europe were amazing for my maturity and our family bond.

Besides all the moves, 3M has been really good to my dad and I have fond memories of the people he worked with and visiting him as a little girl. My parents had an intimate retirement dinner at their home this summer with friends that have been an important part of his career at 3M. I wanted to provide something special for the party as a surprise.

I got inspired by a fellow blogger, Bake at 350, and some cookies she made for an uncle's birthday (thank you Bridget!). She printed a picture off of her computer onto frosting sheets using edible ink! Really cool, huh? Well, I don't have the luxury of having one of these specialty printers, so I brought a picture of my dad to the local grocery store and they did the best they could with what they had (to put it nicely). I cut the pictures out and attached them to my cookies. The technique I used has you brush some clear corn syrup onto dried royal icing to attach the picture. You then turn the cookie upside down on wax or parchment paper to dry (this keeps the corners from curling up). It was pretty easy, actually.

The picture included a quote my dad used at his first retirement party (at the main 3M campus in St. Paul) that seemed to be an inside joke with everyone there (I'm still on the outside).