quarter moon cookies

i'm a bit late adding this post but i wanted to share a tradition we've been doing around here to help mark the passage of time in a more gentle and pleasing manner. i love being in tune with the cycles of the moon and started this tradition years ago to mark the full moon each month. this month though, i decided to take it one step further and mark each quarter of the moon.

it all started with baking 'full moon' cookies each month to mark the full moon. we'd bake sugar cookies in the shape of the round full moon and ice them with white or pale yellow icing. i had fallen by the wayside with this tradition and my oldest daughter kept bringing it up, right about the same time i remembered the lost tradition and had considered doing it.

last week, when i baked some cookies for the full moon, i saw a recipe for crescent cookies in my fannie farmer cook book and had an aha! moment: i could bake cookies each week to mark the cycle of the moon! sugar cookies for the full moon, almond crescent cookies for the waxing and waning/1st & 3rd quarters and chocolate cookies for the dark/new moon!

jaden and sage both helped me make the cookies. we had a grand time and the cookies were delicious! i have 2 different crescent cookie recipes so i'll use one for the waxing and one for the waning. now, if only we could make enough at a time to last us the entire week instead of entire day!

waning moon cookies

2 sticks butter softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup ground almonds

more powdered sugar for coating

preheat the oven to 300 degrees f. cream the butter then add the sugar, flour, almonds and vanilla and mix thoroughly. pull a nickle sized ball of dough, roll in your hands and create a crescent shape then roll in powdered sugar, arrange on a cookie sheet or baking stone and bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges start to brown. cool and roll in a 2nd coating of powdered sugar.