Well first off... I'm bummed. I didn't win the contest. Three of the winners did not do anything special with their nails; just plain old one color polish. The fourth winner did do a design however in my opinion it was kind of... ugly. But oh well. I was starting to get excited over being able to do a contest of my own had I won. Truly that's the part of it that's most disappointing to me, that because I didn't win now I can't do a contest and give someone else a freebie polish as a prize. Just was not meant to be I guess.

Anyway. My cookies are done and not as yummy as I had hoped they would be but they are not too bad either. I'm not sure I'd make them again at this point. Maybe I'm just a shortbread cookie purist. Ok, I AM  a shortbread cookie purist. Maybe that's why these cookies - while delish looking - just were not as good as I thought they'd be.

Almond Butterscotch Cookies

(an adapted version of Butterscotch Almond Crescents from the 25 Years of Favorite Brand Name Baking cook book)

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup ground almonds

Preheat oven to 300 F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar, salt and butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and blend well. Gradually add flour, beating until well blended after each addition. Stir in the ground almonds.

Scoop dough out by tablespoonfuls and shape into balls and place on the prepared cookie sheets, pressing lightly on the dough with your fingers to make a disc shape. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool on cookie sheets for several minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Butterscotch Glaze

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 Tablespoons half and half

1 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine in a small saucepan and cook and stir constantly over low heat until the butter has melted and sugar dissolves completely. Drizzle over cooled cookies, garnish with sliced almonds. Let stand 30 minutes or until glaze is set.

Don't skip sifting the powdered sugar - sifting it eliminates any lumps so you will have a smooth dough. Don't skip the parchment paper - these cookies are delicate and will easily remove from parchment paper but will not be so easy to remove from a bare cookie sheet without breaking. When drizzling the glaze over the cookies, leave the cookies on the cooling rack and place it over the cookie sheets to catch the glaze that drips off to make clean-up easy.

These are basically almond shortbread cookies; I love almonds, I love shortbread cookies. And I love butterscotch. So I figured these cookies would be a sure winner... but as I said, I didn't really find them to be all that great. I do believe I'm just one of those folks who love traditional shortbread cookies and any variations just won't do.