85. While visiting through "Blog-Land" I found a lovely site "A Southern Daydreamer". Susan has a beautiful blog that is filled with a variety of ideas, places to visit and beautiful pictures to enjoy! I especially enjoyed her post, "Pink Saturday". She featured her beautiful rose bushes, which reminded me of my grandmothers roses. Growing up next door to my paternal grandparents was a joy. My grandmother loved to garden and had beautiful rose bushes of many colors. The one I particularly loved the most was her pink cabbage rose bush. It was the most beautiful color of pink and each flower was loaded with petals, so many petals that you could not see the yellow center. And the scent was intoxicating. Years ago, most people did not prune roses in neat square or round bushes...they allowed them to grow naturally. This particular rose bush was huge and was intertwined with another light, whitish-pink rose. It grew to about 7 feet high and then cascaded down growing along the ground. It was a natural wall separating our properties but it also created a tunnel...a tunnel that I loved to climb into! I would spread a blanket under the roses and play with my dolls, hide, play "Rose Princess", or just escape into the beauty. I would take a rose and pull every petal off making a silky pile of pink and then scoop them up and breath in the wonderful scent. I have been hard pressed to find a rose similar to my grandmother's rose. Susan's rose bush is the closest I have found.
To stay with the theme "Outdoor Wednesday" I took a few pictures of roses in my backyard and in theme, baked Old German Rose Water Cookies.
You do not have to chill this dough but can use it immediately. Roll onto a lightly floured surface and cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters. 
Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 10 minutes or till lightly browned on the bottom.
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Old German Rose Water Cookies
1 cup sugar
½ sup butter
1 egg yolk
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 ½ tsp lemon extract
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup sour cream
1 ½ tsp rose water
3 cups flour
pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 325º. Cream together butter and sugar. Add yolk and flavorings. Add baking soda & sour cream blending together. Add rose water, flour and salt and stir together till dough forms. 
You do not have to chill this dough but can use it immediately. Roll onto a lightly floured surface and cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 10 minutes or till lightly browned on the bottom.
It is your preference if you want the cookies crispy or soft. I baked them at 330º for 8 minutes. They turned out perfect. I prepared a simple icing using Rose Water for the liquid and a few drops of red food coloring for a perfect pink color. The cookies are so
delicious...the lemon and rose water taste just blooms in your mouth. They are soft, delectable! (Maggie's description!) and we can't stop eating them...
I found rose water in Chelsea Market, NY, in a fabulous Italian shoppe,
"Zia Tonia".
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"A profusion of pink roses
bending ragged in the rain
speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring."
~The Collected Later Poems of William Carlos Williams
