Old-Fashioned "Good Cookies" and frosting

As some of you already know, I live in a really small town (under 200 people). We do have a post office and little store selling gas and items such as bread, milk, candy and soda, but we don't have any restaurants and can't get delivery. Once a month we have a visit from the bookmobile. It's just as it sounds... a bread truck looking vehicle filled with books you can check out from a public library that's located about 20 miles away. This month I checked out a really interesting cookbook called The Farmer's Wife Baking Cookbook. I've had a great time looking through the recipes which were published in a monthly magazine called The Farmer's Wife from 1893-1939. I found this recipe simply called Good Cookies, which was published in the October 1913 issue. I'll give you the recipe as it was published in the magazine and then I will give you the recipe as I made it.

GOOD COOKIES
2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

1 cup sour cream or buttermilk

3 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

Mix soft, roll thin, cut into shapes, sift granulated sugar over them and gently roll it in. Bake on buttered baking sheet in a hot oven.

You probably notice this recipe doesn't give an amount for flour and the directions are lacking to say the least. These were amazing cooks to bake successfully with such vague directions! Good Cookies are basically a sugar cookie. I didn't know what to expect and only made 1/2 a batch. I had a very hard time rolling these out and cutting them into shapes because the dough is so soft, so I rolled them into meatball sized balls, rolled them into sugar and then flattened them slightly with the bottom of a cup before baking them. I pressed sprinkles into some of them before baking and the others I iced with an easy butter, milk, powdered sugar and vanilla frosting.

GOOD COOKIES (as I made them)

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream

1 large egg

1/2 tsp baking soda
2 3/4 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in sour cream and egg. Combine flour and baking soda and stir into wet mixture. Roll into meatball sized balls and roll into sugar. Place onto greased cookie sheet and flatten slightly with the bottom of a cup. Bake at 400 for 6-8 minutes.

FROSTING

1 stick butter, room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Cream softened butter and add 2 cups sugar, milk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Gradually add the reast of the sugar until it reaches spreadable consistency.