Crabs and Cookies

I have only eaten a true "crack the shell" crab once in my life.  I was so bad at it and messy that the restaurant owner finally came over to put me out of my misery and shell the crab for me.  Sigh.  I do enjoy eating crab dipped in butter, though, and I am always a fan of crab cakes too.  Crab cookies, though?  Hmmm.

My son thought I was indeed going to take crabmeat and make a cookie when I announced we were making "crab cookies" last night.  He was happy to find out that, instead, I meant I was making sugar cookies and decorating them to look like crabs.

I made sugar cookies from scratch, using this easy recipe from Allrecipes:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/easy-sugar-cookies/detail.aspx

As soon as the cookies came out of the oven, I stuffed licorice legs into the warm, pliable dough.

Once they were cool, I frosted them using this recipe from Allrecipes:  (I used about 12 drops of red food coloring and only 1 TEASPOON of vanilla) http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Butter-Icing-for-Sugar-Cookies/Detail.aspx

I used mini chocolate chips for eyes and brown sugar for the sand.  These are the kind of crab cookies that I like to eat!