Catch Up: Valentines Day

As my title states, I am once again playing catch up. Time seems to get away from me just doing all the little things I do each day. I want to do so many different things, but usually, what I need to do screams louder than my wants. I suppose this blog falls into the want category!


Let me take you back a couple Saturdays ago to Valentines Day. Yes, Saturday is the ever-joyous cheat day. What a wonderful day for Valentines Day to land. It meant I could cheat without feeling guilty.


Randy had been saying for weeks that he was craving sugar cookies like I make every year at Christmas time. So I decided to make him some for Valentines Day, a first for me. Hopefully, these sweet, scrumptious cookies would make his day. I would cut out hearts, X's and O's. I would frost them and sprinkle them with reds, pinks and purples. I was so excited to get started!


I prepared the dough the day before because it needs to be refrigerated before rolling. Then it was time to hunt for some heart-shaped cookie cutters, something I surprisingly don't have in my cookie cutter collection, because as I said, I'd never made Valentines Day cookies before. This turned out harder than I thought. Apparently, everyone else needed heart-shaped cookie cutters too, because each store I went to was a bust.

I finally found some at Michaels, but not without using my keen digging skills to locate an abandoned package of nested hearts that was hiding under a strewn stack of stars, butterflies and various other cookie cutters. When I presented them at checkout, the employee asked me if there were anymore. "Nope!" I proudly declared. "I dug for that one." She went on to tell me how lucky I was because these heart-shaped cutters were a prized commodity. Who knew they'd be so wanted around Valentines Day? ;)


Anyhow, the cookies turned out great, and in addition to the heart-shaped ones, I put together some letter cutters to spell some important words!

For those who are interested, here is the recipe I used:

(taken from Betty Crockers New Cookbook)

Cookies:

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup margarine or butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 tspn almond extract

1 large egg

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Mix powdered sugar, margarine, vanilla, almond extract and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Heat oven to 375. Grease cookie sheet lightly with shortening.

Divide dough in half. Roll each half 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes eith cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheet. (You can sprinkle with some granulated sugar at this point before baking, or wait until baked and frost them yourself!)

Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until edges are light brown. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on wire rack. When cool, frost with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (recipe below), and decorate with sprinkles.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup stick butter, softened

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 to 2 Tablespoons milk

Mix powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl. Stir in vanilla and milk.

Beat until smooth and spreadable.

I have used this recipe year after year at Christmastime. I would love to experiment with another sugar cookie recipe to try something different. Maybe I'll find a recipe I like even better. If anyone has a recipe they like, I'd love to try it! Post it in the comments if you'd like to share!

By the way, everyone LOVED the cookies! :D

Until I post again,

Cheers!