You're One Smart Cookie, Valentine!

At our house, Valentine's Day is second only to Christmas when it comes to cookie-making holidays. This year I decided to do something a little different than the traditional cut-out heart cookies.

Because of Little Man's food allergies, it's hard to find a good, cut-out cookie recipe he can eat. And since he loves to help me in the kitchen, I don't feel right about making something he can't enjoy right along with us (even though I always keep alternative snacks on hand for him).

I found a recipe for "angel wing" cookies last Christmas (recipe to follow). It's similar to a butter cookie or Mexican wedding cookie with plenty of butter and powdered sugar, but no eggs or nuts...yeah! They were a big hit last Christmas so I decided to adapt them for Valentine's Day this year.

It's such an easy recipe that I figured the adaptation would be a cinch. It was, with one minor exception: Shaping them into hearts without a cookie cutter proved to be more challenging than I expected (especially with a couple little helpers on hand). Regardless, I think they turned out pretty well...

And once they are covered in powdered sugar, you can't see all the little blemishes and finger-indentions. (I would recommend adding more powdered sugar. I did a "quick" dusting with these for photograph purposes.)

Since we are giving these to teachers and friends, I packaged them up in red and white and attached a cut-out heart card that read...


All in all, I think they turned out pretty nice (and yummy, too!)

Angel Wing Cookies (a.k.a. Powdered Heart Cookies)

(originally from BGH.com)

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

4 tsp vanilla

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

Powdered sugar

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium to high for 30
seconds. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; beat until
well-combined. Beat in as much flour as you can. Stir in remaining flour. Chill
dough for 30 minutes or until easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with
parchment paper. Shape dough into 1-inch balls then pinch and shape into
crescents (for wings) or hearts. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets.

Bake 12-13 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown. Cool 1
minute on baking sheets. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Roll or
lightly dust cooled cookies with powdered sugar.

Makes 3 1/2 to 4 dozen cookies.

I hope you get the chance to enjoy some sweets with your "Sweet" today...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sickness, Snow Days and a Birthday

I don't think I've ever been so happy to see Monday. Last week was one of the strangest weeks we've had in a long time, and I'm glad it's over!

It all started with me in bed for three days with a fever. At the same time, Little Miss developed a fever and Little Man had quite the cough and snotty nose. To add insult to injury, we found out none of us had the same thing so we had to be careful to not spread what we each had to the other! Poor Hubby had his hands full playing both Daddy and Mommy (to sick kids nonetheless!), medical assistant to me, cooking meals, cleaning messes, and even managed to go grocery shopping...which had to be done before Snowpocalypse hit. (Do I have a great man or what! More on that later...)

In case you've been living under a rock for the last week, most of the Midwest United States was blanketed under inches (and sometimes feet) of snow in what is now being dubbed "Snowpocalypse" or "Snowmeggedon." This winter catastrophe resulted in four days off school for Little Miss, no preschool for Little Man, and two days off work for Hubby. It would have been a wonderful winter retreat for us all...if we hadn't been sick!

Still, we did manage to spend Wednesday celebrating Hubby's birthday. Since we were all snowed in, we declared an all-day birthday celebration complete with Apple Fritters for breakfast, a jungle safari in the living room (featuring every stuffed animal we own), a special steak dinner, a viewing of Disney's Jungle Book (notice the theme?) and of course, birthday cake.


Since sickness and blizzard prevented us from going shopping for birthday presents, the kids made "My Favorite Things with Daddy" books. They each drew pictures of their favorite activities with Daddy and we tied them all up with a ribbon. I'm not sure who had more fun...the kids making them or Daddy reading them.

We even created special birthday cards by cutting out pictures of the kids and creating funny scenes and sayings. That was Little Miss's idea...she's quite the crafty bug!


Sickness aside, it was a great week of spending time together and creating special memories. There's nothing like being snowed in together in tight living quarters to make you truly appreciate each other! I was once again reminded how blessed I am to have my wonderful family...especially my Hubby. I hope you had a wonderful birthday, Babe! Thanks for (once again) being my hero!