Will you be my Valentine...if i give you Sugar Cookies?

One of you gals asked me to do a post on Valentine's for kids classes at school.  I figured I'd show you a picture of the materials we've gathered and give you a quick run-down of our ideas.

Below, i pictured a bunch of scrapbook paper that i picked up for $3 at Hobby Lobby today.  I'm drawing some hearts on the back and letting my 4 year-old cut them all out.  It works on his fine motor skills and he thinks it's fun. The hearts i have to say are hilarious though because they were clearly cut by a 4 year-old.  He's proud of them though and for that reason, I am too! I think perhaps to save me some time though, I might create a template in Microsoft Publisher of different sized hearts on one page, and then just run all of these pretty papers through the printer so that i don't have to keep drawing hundreds of hearts.

 I also cut some construction paper in half and let him fold those halves in half again to make a smaller card.  Then he's signing his name inside each one and decorating each card as he likes with pretty hearts and a glue stick! There are about 18 kids in his class, so this project is one that if you have little kids, I'd suggest doing over several days so they maintain interest.  We have now worked on it twice, to achieve a whopping 5 completed cards.  If the situation gets desperate though, I'll help cut out the hearts and let him go to town pasting and creating them.

The chinese boxes and cookie cutters in the picture were inspired by the idea I had to make Caterpillar cookies for Little Bit's first birthday party a couple of weeks ago.

I thought it'd be more fun for Tid Bit (I'm in the process of coming up with a new nickname for him on here because i can't keep track) if we made cookies together and decorated them with fun icing and each child's name (clearly I'll do the penning.)  We're going to put them in the boxes and give those along with the Valentine's cards that he's working on. 

I'll post pictures of the entire finished product once it's actually finished...closer to Valentine's Day, and I'll put a Fab-O sugar cookie recipe that I recently discovered below.  It uses powdered sugar instead of regular granulated, resulting in a really shortbready tasting cookie...DELISH!  I scoured the internet and cookbooks to find the perfect recipe and for now, this one is about as perfect as I can find! And it makes really good thick cookies, which i love.  I guess if you're a thin cookie person though, that's just all up to you and your rolling pin!  To make the icing just mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk (or soymilk) til it's the consistency you want.

(And as another side note for my friends who have food allergies like my little guy, to make this recipe dairy free, i substituted 1/2 the amount of butter with Fleishman's Unsalted Margarine, and 1/2 with Earth Balance Buttery Sticks which i buy at Whole foods.  You really need to mix the two to get it right.  The margarine makes a flavorful, but super soft and sticky dough by itself, and the buttery sticks sometimes have a slightly oily taste but have a harder consistency...by mixing the 2, you'll keep a good buttery flavor from the margarine and keep the texture right from the buttery sticks.)

Amazing Sugar Cookies
yield: about 75 medium cookies

• 24 ounces butter (softened)
• 20 ounces powdered sugar (sifted)
• 3 whole eggs, plus
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 ounce vanilla extract
• 1/4 ounce almond extract
• 6 1/2 cups flour

Directions:

1. With paddle attachment, mix butter for 30 seconds. Add a 1/3 of the powdered sugar, mix on first speed for 1 minute. Add another 1/3 of the powdered sugar, mix another minute. Finally, add the last 1/3 of sugar, mix 1 minute.
2. Combine eggs, vanilla, and almond extract together, add to butter/sugar mixture. Mix for 30 seconds.
3. Add a 1/3 of the flour, mix 1 minute.
4. Scrape.
5. Add the next 1/3 of the flour, mix 2 minutes.
6. Scrape.
7. Add the final 1/3 of the flour, mix 3 minutes.
8. Refrigerate until able to be rolled out and cut into desired shapes. (if you're using the dairy free version i told above,  I'd refrigerate it AT LEAST 24 hrs before rolling out to make sure it really sets up.) Bake at 350 for 9-15 minutes depending on the size you cut them!)

Ok...got to run. The Hubs gets every other Friday off from work, so I don't want to spend too long on here!

Logan