Not Your Standard Valentine Cookie
Today’s treat is probably my favorite tradition that didn’t come from my childhood. I’ve been making these for a few years now and most years I deliver them to my friends and neighbors. I don’t ever have myself put together enough to deliver treats at Christmas, but if you give me two months I can usually pull it together. This year? Well it isn’t my best year I suppose. I made a big batch, but more 3/4 of the dough is in my freezer. And I ate a lot of dough and cookies before I ever got to the frosting stage. They were delicious. Sorry neighbors.
I usually call these Butt Cookies. But Booty Cookie would also work. Or you know, whatever else you can come up with. A few tips, if you are delivering to friends and neighbors with children, drop them by while the kids are in school or after they go to bed. And add a few regular hearts for the little ones. I don’t know that you want to give 13 year old boys cookies that look like this…
The good thing is that you can use the same cookie cutter, the same frosting and sprinkles. Awesome. You can use your favorite Sugar Cookie recipe, or whatever other cutout cookie you want. Here’s my mom’s sugar cookie recipe which I love.
Mom’s Sugar Cookies
Sift together
- 4 cups flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 tea salt
- 1 tea baking powder
Add 3/4 cup shortening (I use butter flavored Crisco) and cut in until the mixture resembles pie crust. Which means, cut it in (I use my mixer) until the shortening has been mixed into pea sized pieces. In a separate bowl combine
- 3/4 cups buttermilk
- 1 tea soda (let the buttermilk and soda percolate for a bit until it has risen and turned frothy and bubbly)
- 2 slightly beaten eggs
- 1 tea vanilla
Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and mix them together until everything is incorporated. On a well floured surface roll dough to 1/4″ thick and cut out. Bake on parchment lined cookie sheets at 400 degrees for 7 minutes. Cookies should be white, not golden or tan.
To go from sweet heart to sassy pants cookie, just cut off the tip of the heart with a metal spatula or a knife before you bake them.
Use frosting and sprinkles to make any kind of underoos you like. In years past I have used red hot heart candies, but I haven’t been able to find them the past few years. I used chocolate sprinkles and perfect pearl sprinkles (which I found at Walmart). I spread on the pink frosting with a knife, and then piped on white lacey trim with a frosting bag and a small tip.
Or you know, make boring hearts. I won’t judge you. Happy Almost Valentine Days!
Making Valentines
So last Sunday I busted out all the Valentine making supplies so we could make Valentine pockets. Which Creamie loved more than fruitsnacks. Which is kind of saying a lot. Anyway, I left them out so we could do some more V-day crafty projects. She wanted to make Valentines for everyone she knows. But since it takes her about an hour to do each one, we are very slowly working through the list. VERY slowly.
The first one she made was for my dad, who she very often calls Grandpa Sweetheart. She drew a picture of him on it (blue guy in the middle) and then very deliberately added pink shoes. Because “grandpa really likes pink shoes, huh.” While she colored and taped things on I used a black pen to write down what she said about each thing. If it wasn’t a 45 minute process I’d just videotape the whole thing. Because it is seriously funny. Her string of ideas and how she comes to each thing from the last is just such a crackup.
Also, she is totally digging the washi tapes. In just one week she has probably used them more than I have in the 18 months I’ve had them. She is very, um, liberal with the tape. And I of course love the pinks all lined up.
This one was the one she made for my sister Heidi and her new husband. All those orange and green chicken scratches look like a lot of chicken scratches, but they are most definitely words. She has learned all of her letters in the past 5 months of preschool and if I write a word for her she will copy each letter, in a completely random and crazy order, but they are all in there. She is also really into lining things up in rainbow order. and things in a big, medium and baby size. So cute.
We mailed those few Valentines already, and she has requested to make Valentines every day for the rest of her life. This girl is going to be a paper crafter for sure. (Those big red hearts are folded up to make the envelopes. Brilliant really. I didn’t think of it )
Rice Krispy Kisses
I first made these Valentine treats more than 10 years ago. It was a really fast project to do with Creamie last weekend. Hershey Kisses are one of my favorite treats. They are just cute, right? Using an oil funnel (a clean, new one) you can make a much bigger version in no time flat.
First make a batch of Rice Krispy Treats. Melt 3 Tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan and add 4 cups mini marshmallows or 1 10 oz bag of large marshmallows (about 40). Stir constantly till the marshmallows are melted and then stir in 6 cups of Rice Krispy cereal.
Working quickly pack the warm krispy mixture into a new, clean oil funnel. Turn them out on wax paper (or anything else that marshmallows wont stick to) and fill the funnel up again. After they have cooled a bit, but are still a little bit malleable, use your fingers to tuck in any stray krispies around the bottom (large end) of the krispy kiss treat.
When they have completely cooled wrap them in plastic wrap, folding the ends around the bottom. This will keep them fresh a lot longer than if you skip this step. And your little paper strip won’t stick to the marshmallows either. Then add a strip of words or a love note or something and wrap them up inside a square of tinfoil.
Tada, easy peasy. My funnel was about 4 inches tall and one batch of this recipe made about 5 of them. I had completely forgotten that I have a small spice funnel that is only about an inch and a half tall. Next time I’m going to make a few little tiny ones too.
Lace Applique Tshirt Tutorial
Yesterday afternoon I made this lace applique shirt for Creamie and it turned out even cuter in real life than it did in my mind. I sure do love when that happens. I’ve been thinking about making a shirt like this for a few months after seeing something similar in a children’s boutique for way too many dollars. My version cost less than $5 plus just a little bit of time. My kind of project.
So here’s what I did. I started with a solid colored tshirt and some white lace. I bought mine at Joanns with a coupon. I bought 1/4 yard (which is 9″) so my heart would fill up the front of the shirt. Then you’ll need some ribbon or buttons to embellish and a bit of embroidery floss to stitch around the edge.
I free handed a heart and cut out a template, mine is 8″ wide, but if I was doing it again I’d probably make it a little smaller. Then I traced my heart onto the lace with a disappearing pen and carefully cut it out on the fold.
Then I centered the heart on my shirt, and slipped a piece of cereal box inside so I didn’t pin through both layers. Then I pinned it to death so I wouldn’t stretch or distort my fabric as I sewed. Actually, I probably could have used even more pins than I had. Then I sewed on the inside of the heart about 1/8″ inch from the edge all the way around with white thread. The hardest part was trying to make those curves without stretching the fabric too much. I had to go slow. And I still got a few baby puckers, but such is life.
After I sewed the lace on I embroidered around the edge of the heart with all six strands of floss. I just did a daisy chain stitch because it had less pulling on the fabric than a regular backstitch. I tried a few of the stitches on my machine, but I ended up getting bunchy stretchy results. And I didn’t have any fusible backing to use, so I went with hand embroidery. I am sure this is not technically the correct way to do this, but I don’t care. It worked for me today and I got my craft fix for the afternoon and got photos taken before it got dark. So I count it as a win.
After Creamie wore it for a while some of the lace bits started peeking through my embroidered stitches, and I’m not sure how well it will wash, but I am not too worried about it. I have plenty of lace and a needle and thread if something comes loose. I am prepared for loose threads, if nothing else. Loose threads? You are going down.
I know, loose threads! I think they call that first world problems or something… So she has really started hamming it up for me when I pull out the camera. Like a lot. I am so glad I have so many of her crazy little faces captured. These are the kinds of pictures that I’ll look back on when I’m old and wrinkled and cherish. Or you know, next year when I turn 30. (Thanks for the kind (early) birthday wishes, the big day is next Monday. I am finishing up a list of 30 things to do before I turn 30 that I’ll post. I’ve been making this list for almost a full year already and I hope to have it all finalized by Monday. I am really excited to share my plans!)
Making Valentine Pockets
Yesterday after church I pulled out a bunch of paper and glue and crayons and some of my washi tape and Creamie and I sat down to make Valentine pockets. When I was growing up we made Valentine pockets every year. They are basically a paper purse, as Creamie called them yesterday, that we would hang on our door and my parents would sneak a surprise in them each night leading up to Valentines day. I have always loved this tradition.
And I don’t ever need an excuse to use washi tape. This morning while I was writing this post Creamie asked me if her surprise tomorrow could be more little tapes. I might have created a washi monster yesterday. Haha!
I don’t remember having an exact start date, we usually made them about a week or a week and a half before Valentines Day. And we never got candy in our pockets, it was always a not sugary surprise. This morning Creamie found a little blue car in hers. Blue is her favorite color and she carries blue things around with her all the time.
Creamie really loves paper crafts. That girl is the happiest with scissors and glue and her rainbow of crayons. The other day I found a blue piece of cardstock glued to her wall behind her door. Yep, glued. She tried to hang it up with the magnets from the fridge, and when that didn’t work she grabbed her gluestick. I just left it there, it was too funny to take down, and I don’t know that I want to see what kind of surprise it leaves on the wall…
To make Valentine pockets each person will need two paper plates, and something to stick them together with. You can staple, or sew them together with yarn, or anything else that will hold those two together. And then add in whatever else you have. Crayons, glue, scraps of paper, washi tape, glitter, sparkly confetti, paper doilies, and a big pile of cutout hearts. See, not an exact science, but a really fun project to do with kids.
So we sat at Scott’s desk yesterday afternoon and cut and glued and crayoned (her word not mine) for 45 minutes or so and it was awesome. I cut out some hearts and a few letter C’s for her to glue on, but the rest of it was all her. I think she is of the mindset that more is definitely better. I think she would have piled things on there all day, but we had to leave for dinner at grandmas. But I think that I’ll make Valentines with her again this week. She had such a good time.
She wrote her name on hers. She gets all the letters in there, a different order everytime, but they are all in there. She always sticks her tongue out when she is concentrating. And writing your name is serious concentrating business. Also, I love how her little knee is up on the table. Better leverage that way.
I cut one of Creamie’s paper plates into a heart shape, which you can kind of see in the lower right picture above. That way you can put stuff in it easily. Then I used a hole punch to make holes and gave Creamie a piece of yarn on a bobby pin so she could sew the two plates together.
Then I punched two more holes in the top and added another piece of yarn to hang her pocket up on her doorknob.
She was really into the washi tape. I think I might have to do more projects with these with her.
We both had our game face on. This gluing is serious stuff you know. I think the most important part with making these is to let your child do whatever they want with what you have laid out. And be prepared to wash glue off the table and out of their hair. I never could have predicted what Creamie’s would look like. And I think it will be fun to compare this first one to the next years. And thanks to digital photography I am pretty sure I’ll have pictures of this process every year.
She was so proud of her creation and so excited to show her finished product to her daddy. And that makes me smile.
And it made her smile too. Like a lot. We are totally doing this again next year, and every other year till she decides she’s too old for treats in a paper Valentine pocket.
Valentine Hand Pies
Yesterday was a near perfect day here at casa pinksuedeshoe. We slept in, had a late breakfast and then spent the day together, mostly just hanging out. I got to do a lot of fun cooking, a little sewing and ended the night on the couch with my hubby watching girly movies. I really love to cook, and my life has been so busy lately that it has felt like a chore, which I hate. But yesterday I made some Valentine hand pies and it was so much fun. More work than a regular pie, but they were so cute I didn’t mind.
A few weeks ago I bought a heart shaped pie press at Target. (Here is a similar one at Amazon.) I am a total sucker for heart shaped bakeware, and when combined with pie it was a total control fail. It had to come home with me.
So basically, they are like poptarts. I didn’t frost mine, but you totally could. I made a big batch of pie crust and it was enough for these six plus a full size pie. Without a pie press you could totally make these as well. Use your favorite pie crust recipe, or purchased frozen pie crust. Roll it out and cut out two shapes. (You can use the back side of the press to cut them out.) Fill with whatever you choose and then crimp the edges and bake on parchment paper for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Easy peasy!
I made three kinds two of which turned out awesome, and the third turned out awesome in theory. I tried a Smores pie, filled with marshmallows, chocolate chips and crushed graham crackers. And it smelled good, and looked great, but the marshmallows had carmelized on the inside and were completely gone. Next time I’ll try marshmallow cream or something else before I share that recipe.
Raspberry or Blueberry Handpies
My hearts are about 4″ across, and I filled each with 2 tablespoons of fruit. I used frozen, thawed raspberries and fresh blueberries. Then I mixed together 1/3 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons of cornstarch. I added about 1 tablespoon of the sugar mixture to the middle of each pie before adding the top crust and sealing it up. Then I turned them out onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and brushed the tops with milk before sprinkling with sanding sugar. That makes it sound pretty easy, but getting them out of the pie press was kind of tricky. Be warned.
The fruit to crust ratio is a lot different than a regular pie. A lot less fruit and a lot more crust, which for me just means I’ll need more ice cream to wash it all down. But they were fun to make, and delicious even though there were very few ingredients involved. Next time I’ll try a savory filling I think. Sausage and rice and veggies or something. It was a really fun treat to make and it is something that I am going to play with over and over. (Be warned that it took me 30 minutes to put together these 6 pies. Assembly takes a while, so keep that in mind if you decide to make some.) I’m working on one of my very favorite childhood traditions with Creamie tonight. I’ll share some pictures tomorrow. Hope your Sunday was lovely.
Playing Catch up
Instead of trying to catch up in a bunch of posts about things that I made or did weeks ago, I am just going to post a few photos of what we have been doing since Novemberish and call it good. Then I’ll be all caught up, I won’t have blogger guilt, and I can move on with something that is much more fun. I’ll start that tomorrow. But, till then, here’s my life, in a nutshell.
Creamie turned three. And now she’s three going on seventeen. She finally gained some weight and is no longer in the fifth percentile, but has moved right on up to the thirtieth. I can stop buying whole milk. On her birthday we went to her choice of places for dinner, had cake and ice cream at home and opened a few presents. It was perfect.
She is in love with the bathtub. I usually have to fill it up with hot water twice so that she can stay and play as long as she likes. I am continually amazed at how entertained she is in such a small place with a few measuring cups and two ducks. She loves the tub.
My sister Heidi got married on January 20 to a wonderful guy. Really, he is one of the best men I know. For the occasion I made seven little flower girl dresses. And I made her invitations/announcements, designed the programs for the ceremony, helped her make the centerpieces, the groomsmen boutonnieres, and some ribbon wands for the little girls. Thanks to my mom for babysitting me through the zippers in these dresses, I can finally do them on my own. Now i can cross that irrational fear off my list. Zippers? Conquered.
These cutie little girls. I wish I had a not phone pic, but it will be another few weeks before the photographer gets any proofs back to Heidi and I didn’t take a single picture with my camera. I was a little busy tying sashes so they were all the same and straightening hairbows. But I can’t wait to see real pictues! (One little girl was MIA. Ok, it was cold, she is 2 months old and she stayed wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket with her mama 🙂
The little boys. SO so cute. Seriously, these boys were the cutest little groomsmen ever.
This is all the snow we have had since the end of last April. (I got to at least see snow in October, but not at my own house. Lameness.) I am pretty upset about this whole fakeout winter. This so doesn’t count as a snowstorm in my book. I guess I still have a few months before our chances are completely gone, but now that it’s February my hopes are pretty low.
Her big request for her birthday was balloons, pink orange and blue. It took two full weeks before they lost all their sauce and were rolling around the floor. Best birthday present ever in her mind.
Last week I went to my first Modern Quilt Guild meeting in Salt Lake City. I got to work on a new project, which is almost finished, and hang out with these girls and sew and eat and chat. It was a great way to spend a Saturday. What with the wedding sewing and the birthday sewing and party planning it was really nice to have some time to myself where I could work on something that I wanted to work on. (Me, Amy, Leigh, Erin). I really can’t wait to move to the big city so these meetings and these girls are closer. Oh, and Scott’s work and blah blah blah.
We’ve been listening to records. My dad gave Scott a record player for Christmas and I’ve been collecting old vinyl every time I visit the thrifts. It’s been a really fun hobby.
And I know I showed you the phone version of this a while ago, but it’s one of my very favorite pictures from the past little while. You just can’t go wrong with pancakes and sprinkles and washitape flags. It’s a no fail plan for a party. Everytime. OK, I’m working on a few Valentine projects. Starting tomorrow I’ll have a new project or treat or something each day till Valentines day. And after that I think I’ll officially be back on the blogging wagon. Thanks for all your support friends, you are the best. I’ll get into a really mushy sentimental post about all that later, but just know that I so appreciate those of you who leave comments, who email me, who don’t ever leave comments but are just a little number in my site stats, and those of you who receive updates in your email. Thanks for the virtual support network that you have been for me. //End of the sappy/sentimental crap for this post. //
Little Red Hen
So today I got a bug in my brain and I had to make bread. I was out of whole wheat flour, and the last time I made bread I just used all white. Which was good, but I like it at least half wheat better. But I really didn’t want to go to the grocery store today. So I do what any enterprising girl (or Little Red Hen) does. I made my own. A while ago my mom gave me a L’Equip grain mill, (This one is their current model) only I have always had flour in my pantry, until now. And today was the day I broke it out of the box and gave it a whirl. (And like all those other enterprising girls who have grinders I also have 90 pounds of hard white wheat in the pantry.) And it was awesome. It was easier to turn wheat into flour than it is to turn on my tv. Literally. Easy peasy. In less than an hour I went from out of flour and hungry for bread to eating it.
1. Grinding my own wheat into flour so I can make bread today. Little Red Hen style., 2. Wheat. Here goes! #afirsttimeforeverything, 3. I made flour!, 4. And who will help me knead the dough? Kitchenaid said she’d do it. 🙂, 5. Rising., 6. Only 30 minutes to go. 🙂, 7. Big and beautiful. Also, my oven door is FILTHY!, 8. The worst part is waiting the 4 minutes till they are cool enough to cut., 9. I could eat this whole loaf by myself in one sitting. Homeground flour a success!
I posted the whole process on Instagram (@pinksuedeshoe or follow along on webstagram here). And I am just so excited about it I had to post it here too. I made flour today. And then turned that into usable food. So so awesome.
Creamie ate it too and loved it. And that made my little heart grow two sizes. Some days I feel like the worst mom in the world (I think everyone has those days). But today I took hard little bits of wheat and made food out of them that she loved. And now I want to try grinding other stuff. Red wheat, corn, barley and dry beans are all on my grinding list. And this afternoon I am taking some of that fresh ground flour and making it into cookies with her. Because I’m the mom and I get to do stuff like that. Which is awesome.
My Little Cowgirl
Tada, Tada! I figured out a few basic things on my new photoshop software today. I feel like a moron because I am still always looking in the wrong menu and clicking the wrong thing, but I am better at it than I was this morning. And the few things I have figured out are a LOT more user friendly than my old version. Thank you photoshop people! I think I am really going to love this. Soon. Soonish.
A few months ago I found this pink felt cowgirl hat at a second hand kids store. It was on their after Halloween costume clearance and I snagged it for about $1.50. And it’s real felt. Like, the kind I could take to whatever place you take them and they could reshape or dye or whatever. Not that I am interested in dying it. Creamie might be, her favorite color for the past few months has been blue.
Not too long after that I saw a Western store that was going out of business and stopped in to check out their sale. And I found boots. Little girl leather boots. Real honest to goodness cowboy boots, and they were 70% off. And it was all I could do to not buy four or five pairs. I picked these ones with a few sizes to grow so she can wear them for a while. They are really big on her now, but I couldn’t handle her growing out of them anytime soon. I gave them to her for Christmas and she wears them all the time. It’s hilarious.
In this crazy unseasonably warm winter weather we stopped by a historic cabin in my little town to take some pictures. And I am so glad I did. I didn’t get to take pictures of her for her birthday (yet). But these will be a really good reminder of what she looked like right now.
Her hat, sweater, denim skirt and tights are all thrifted, as is her vintage embroidered top. This is one of my very favorite of her outfits, even before she had boots and hat. I’ll be sad when she has grown out of all these pieces. This sweater is already in the too small box, she’s been wearing it for two years now, haha!
Boots, stripey tights, ponytails and a hat. I love this girl. Also, I really need to remember to take pictures of her wearing more of my favorite clothes. She doesn’t care, but I sure do love looking at them. I think I am going to do one post in the next few days with my favorite pictures from the past, oh you know, like two months since I fell off the blogging wagon and then I’ll be all caught up. And I’m already working on a few Valentine projects (February is my favorite month!) and a few secrets. Be back soon!
Back to Realish Life
Our computer brain transplant is complete. All things made the move successfully except for all my bookmarks (thankfully everything I’ve bookmarked for the past 8 or 9 months is all on pinterest, but my toolbar is a disastrous blank spot. Must fix that like right now.) But the real catastrophe was that Photoshop didn’t make it.
[ I wore lipstick for the first time for my sisters wedding on January 20. First time ever. ]
Our photoshop version is probably 10 years old. Yeah…. old school photoshop. And it’s been on several computers, but this time around we couldn’t find that slip of paper that has that really important serial number on it. Lamesauce. So I was gearing up to be excited about The Gimp (free photoshopesque software that I have tried before and didn’t like, because it wasn’t photoshop) or something else. But then last night Scott surprised me with an early birthday present. He got a new version of Photoshop Elements. It is 10 version updated from our last software. Which makes me feel really old, even by computer standards. Of course, I don’t have the slightest idea what I am doing with that either. And all my settings that I have been tweaking and perfecting on every single website I have ever used in the past 8 years we’ve had our last computer are all gone. Saved passwords, browser history, automatic fill in the blank on those things I google all the time, blah blah blah. Stupid computer. (We got our new computer at an office surplus sale at Scott’s work for $25 with monitor. And it is 7 years newer than our last one. It was a really good idea… or will be once I get things put back together.)
[ I figured out how to do a sock bun. I love it/hateit. But it’s better than a ponytail which I love.]
So, please be patient while I figure things out. I have things to blog. I have pictures taken! And they are lost in the newness of the new computer. Frustrating. I’ll figure it out, but just be patient for a bit longer. Thanks blog friends, you are the best. In the meantime, forgive the phone pics. Some more of them. Sorry, changes coming soon. For reals.
One of my 2012 goals is to do a 365 project. And I picked a 365 Picture a Day project. Here is my first months worth. I love that it doesn’t feel overwhelming to me. And I also love that most days I have more than one picture to choose from. I have a plan for all of these at the end of the year… I think. If you use instagram you can follow me (username pinksuedeshoe) and if not, you can follow me on web.stagram which is basically instagram on the real world wide web where non iphoners can still be in the loop.
I love this girl. This picture is from Sunday after church. Two things to note. #1 She always picks red shoes (but her favorite color is totally blue). And #2 She kept her tiny little hairclip in her hair for the whole day. It’s a record. She always wants to wear one… for 10 minutes. This one stayed in for probably 7 hours before she got tired of it, after which she took it out and put it back in the bathroom drawer where it belongs. #3 That’s the first time that’s happened too.
pinksuedeshoe 