Valentine (sugar) Cookies

Happy Valentines Day!  I hope you have a good one.  We're not doing anything exciting.  Poor people can't partake of the flower and chocolate frenzy that most people do.    I have a long history of really horrible Valentines Days.  Illnesses, blind dates, crummy boyfriends, etc.  I actually smugly thought that my days of having a rotten VD -my affectionate name for the day- were over once I was married.  It's especially easy to enjoy it when your expectations aren't high.  All I ask for is a Dr. Pepper and maybe a shoulder massage.  Got the massage first thing this morning and the Dr. Pepper not long after that. 

Know what else I got for Valentines Day?  A cold sore.  How nice.  It was shaping up to be the best V Day in my history.  Until my lip started hurting.  And then it exploded into a big puffy, painful lump on my lower lip.  Now I'm getting some chills and body aches.  I swear I just recovered from something like this and now here I go again.  My poor husband won't even get a kiss for Valentines Day.  He will get cookies though.

Growing up, it was always tradition to make sugar cookies and cut out holiday related shapes for several holidays through the year.  Easter, Halloween, Christmas and Valentines Day.

My daughter and I planned on making these cookies a week ago, until I discovered that my stash of butter was gone.  The dancing queen has been begging to make "cutting" cookies everyday since I bought butter.  I finally promised her that we would make them Sunday afternoon, IF she took a nap first.  She really wanted to make them, apparently.

After all that, I realized that I don't own a heart shaped cookie cutter.  Oops.  I really thought I had one.  It must be at my mom's.  Not to be discouraged, my kids happily used the Easter shapes.

Soft Sugar Cookies
1 cup sugar
1cup butter
3 eggs
1 Tbs baking powder
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp vanilla

Mix, roll out, cut and bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes.  It helps to refrigerate the dough a bit, but you don't have to.  The dough keeps well in the fridge for quite a while, if you can keep people out of it.  This made 5 dozen cookies, with some dough left over to snack on.