Mini Kiss Cookies

Who doesn't love kisses at Valentines?

We have a recipe in my family that we call Kiss Cookies. They are SO scrumptious and are always the first to go at any family party or gathering. The only problem is, I hardly ever have Hershey Kisses on hand.

Well, I think I may have just come up with a solution. They are still just as tasty, a bit more cost-effective, and so dang cute--MINI KISS COOKIES.

What you will need: flour, salt, baking soda, margarine, peanut butter, 1 egg, vanilla, brown sugar, white sugar, and chocolate chips (Complete recipe is at the end of this post)

Stir 1 3/4 cup flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, and 1/2 tsp. salt together and set aside.

Cream 1/2 cup margarine and 1/2 cup peanut butter together.

Then gradually add 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar. When all of that is well blended, add the egg and 1/2 tsp vanilla.
Then add flour mixture.

Roll into balls. For mini cookies, use 1/4 tsp. of dough for each ball.

Then roll each ball of dough into sugar.

And place on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 5-7 minutes, depending on how soft you like your cookies.

As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, take a chocolate chip and place it in the middle of the cookie.

Let the cookies cool and you have yourself mini Kiss Cookies. Of course, you can make regular ones with Kisses.

Serve them on a platter or wrap them up for a Valentine's gift.

Kiss Cookies
1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. margarine
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. peanut butter
sugar (to roll the balls in before you bake)

Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside. Cream margarine, peanut butter until well mixed. Gradually add sugars, mixing until creamy and well blended. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Then add flour mixture. Roll dough into balls and dip in sugar. Bake at 375 for 5 minutes for mini cookies or 7-9 for larger cookies. Remove from the oven and quickly press chocolate kiss (or chocolate chip) on top of each cookie.

Valentine's Dinner

It's Andrea again with another fun Valentine's tradition. For dinner on Valentine's day we have a totally Pink/Red Dinner. You can make food that's already red or pink or get creative and dye your food to make it festive. Here's a few pictures of our Valentine's Dinner...

We dressed up the table with some simple scrapbook paper placemats and some red plates we have.

I grabbed some things around the house to dress up the table.

We added some red food coloring to the biscuit dough and threw a Valentine's towel under them to make them extra festive.

We kept it simple with some naturally red foods - spaghetti and pink lemonade.

Some delicious red jello topped with a little whipped cream.

One perfectly festive Valentine's Dinner!

Poster Board Valentines

My name is Emily and every year (since we were dating) my husband and I follow the same Valentine tradition.

We each get a poster board and 5 to 10 candy bars. We then write a story using those candy bars as fillers for the words.

For example, with Mr. Goodbar, Snickers, Milky Way, Hot Tamales, a Hershey bar, 5th Avenue, Hershey Kisses, and Good and Plenty you could write, "One day Ms. HERSHEY's went for a walk. Life was GOOD AND PLENTY and she had no idea that she would meet her true love that day. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted one HOT TAMALE standing on the corner of 5TH AVENUE and Main. Wanting to go over, but being nervous, she hesitated. That MR. GOODBAR

saw this and SNICKERED. He walked right over and with one smile and a KISS he swept her off her feet, flew her to the moon, and over the MILKY WAY. They now live happily ever after with a little BABY RUTH on the way!"

Sometimes you need to change the candy bar a little...cover up an "s" or add an "ed." I've also spelled out "kiss" with the hershey kisses before. Most years we've had the same exact candy bars, but sometimes we switch it up and surprise the other with our choices of candy bars. It's fun to make the story about your significant other or make a list of "10

why I love you." ...not every reason needs to have a candy bar in it.

Valentines Tradition

I'm Melissa's friend Andrea and she asked me to share a Valentine's idea with you guys! Growing up my family always had a little Valentines box of some sort...

They definitely don't have to be fancy...anything will do! (I just thought these were super cute!) Anyway, for the month of February we all had the opportunity to write a "love note" to each member of our family and stick it in the box. On Valentine's Day we would open the box and get all of our notes from each other. It was a simple way to celebrate and show our love for each other. Now that I'm married and have a family of my own we live clear across the country from my family, but we even got our "love notes" in the mail last year!

Happy Martin Luther King Day

We don't have really any Martin Luther King day traditions besides spending time together as a family. Sometimes we go sledding, bowling, or ice skating.

What are you doing to celebrate?

Candy Bar Valentines

Valentine gifts can be simple and made with things you have around the house. I always keep a stash of scrapbook paper and chocolate. You just never know when you will need either. And they came in handy today as I made some candy bar valentines. They were very simple.

First, find some scraps of scrapbook paper. You don't need very much and you can even use plain colors such as white, red, or pink. I happened to have some designed paper that I put to good use. And get a chocolate bar. I used a large Symphony, but you can do this with a normal size candy bar as well.

Next, remove the old wrapper from the candy bar and replace it with a piece of scrapbook paper. Make sure you tape the bottom portion so the new wrapper is nice and secure.

Then, add some rafia and a tag of some sort. I actually made my own and they were super easy. I'll have to do another post on that sometime. Rafia just always makes things like extra cute and like you spent a lot of time on it (but that is our little secret :)

Finally, you have your Candy Bar Valentines. This would be a very sweet treat for your kids, roommates, friends, or co-workers.

Heart Notes

My dear friend Annie gave me such a fun wedding gift. I know this isn't a wedding blog, but everything she gave us were things we could use to celebrate our first Valentine's Day. And since we are talking about Valentine's Day ideas, I thought I would share some of them. There are just simple things, but you can do so much with them.

1st: Heart Post-It Notes

It is fun to use these post-its for secret love notes. In fact, last Valentine's Day, I wrote all sorts of cheesy sayings and hid them around the house. My husband even found some of them days later and got really got a kick out of them. Some of the sayings were:

• You're hot (on the front of the oven)
• I see so much goodness in you (on the mirror)
• You dish me so happiness (in the plate cupboard)
• You are a picture perfect husband (on a photo)
• You give me the chills (freezer)
• Turn me on (TV)
• I love spooning with you (in the silverware drawer)
• You rock my world (on a rocking chair)
• You light up my life (light switch or lamp)
  

Now, I'll let you be creative and write some of you own (wink wink :)

2nd: Heart Silicone Baking Cups

I used these to make heart baking cups to make heart cupcakes or breakfast muffins. But I also used them as a candy cup when I had guests over for a dinner party. The possibilities are endless!

Secret Valentines

I know. It's only January and it seems like Christmas was just here yesterday. But since we may all be suffering from a little PCB (Post-Christmas Blues), I thought it would be fun to start thinking about some Valentine's ideas. If you are like me, you like having things to look forward to. So, I guess its not too early to start thinking about Valentine's Day. Then again, the stores had their shelves stocked with Valentine's goodies before Christmas was even over (but we will save that for another post).

The week before Valentine's Day, we would draw a name of someone in our family. That person became our "secret valentine". For an entire week, we were supposed to do little acts of service like make their bed, unload the dishwasher for them, make their lunch, do their chore, etc. In addition to acts of kindness, we would also leave little treats on their bed or surprises in their room like a balloon with candy, or their favorite treat.

Valentine's Day was the culmination of the Secret Valentine activity because that is when we would reveal who our Secret Valentine was.

After doing this one year, we loved it so much that we made a tradition out of it. It is a fun tradition no matter how old or young your kids are.

Happy New Year!

Hope you had a fabulous New Year's Eve!

Here is what is coming in 2010...

• Valentine's Ideas
• St. Patrick's Ideas
• Birthday Ideas
• and more...

If you have any specific requests, or any festive ideas, please email
sofestive@gmail.com

Let's make 2010 the most festive year yet!