Valentine Cookies

I know there are lots of people that hate Valentine's Day. I'm just not one of them. I loved Valentine's Day as a kid too! Remember making your little paper bag in school with the doily heart on the front for all the other kids to put your valentine cards in? Remember the scratch and sniff valentines? Remember the valentine class parties? Well, I want to say that I'm terribly disappointed that the kids valentines do not have envelopes anymore. I bought 3 boxes last year and finally figured out it was not just an error. Oh, and I'm soooo excited that I get to go to my first preschool valentine's party with Princess Runwild today!!! (Squeals!)

So, as we grew older there was Valentine's Day as a teenager (I seriously try to forget the entire pre-adolescent middle school  years all together:) Now, I won't say I loved Valentine's Day as much as a teenager. It seems the boys had figured out by time that if they didn't have a girlfriend on Valentine's Day (ie dumped them the day before)....they didn't have to buy them anything. Boys! Tisk,Tisk, Tisk, such little animals at that age. (I was being nice there, I wanted to say much worse:) Anyways, I never went unspoiled on Valentine's Day, my Daddy always brought me something. I guess that's what Daddy's are for.

Now, for all the Valentine's that I did not have a sweetie, God made up for it when He sent my husband. When we were dating, my sweet husband always went above and beyond any expectations I had on Valentines. One year he decorated the entire interior of my car windows with stickon heart decals and filled the whole car with balloons. Then he tied balloons all over the exterior of my car. One year he made a gigantic card with poster board and used candy bars for different phrases (ex."You make my heart shoot to the milky way"insert milky way bar). Oh, and the flowers....he says every lady deserves flowers on Valentine's Day..Yes, ladies, he really is that sweet. Oh...he's still a stinky old boy, but he's a sweet one!

Now, my recipe for the day. I found this over at the Southern Plate . If you have never looked at Christy Jordan's blog, you need to put that on your to do list today. Her recipes are right up there with the Pioneer Woman in my book, and it certainly doesn't hurt that she is a fellow southerner :) Seriously, I love her blog, she seems to be a very gracious southern lady. This recipe is called  Mama's Milk Dunkin' M&M Cookies for Valentines. Wheww! If that wasn't a mouthful! I started to alter this recipe when I saw it called for shortening. Don't get me wrong... I don't have a problem with shortening. I've just always been told that butter is suppose to add more flavor.Wow, am I glad I didn't use butter. The shortening gives the cookie a very  nice crispness. And, it is not lacking in flavor in the least. This was a very old timey cookie to me. I know that's an odd description, but maybe you'll understand when you try it. Its on of those recipes I believe my grandmother has made at some point in my life. Its just simple and good. And my little Princess Runwild enjoyed putting the M&M's on the top! Enjoy!

Do you have a favorite valentine memory? Leave me comment and share it!

Mama’s Milk Dunkin' M&M Cookies
Recipe courtesy of The Southern Plate

1 cup Solid Vegetable Shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 1/2 cups M&M’s
Cream shortening, sugars, eggs, and vanilla thoroughly. Gradually add in flour and mix well (or just dump it in all at once like I do). Stir in 1/2 cup M&M’s, reserving rest to decorate the tops with.
Form dough into one inch balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Decorate tops with additional M&M’s (this is GREAT for kids to help with!) and bake at 375 for ten to twelve minutes or until golden brown.