Overwhelmed With Joy!

Monday, February 12, 2007

Valentine's Day cookie fest

Before I show you lots of pretty cookie pictures (click on them to enlarge for more detail), I wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you who participated in my Favorite Ingredients Friday- Valentine's Day chocolate edition recipe exchange last Friday! I'm thrilled with all of the mouth-watering chocolate recipes I got!

Since it seems as though many of you are chocoholics like I am, I'm going to leave a button up on my sidebar that's linked to the chocolate edition post. Feel free to stop back as often as you'd like to look through those recipes. And if anyone wants to add their favorite chocolate recipes to the list, feel free to do so at any time. It's never too late. :)

Now, for the fun cookie fest that I had this past Saturday. I invited 3 ladies over to decorate

cookies with me. Friday night, I spent several hours making dough and baking over 70 heart shaped cookies, of all different sizes. I asked my lady friends to bring frosting, food coloring, sprinkles, and either a plate or cookie bags to take home their share of cookies.

We started the fun at 1 p.m., after I got Snuggle Bug down for a nap. I had a long table set up and had melted dark and white chocolate ready. I also had the packaging supplies ready as well.

It didn't take long for us to get in the groove of frosting and decorating our pile-o-cookies! We chatted, laughed, sampled, and just enjoyed ourselves along the way. Keeping Oronzo away was a tough chore. We allowed him to custom make a couple of his own cookies and then told him to get lost and leave us to our work! Little does he know, I have a bag of secretly designed cookies stashed away to give him on Valentine's Day!

When we were all done, we had a table full of

beautifully decorated cookies. We stood for a bit and marveled at our handiwork before moving on to the packaging phase. We had hearts with sprinkles, pink frosting, red frosting, white frosting, dark/white chocolate, and lots of combinations in between.

For the packaging, I used the idea given to me by Carol over at She Lives. She gave a link on How to make your own customized candy hearts and I used that link to make tags to attached to the cookie gift bags that I found at Target in their dollar bins!

I made candy hearts with messages like, "Best Neighbor", "Thinking of You", "Happy Valentine's Day", and "Best of Friends". I printed these hearts out on cardstock and then strung 2 or more together to create the tags.

I put my helpers to work punching holes and threading ribbon to put the finishing touches on the tags. This was no easy task because I had 21 bags just for my neighbors alone!

The end result was even cuter than I expected! On Wednesday morning, I'm going to load the cookie bags

and Jacob up in his wagon (I think I'll decorate the wagon with red & pink streamers and a sign that says, Valentine's Day cookie delivery) and have him help me deliver cookies to all our neighbors.

We also made up

gift bags for our spouses, children, and close friends. For these, we used clear cookie bags that I found at Michael's. I think I paid $4.00 for a bag of 50. The clear ones are fun because you can see the pretty cookies inside.

So, our Valentine's Day cookie fest was a huge success! Fun was had by all and we're looking forward to delivering our treats to family and friends!

So, what fun treats do you have in mind for your loved ones? Anyone else decorating cookies?

Labels: baked goodies, blogger friends, bloggity goodness, celebration, friends, holiday

6:11 AM
16 comments

16 Comments:

At 9:16 AM, Anonymous said...: Wow those look fantastic!!! Well done!

I am getting together a little package for J and Becca tomorrow.
At 10:05 AM, ChupieandJ'smama (Janeen) said...: Those look fantastic! I wish you were my neighbor:)
I have to do packages for the boys to take to school, and I think I'm doing rice crispy treats (must keep in mind wheat, egg, milk, peanut and red dye allergies).
I have candy and stuffed animals for the boys for their Valentines treats and candy for hubby along with one of the suggestions from the "50 cheap dates".
At 11:52 AM, Andrea@Sgt and Mrs Hub said...: So beautiful! Sounds like it was a lot of fun. Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

- Andrea
At 11:55 AM, Michelle said...: can I just say I wish I was your neighbor?! Wow! You are so nice to make all of those cookies and deliver to your neighbors! I'm exhausted just thinking about you making 70 cookies by yourself the night before, not to mention the decorating, packaging and name-tagging the next day!
At 1:01 PM, Jen said...: I have been dipping pretzel rods in pink and white chocolate all morning...and dipping strawberry flavored marshmallows in chocolate...yummy. I have also been making chocolate suckers....red ones....yum yum yum...we were going to do cookies I may do these for easter instead...I dont know.....I have been making double batches for the kids in Madison;s class...I still need to make rice krispie treats too....I love doing these things...I loved your cookies..we did these at Christmas....
At 1:05 PM, Calico Sky said...: you actually made these??? Wow you are so talented. I really enjoy cooking, but sadly I have never been able to make a cookie. I have tried over 100 x and they never turn out.
You are very very talented!!!
At 3:39 PM, Anonymous said...: Well I want to be your neighbor too!!! They look fantastic!

We are expecting snow tonight. I am sort of hoping the kids have a snow day tomorrow so we can bake cookies and make valentines for their classes. ;o)
At 3:39 PM, Jenn @ Knee-Deep in Munchkin Land said...: Oh my word, you have been one BUSY, BUSY woman! Those look absolutely delicious!!
At 3:45 PM, Anonymous said...: Cookie fest? Hope I was there to ... well, eat them.

Have a romantic Valentine's.

Mike
http://somethingaboutparenting.typepad.com/
At 4:59 PM, Unknown said...: Those are just too cute. How fun was that?
At 5:11 PM, An Ordinary Mom said...: I really wish I was your neighbor. My heart has a certain soft spot for delicious sugar cookies. My mouth is just watering looking at all of these yummy treats!
At 7:04 PM, Anonymous said...: Oh how cute! Your cookies are adorable and the wagon idea is precious!! I wish I was that creative, LOL!
At 7:52 PM, PastormacsAnn said...: Wow these are so cute and they look delicous! Sounds like you all a fun time.
At 8:22 PM, Barb said...: How absolutely wonderful! My gosh, look at the fun you four had and look at the result. What a clever idea. I'm sure everyone enjoyed this so much. Your photos are just great.

Honestly, this looks like so much fun, I fully intend to steal this idea from you first chance I get. :-)
At 8:52 PM, Anonymous said...: Now my heart-shaped brownies look awfully pathetic. ;) What wonderful treats you made!!
At 8:04 PM, Lori - Queen of Dirty Laundry said...: Stopping by late to say WOW! I am just so impressed with your talent and your energy! And did I say WOW?