The Valentine's Day Cookies

This year I decided to make some cut-out cookies for Valentine's Day. I've never done that before. I think maybe the fact that I didn't really get to make Christmas cookies this year influenced my decision? Anywho, I knew I had a little heart cookie cutter and had never used it. So I mixed up the dough and put it in the fridge to do whatever sugar cookies do during the obligatory "one hour or overnight" stint in the fridge. Then I went in search of said cookie cutter.

I couldn't find it. I have a tiny kitchen, so it didn't take me long to realize that either I'd lost the cookie cutter or it's in Ohio in storage and I was mistaken in thinking I'd brought it along to Quito when I moved here 18 months ago.

Dangit. Now what? I considered using a knife and cutting them freehand. Thought about that for about 2 seconds. Nah. Then I contemplated just using a glass and making round cookies. But that seemed boring and not very Valentine's-y. I scanned back over a year and a half of shopping here to detect any heart-shaped cookie cutters in my memory. Nope.

Then, a stroke of genius hit me. I did have a set of Christmas cookie cutters from my awesome former Roosevelt House roommates (they sent me a care package last Christmas). I could take one of them and reshape it into a heart, right? I decided to give it a whirl.... here's the before and after:

This isn't the actual cutter I reshaped, cause I didn't take a picture of it before. But it was very similar to this little gingerbread guy.




Tah-dah! My first-ever metalworking masterpiece!

And the best part is that the cookies looked better than the cutter! Here's a picture:

What do you mean, "where's the missing cookie"? I couldn't very well not try the cookies to make sure they're safe, could I?


So, on my last round, I didn't have enough dough for a whole cookie sheet. Instead I baked them in my toaster oven. The extent to which I burnt those cookies may be indicative of how poorly (and slowly) my regular oven cooks. Maybe. :)


I just thought the contrast was comical.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!