Valentine’s Day is often considered a romantic holiday but I like to make it about all of the people I love in my life, most importantly my children. We do this by having a special family dinner with a Valentine’s theme. Heart shaped mini meatloaves, mashed potatoes piped onto their plates in the shape of hearts, and these rolls are always part of that menu.

My children love cinnamon love knots and its such a special treat to have a yeast roll with the surprise of cinnamony sweetness.

Of course, if the recipe is from me you know its going to be streamlined and easy for those of us with limited time in the kitchen who still want to add that special touch to our meal! Frozen roll dough make this recipe possible for anyone who doesn’t have the time to make dough from scratch.

You’ll need: Cinnamon, sugar, frozen yeast roll dough, and a stick of margarine. It doesn’t matter what brand of roll dough you get, this is what Wally World had but I have used other brands and had just as good of results (I couldn’t tell the difference).

Oh and folks….my cinnamon costs fifty cents a bottle. Seriously. Fifty cents!

Place dough balls on plate that has been sprayed with cooking spray and let thaw.

These photos are a bit off because my five month old Nikon camera went kapoot due to a defect which had been determined on previous models of the same camera, but that Nikon still continued to sell regardless of this fact ~smiles sweetly~. They are going to fix it for me (the generous little dears) but I have to mail my camera back to them and wait four to five weeks to receive it back. Hmmm, would it have been easier to fix the known defect before selling the cameras? I know, my thinking is just backwards. I got the “little lady” treatment when I called them, too. Obviously me bein’ a woman and all, I’m just not thinking clearly. Best get back to cookin’ so I don’t tax my wee little brain cells ~grins~.

Place sugar and cinnamon in bowl.

Stir until well combined. Now you know I’m gonna be disappointed in you if you don’t taste a pinch of that.

I mean, how could you (in good conscience) roll your dough in that if you aren’t really sure it tastes good!?

Once your dough is thawed, roll it out into six inch tubes.

This is a great time for your kids with play-doh skills to help

Tie those into knots.

Dip each knot into melted butter

Roll in cinnamon sugar

Repeat with all of them. Now if you want it to be even sweeter, you can dip the tubes in the butter and cinnamon/sugar before tying them into knots. That gets them covered a lot more.

I do both, depending on my mood.

Cover the rolls with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with cooking spray so it won’t stick to them.

Make sure that plate they are on has cooking spray on it too!

Let them rise until doubled in size, one and a half to two hours.

See, if you roll them in the butter and sugar mixture before tying them there won’t be the bald spots on them after they have risen. I just wanted a little less sweetness this time (dieting….shhh! don’t tell!).

Once they have risen, transfer to a greased baking sheet.

I lined mine with foil because I was feelin’ lazy. ~she says in a sing-song voice~

You can also let them rise on the sheet if you want and then just take your plastic wrap off before baking.

Place these in a 350 degree oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until browned.

Yummilicious!

For an added treat, serve these with the cinnamon cream cheese icing recipe below!

I have always loved Valentine’s day but not because I have some grand Valentine’s memories or even expectations of doing anything special on the fourteenth. Since I have had children, I’ve spent every Valentine’s day at home where I make a special meal for them consisting of miniature heart shaped meat loaves, cinnamon love knot rolls, and french fries with ketchup squirted out into hearts on their plate.

I love Valentine’s day because ever since I was a little girl, when I start seeing hearts in pink and red appear in stores, I knew my birthday is coming. With birthdays come birthday money ~giggle and grin~ and that means guilt free shopping, which I got an early start on yesterday when I headed out to ye olde mall.  I am shuddering even now, though, as I recall what I saw there.

Folks, I hope you’re sitting down because I have to confirm something that, until yesterday, I had hoped was merely a rumor. As I was paying for my purchase at Belk’s, I turned to my left and saw day-glow pink high tops with contrasting neon yellow and black checked, super wide, shoe strings. If that wasn’t enough, next to that sat an assortment of neon ballet slippers with little bows on them (think Mootsies Tootsies). ~takes a deep breath~

Yes, my dear friends, the eighties are back.

I’ve heard it said that if you are old enough to have lived through a trend the first time it was in fashion, you are too old to indulge in it the second time. Lucky for y’all that means my can of Aqua Net shall remain retired. Man I was good at eighties hair, I mean REALLY good! I had a large stand fan I kept in my room just for my hair. I’d tease it out and stand with my head laying over on the side while spraying my “wings” in front of the fan, staying that way for several minutes while they dried.  ~sighs wistfully~.

So while I shall officially remain on the sidelines whilst the youngun’s take part in what they likely think is an original fashion trend ~eye roll~, I do want to wish them the best of luck. I hope it works out better for them than it did for us because, frankly, we all looked like idiots. See below photo for supporting evidence.

A friend from high school posted this on Facebook recently. See the wingy gal? Yup, thats me. Its a wonder I didn’t fly away when a stiff breeze came ’round…

Hmm, now where was I? Oh yeah..cookies. Y’all wanna make cookies, right? Well for goodness sakes, lets turn up the Cindi Lauper (or any other singer who wore FAR too much makeup – men included) and get crankin’!

You’ll need: Flour, Milk, Margarine, Baking Powder, Salt, Egg, and Vanilla. You can also use a drop or two of lemon oil if you have it (which I don’t but would add if I did).

Place your margarine in a bowl and add sugar.

Add baking powder

and salt

Mix until light and fluffy.

add milk

and vanilla….

A note on vanilla: I don’t know many cooks who don’t swear by a certain brand or type of vanilla. There are any number of designer brands on the market.  Some are made in timbucktoo, some are extra pure or double strength, yadda yadda yadda. I have read the cookbooks that say you simply must, must, must use pure vanilla or make your own in order to achieve baking bliss and not humiliate yourself to anyone who takes a bite of your cookies. I’ve tried that vanilla, too.

I know that technically, its better. I know that with vanilla, you technically get what you pay for. Then again, I also know that, knowing all of this, I still buy the generic bottle that costs about a dollar a pop.

Ain’t got no complaints yet.

Did you notice that I used a double negative in that last sentence? I also used “ain’t”, which I actually don’t let my kids even say. Hard to believe I was a university English honors student, huh?

Just add your egg and lets not dwell on my downward slide…

Mix all of that up well.

Add flour

The recipe says to add gradually bit when have you ever known me to do anything gradually? Just toss it in there, it’ll be fine.

Scrape down the sides and make sure it is all mixed up well.

Now it has to be chiled for about half an hour. I like to put it in zipper bags for this. That way, if I get busy on other things and end up not having time to make the cookies, I can do them the following day or just pop that bag in the freezer for another day. Cookie dough freezes very well .

After its nice and chilled, turn out onto floured surface. I always line mine with waxed paper for quicker cleanup.

Sprinkle some more flour over the top so it doesn’t stick to your rolling pin. I also get a handful of flour and run it along my rolling pin as well.

Roll it out to about 1/4″

Cut out your cookies and place on ungreased cookie sheets.

Using a straw, poke two holes in each cookie.

Sprinkle with coarse decorating sugar. I am using white sugar here but you can use whatever color you like. I just like how this adds a slight glistening while not detracting from the ribbon. Bake these at 375 for seven to eight minutes.

when they are done, while still on the cookie sheet, poke the holes again with the same straw. Let cool a few minutes and then remove from the cookie sheet to allow to cool entirely.

Cut a length of ribbon and thread through both holes.

Tie in a pretty bow .

I came up with this idea from my own sick mind when my son was in Kindergarten. I made them for every member of the school staff that year.

This is proof that I really need to learn to shut my mind down from time to time.

Now look how pretty that is!

My Sweet Valentines

Ingredients

• 2/3 C softened margarine
• 3/4 C granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 T milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 C plain flour

Instructions

1. In large mixing bowl, add margarine, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix until well blended, light, and fluffy. Add milk, vanilla, and egg. Mix again. Add in flour and mix until well combined, scraping down the sides if need be. Chill dough for half an hour, or until easy to handle.
2. On flour lined surface, turn out dough. Sprinkle with more flour. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with heart shaped cookie cutters. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and use a drinking straw to poke two holes in each heart. Bake at 375 for seven to eight minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Remove from oven and re-poke holes with straw. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet and then remove to cool completely.
3. Cut lengths of ribbon (experiment until you get the right length to make a pretty bow) and thread through cooled cookies, tying into a bow.
4. *Note: These aren't very sweet cookies. If you want a sweeter cookie, be more generous with your coarse sugars sprinkled over the top.

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If you ever feel lost, defeated, or as if you have made a mistake so grave there is no way to recover,

“Just do the next right thing.”

~ Pastor John Dees.