Red Velvet for Valentines, Part II by Donna Everhart

In my family we have a cookie baking tradition. Since I can remember, my mother and I have baked at Christmas time, and this has continued with my daughter, and now my granddaughter too. Four generations were in my kitchen this past holiday season, my granddaughter’s very first time, while for my daughter, my mother and myself, we can count these special times by the decades. There was one year we baked from seven a.m. until eleven p.m., and the next morning when I woke up, my hands ached from kneading so much dough. That was the year we made eight different types of cookies, doubling or tripling recipes, so by the time it was all said and done, we had to have baked hundreds upon hundreds of cookies. We are not that ambitious now, and usually do about three kinds. The dough is made ahead, so all we have to do is roll, drop, or cut. This is much more manageable, and enjoyable time for all considering we now have an eighty-two year old with a cane and a four year old with enough energy for all of us.

By the time Valentine’s Day comes around, the holiday overload of sugar has waned, and if I’ve been careful, my New Year’s resolutions are still intact. Valentine’s Day is about showing our love for those we care about, and what better way to do this than to offer up something homemade to go along with a card? In a previous post, I talked about red velvet cupcakes, and hinted I had a recipe for red velvet cookies. I don’t know what it is about cookies, but they hold such nostalgic feelings for me. I have memories of cookies and milk for an after school snack, and how there was always a filled cookie jar on the kitchen countertop when I was growing up. It wasn’t uncommon for me and my brother to try and sneak one before supper, dodging Mom’s watchful eye.