Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Eighteen Days of Valentine


After my last post about Valentine's Day, I was inspired to provide something fun and sweet for my readers' eyes to eat. As the title suggests, I will be featuring V-Day finds each day all the way through February 14th (hopefully I'll have the moxie to do so), which will include: Etsy designs, recipes, and Austin happenings. I'm pretty excited about the prospect of doing this as it seems like the closest I can get to throwing a Hearts Day Party for all my readers (hmm. gears are turning at just the thought of this). So, without further delay, let's get to it!

Our first Etsy design comes from one of Etsy Austin's very own, Tisa Jackson of Tisa's Creations (www.tisascreations.etsy.com). The best part about these clever and affordable cards? You can custom order what the front says. My initial reaction to this card was a chuckle soon followed by an "awww". I myself am probably guilty of talking about how much I love my effects pedals, chai, or making jewelry more than expressing the degree to which I care for the people close to me. In several of the romance languages, they have different words for different degrees of love, i.e. in Spanish "Te quiero" is casual and "Te amo" is reserved only for someone you're in a serious relationship with, which is the perfect remedy for not blurring the lines of love. However, since we don't have that in the English language, I think these cards are our perfect remedy. I imagine if I sent these out, I would custom make them to say "I love you more than Siamese Dream" or something like that. What would you custom order yours to say? The possibilities are endless! Tisa has several other Valentine's Day goodies you should check out. My favorites are the glitter I<3U cards, SWAK notes, and Anti Valentine's Day magnets.

The recipe for today is rose flower cookies, which comes courtesy of 1 Dough, 100 Cookies (available on Amazon.com). This makes about 55-60 cookies.

Ingredients:
-1 cup butter, softened
-generous 1 cup superfine sugar
-1 extra large egg, lightly beaten
-1 tbsp rose water
-2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-salt

Frosting:
-1 egg white
-2 and 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
-2 tsp all-purpose flour
-2 tsp rose water
-pink food coloring

Directions:
1. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon, then beat in the egg and rose water. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and a pinch of salt into the mixture and stir until thoroughly combined. Shape the dough into a log, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 F/190 C. Line 2-3 cookie sheets with baking parchment.

3. Unwrap the dough and cut into thin slices with a sharp serrated knife. Put on the prepared cookie sheets spaced well apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until light golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets for 10 minutes, then using a metal spatula, carefully transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.

4. To make the frosting, lightly beat the egg white with a fork in a bowl. Sift in half the confectioners' sugar and stir well, then sift in the remaining confectioners' sugar and flour, and mix in sufficient rose water to make a smooth, easy to spread frosting. Stir in a few drops of pink food coloring.

5. Let the cookies stand on the racks. Gently spread the frosting over them and let set.

And finally, I present you with a Valentine's Day-related happening. Austin's very own Stitch Lab will be hosting a Valentine Creation Class on Saturday February 6th from 4:30-8:00pm at their studio (1000 S. 1st St). The classes are limited to 6 students and cost $25 to register, and they supply the materials. It sounds like a great way to get into the spirit and chat it up with other creative Austin gals.

Hope you guys have enjoyed the first installment of this new experiment. Feel free to send me any Etsy designs, recipes, or Austin happenings you have to share!

Action Jackson out.

Currently listening: Fake Plastic Trees- Radiohead

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