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My memories of Valentine’s Day as a kid involve two things: one, the paper decorations we always hung up in the windows (and can’t find in the stores anymore), and two, my mom’s Rolled Sour Cream Sugar Cookies, cut out in the shape of a heart.

I haven’t made cut out cookies by myself EVER. I don’t have a lot of room in my house. Cats tend to jump up on things. I didn’t have a rolling pin or a place to roll the dough. So, I didn’t do it. But I always wanted to try to recreate my mom’s cookies.

Over ten years ago, my sister gave me a computer file with recipes, including the Rolled Sour Cream Sugar Cookies. I had to convert it to a rich text file and clean it up, because the programs have changed since then. But I didn’t have the supplies to make them. Then, Last year, my sister gave me two rolling pins (my mom’s old rolling pin with peeling paint on the handles, and a heavy marble one), the mat she used for rolling out dough, and the old cookie cutters we used.

Since Valentine’s Day is coming up, and since we were about to get hit with our second blizzard in less than a week, I decided to finally make them. I told Lilia, I have never done this before, but it is always good to TRY NEW THINGS. She helped out immensely.

These are the cookie cutters we used:

They were quite tough to use– hard to pull back up. I don’t think it was just because I’m not an expert. I think I will get some plain metal cookie cutters in various shapes– I think that would be much easier.

Okay, on to the recipe. I actually googled to see if anyone else had the recipe out there, since I was not 100% sure I had it right (the files had added symbols between all the words and numbers!). I found a scan of the recipe card on a site called Noble Recipes, which has a note that it was from St. Lawrence Dairy– which was (or maybe is?) a dairy in Berks County, Penna., which makes sense. Here’s the recipe:

Rolled Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

2 cups sugar
2/3 cup butter
2 large or 3 small eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sour cream

5 cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Gradually add sugar to butter, creaming thoroughly; add eggs and beat until fluffy.
Add vanilla and sour cream.
Sift dry ingredients together and add, mixing to a smooth soft dough.
Chill thoroughly, then roll out 1/3″ thick on floured board, and cut in large 3″ to 4″ cookies.
Place on greased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in moderate hot oven (375 to 400 degrees) until lightly browned. Makes about 3 dozen fat, soft cookies. If you want crisp cookies, roll the dough very thin.

Instead of sprinkling with sugar, I decided to ice them. I used this recipe:
Sugar Cookie Frosting
Ingredients for 4 dozen:
• 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• food coloring
but I halved it:
Ingredients for 2 dozen:
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 2 tablespoons and 1-1/2 teaspoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• food coloring
•
Directions
1. In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners’ sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.

I googled natural food colors, and found a suggestion to use Pomegranate Juice to color the icing pink.
Here is how they turned out. My disclaimer: I am not a food photographer. I’ve seen luscious photos of my friends’ meals and treats, but I cannot do it. I think part of it is that the cookies themselves are sloppy. The cookie cutters were VERY difficult. And I assigned the icing to Lilia and Joe. And, we don’t have a lot of room to store cookies and cool them– so the cookies stuck together once the icing was on. They still tasted pretty good!

Facebook photos for January 2010!

Alright, I’ve been MIA for almost a month again! Oops!
I gave up on Friday Recipe for a while, because lets face it… I don’t really cook that much! Well, I do cook, but I don’t cook that much different from week to week. For instance, we had Chicken Soup with Rice three times in one week. That was due to the awful cold we (uh, just me and Lilia) had, but still… that’s a lot of Chicken Soup. In fact, I’m thinking of making it again today, but it’s been at least a week since we had it.
I guess I took a break from posts because I had a cold. It was a normal cold at first, and then my ears started whooshing. It’s been about 4 weeks, and I still am phlegmy, but my ears are much better. Lilia had the cold first, and was wiped out for a week before I got it. Joe never got the cold, which would normally bother me, but about 2 days after the cold hit me, he was hit by a car on his bike ride into work! He flew off his bike and hit his knee, and is still recovering.

Anyway, I think all my faithful readers* already know about this stuff from Facebook, right?

I do have a Friday Recipe to post today (I’ll do that separately), and I will post a link to my January Facebook photos too.

Oh, I’ll also mention that Philadelphia has had record snow this winter. We just had two blizzards in one week, and Joe had two snow days in a row. He’s back to work today, as long as the train can get him there!

I apologize for dropping the blogging ball again.

*And by faithful readers I mean.. basically, just two of you? Are there any more out there? I was lurking on a blog, and saw that there is an official National Delurking Day. I didn’t delurk, because the day had already passed. Hehe. But, if anyone is reading this that never comments, go ahead and comment! Say hello. Let me know if you have a blog, and I will link to it here, if you’d like. I have it set to not allow comments to post immediately, so don’t fret if you don’t see your comment right away. Please comment! I’m getting cabin fever from the snow!

I didn’t post my December pictures here yet– click on the fox squirrel to view my facebook album. Enjoy!

After seeing how much I was being charged for having a home phone that we hardly ever use, I decided to shop around for other options. We have a Verizon land line and Verizon DSL. I also have a Verizon cell phone, but even though everything is on one bill, I was told a few years ago by the Verizon DSL customer service that the cell phone didn’t help prove that I was a dedicated Verizon customer.

I inquired about other options on Facebook, and I looked at some websites (geez, Comcast– I could not easily find out how to get the simplest cheapest cable internet on your website). I finally called Verizon to see if I was obligated to remain on their DSL for any set period of time– I’ve had it since 2002, but to get lower prices, you have to sign up for x amount of years.   I shouldn’t admit this, but my bill records are a bit sloppy, and I wasn’t sure. However, when the customer service rep told me that I signed up for “Price for Life” on September 1, 2009 (which obligated me to two more years at $29.99 (September 2011!) and then after that I would ALWAYS have that rate– a “PRICE FOR LIFE”) I was confused. That’s only a few months ago, and I didn’t recall signing up for it then– but I did remember signing up for a Price for Life a while ago. She said they have only had the “Price for Life” a few months, so that wasn’t possible. After dropping a bunch of things on my land line (which reduces my phone bill by more than $15 a month), I hung up and wondered about this “Price for Life” business. If I signed up for it in 2007, then maybe I had fulfilled my obligation on September 1, 2009. I called back and spoke to a DSL rep, and found out that this was the case– I signed up 9/1/07 and as of 9/1/09, am no longer obligated to Verizon, but will have $29.99/ month DSL for life. A PRICE FOR LIFE. Even with Clear Internet or Dry Loop DSL options, I decided that sticking with our land line and the $29.99/month DSL was a decent deal.

And then yesterday, a manager from Verizon called me to explain that PRICE FOR LIFE does not mean FOR LIFE. It means “until Verizon decides to raise the price.” I didn’t realize “Price for Life” had an asterisk behind it.

HUH???

I asked for this in writing. She said she had no way of mailing or emailing me anything. The manager understood how ridiculous calling something “Price for Life” when it is not for LIFE is… she said every customer she explains this too has the same disbelief.

If they do raise the price, I will supposedly get an email to my verizon email, that I do not use. I requested it be sent to the account I do use, but she couldn’t guarantee that it would be delivered there. I will have to keep an eye on it.

I let her know that I had researched other options. I do not need a land line. I have other options. I am not obligated to Verizon in any way. And that if they raise the price, I will leave. I am not the one that called it “Price for Life”. Verizon did. And if they can’t stand behind it, I will leave. And I’m free to leave even if they don’t raise the price. So, if you have any recommendations for Internet service, let me know!

I found it slightly ironic that she called on the day I decided to be my Computer-Free day. I think I need to spend one day a week not looking at the computer at all. I did that yesterday, and hope to do one next week too. And I hope to decrease my overall time spent on the computer. So, it’s time to sign off now.