Best Valentine Butter Cookies - EVER! Seriously!

I'm nibbling on one of these delectable little nuggets as I type this (well, the crumbs are falling onto the keyboard - I'll just send the dog in to lick it up in a sec ;)

If you like butter (and who in their sane mind doesn't??) - you'll salivate at these!  I'm serrrr-eeeee-aaassss!

I thought on first glance they were just another sugar cookie, but oh no - more like a shortbread cookie.  I've made 3 batches of these bad boys.  Planned to make just 2, but then I tasted one, and it was all over from there.

They call for lemon zest, which I didn't have - so I substituted lemon extract.  The lemon gives just the right amount of zing to them - you'll die!

You can find the recipe on the February 2010 issue of Southern Living - or just click HERE.

So, I also decided that my kids weren't going to school on Monday with store bought little paper valentines from the drug store (which I'm beginning to think they would have preferred!) - so we (which means "me" actually!  kids only remotely supervised this project, which doesn't really make it "their" project, now does it?  dummy me - they could have written their names on the paper ones and been just as happy, but oh, no!  "Crafty Mom" decided that they needed something a little "different!" o well.) made these little fortune cookie valentines from felt circles.  They have cute little sayings in them like:

"I'm so fortune-ate to have you as a friend"

and "Hugs, Kisses, and Best Wishes"

and "Give me all your candy or I"ll kick you in the knees" (oops! not that one, really.)

I followed the link from Martha Stewart HERE.

I found it a little hard to keep the candies inside, so I ended up hot glueing the edges shut in a few places.  

All in all, I think they turned out pretty darn cute!  

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!