Valentine's Tea and Baking Cookies

Yesterday was the annual "Valentines Tea" at my local Stroke Recovery Association. I was so excited about it. I was into making goodies for the bake sale, I donated materials for the silent auction, I took a turn selling tickets for an upcoming ticket draw for some really nice jewelery. I worked hard on convincing my stroke affected friends and their families that they should come. The tea was a great success and we had a lot of fun. The weather was mild, at least for here, and we had a really good turnout.

The thing that mattered the most to me was the fact that the girls from the Girl Guides of Canada groups I am associated came to help serve tea and the sandwiches and dainties. We had 2 young adults and 7 girls between the ages of 12 and 16 volunteered to help and they were absolutely awesome! I was so very proud of them.

It was kind of strange to combine the two charities that I am involved with but the girls felt great about helping and the people attending the tea commented over and over what wonderful hard working girls were serving the tea.

The treats I made were a success too. Baking is one of the things I have struggled with and I really have had to work hard on getting my skills back. Baking involves measuring and using numbers, it involves remembering what you have already added and it requires remembering that you put it in the oven and not letting it burn to a smokey crisp.

I have made "peanut blossom" cookie several times and I am starting to get a routine worked out at least for this kind of cookie.

I saw the link for these cookies with a heart shaped chocolate instead of a Hershey Kiss and I though that was perfect for a Valentine's Day tea. I will confess the first batch was left in the oven long enough that they weren't fit to use, but the second day I got more chocolates, tried again and didn't leave the kitchen for the 10 minutes they need to bake.

The cookie recipe and the picture above is from eighteen25.blogspot.com.
I love their blog-- it makes me feel like cooking and crafting.