The Barn

I remember going down to my grandparent’s barn to clean out the horse’s stalls and although it was a dirty job I loved being around the horses and the country feeling. Everywhere you look is a story, from the Exxon sign to the hanging horse shoes. As the years have gone by the barn has grown older and dirtier but I will never grow tired of this beautiful place. I hope the memories of this place never fade away!

Valentines Almanac

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Neapolitan Valentine Treat

 

Today I’d like to share with you a recipe I found on this blog. This is a perfect, delicious shortcake cookie for a Valentine Treat… Enjoy!

What You’ll Need:

– 1 cup of unsalted butter
– 1/2 cup of sugar
– 1 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
– 1/2 teaspoon of Almond Extract
– 1/4 teaspoon of salt
– 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
– Pink or Red food coloring
– 2 1/2 tablespoons of Cocoa Powder
– 1 large egg
– 1 tablespoon of water

Add sugar and butter to a bowl and cream well with a mixer… Then add vanilla extract and almond extract. Mix. Now add the flour and salt, mix on low.

The dough should be a bit crumbly so knead it together to ensure that it doesn’t fall apart. Then separate into three equally divided balls of dough

Place one of the balls of dough in a bowl and add the cocoa powder, use a mixer to blend these together to make the brown colored dough, or you can also knead the cocoa powder and dough together to make this mixture.

Add another portion of dough to a bowl and add a few drops of pink food coloring, blend together with a mixer and you have your pink colored dough!

Take each color of dough and place it between two pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap and roll it to a thickness of about 3/8 inch

Use  a ruler and sharp knife to cut the dough into 3/4 inch wide strips and refrigerate for about 20 minutes. While the dough is refrigerating whisk together the egg and water .

Lay a large piece of wax paper out and spread egg and water mixture on a small strip of the wax paper before placing a strip of brown dough on it. Then repeat with pink and white strips using the egg mixture as a “glue”… continue process till you have a large striped dough pattern. Finally take a heart cookie cutter and cut  hearts out of the pattern.

Pre-Heat oven to 350 degrees and cook for 8-10 minutes and you have yourself a very tasty Valentine treat!