I am interrupting your regularly scheduled Italy recaps to bring you a recipe.

And it’s not just any recipe, it’s a Valentine’s Day recipe!

Yep. You heard that right. For once and maybe the last time so don’t get used to it I am attempting to be a good food blogger and give you a seasonal recipe. How people are on top of it enough to start giving you football food recipes a month in advance of the super bowl is beyond me, teach me your ways! So lets just start with this admittedly anytime cookie recipe that I have dressed up in pink and red thus qualifying it as a Valentine’s Day treat and agree that I’ll work on it. Ok?

Full disclosure: I kind of love Valentine’s Day. First of all, I’m a sucker for greeting cards so that makes me a fan by default, but there’s more to it than that. There are so many Valentine’s Day haters out there that it’s easy to jump on the anti hallmark bandwagon, but I refuse. I mean really, who can honestly say that they hate love?  Maybe you hate being single on Valentine’s Day, but you can celebrate any kind of love, and you should! Even if you are significant other-less, Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse to drink wine and eat chocolate with your friends! Heck, treat yourself to a fancy dinner with your best friend, or your mom! I mean, you love her too right? So why not celebrate it! There is more than enough hatred and criticism to go around on this earth. When given the chance to celebrate love and pass out cheeky conversation hearts, take it!

I’ve shared before that my mother-in-law is big into holiday celebrations and she definitely doesn’t leave out Valentine’s Day. She LOVES love and hearts and she always made Valentine’s Day a special day for Robert and his sister to look forward to growing  up. She made them a special breakfast on special red china and had the whole table decorated with hearts and chocolates and goodies for them to find when they woke up. My sister-in-law has passed down the tradition and she and my mother-in-law decorate just as fervently for my niece and nephew! It’s a fun tradition that I plan to keep in my own household if Robert and I become parents someday.

Someday. No immediate plans to further populate our household, so for now, we’ll just stick to celebrating our love for each other, and for delicious almond lace cookies 🙂

Happy Early Valentine’s Day! ❤

Almond Lace Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Sliced Almonds (NOT slivered!)

1/2 Cup of All Purpose Flour

1/2 Cup Sugar

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Baking Powder

Dash of Salt

1/4 Cup Butter, Melted

2 tbsp Honey

2 tbsp Milk (I used skim)

1 tsp Almond Extract

*Optional*

Melted White Chocolate or holiday colored Almond Bark (I melted down pink and red V-Day chocolate pops from a friend) and holiday colored Sprinkles

Directions:

1. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or other non-stick baking sheet, this is important because these cookies are THIN. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine your dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, Flour, Sugar, Cinnamon, Baking Powder, Salt and Almonds. Mix well.
3. In a second bowl, combine your wet ingredients, melted Butter, Honey, Milk and Almond Extract. Mix until Smooth.
4. Incorporate your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients, mix well.
5. Drop batter onto your baking sheet by the teaspoon full, making sure to leave plenty of space in between the cookies (they spread!).
6. Bake for 8 minutes, allow to cool for several minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining batter.
7. If using chocolate and sprinkles, melt your chocolate/almond bark in a microwave safe bowl at 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted completely. Once cookies are cooled completely, dip half of them into the melted chocolate and add sprinkles. Allow to cool on wax paper. Store in an airtight container or share immediately with your sweet heart!