There are all kinds of quick and easy cookie recipes out there that are great to make with your kids for Valentine’s Day. Here are some of my favorite cookies that come out of the oven tinted a nice loving pink!

Pink Pillows

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Strawberry Flavor NESTLE NESQUIK Powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Preheat oven to 375º F.

Combine flour, salt and baking soda in small bowl. Beat butter, sugar, Nesquik and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 2 dozen.

Sweetie Pies

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1 (21-ounce) can cherry filling and topping
1 teaspoon almond extract

Put butter, cream cheese and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add flour and pecans; mix well. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Press balls evenly into the bottom and up the sides of 1-3/4- x 1-inch miniature muffin cups.

Combine cherry filling and almond extract. Spoon about 1 tablespoon cherry mixture into each pastry-lined cup.

Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool in pans 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 2 dozen.

Here is another great recipe. Even the youngest of kids can put their thumbprint into a cookie and help out with this one!
Maraschino Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
2 (10-ounce) jars maraschino cherries
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 baking powder
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons milk
Drain maraschino cherries, reserving 1 teaspoon juice. Combine flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl; mix well.
Put butter and sugar in medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed 3 to 4 minutes, or until well blended. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Add flour mixture; mix well.
Put chocolate chips and milk in a small saucepan. Heat, stirring constantly, over low heat until chocolate melts. Stir in reserve maraschino cherry juice. Let cool slightly.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased baking pan. Push in centers with thumb; spoon 1 teaspoon chocolate mixture into each thumbprint and top with a cherry.

Bake in 350*F oven 10 to 12 minutes, or until cookies are firm. Remove to wire racks. Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

All of these recipes are really easy to make!

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My last blog inspired me to look up recipes for Pink foods. I have tried quite a few out on the kids and especially my small daughter who is obsessed with the color pink.

Here are some good recipes that will tickle your children’s fancy!

Pink Potato Salad
6-8 medium potatoes, boiled
1 red onion, diced
1/4 c. dill pickle relish
2 boiled eggs (if desired)
3/4 c. Hellman’s mayonnaise
1/2 c. Catalina dressing

Several hours before serving, boil potatoes in salted water until fork tender. Drain and cool slightly, then peel and slice.
Pour Catalina dressing over warm potato slices coating slices well. Allow to marinate in the refrigerator until cold. Add onion, pickle relish, boiled eggs and mayonnaise. Mix well and serve.

My kids go gaga for this dessert.

Pink Fluff
2 small boxes Raspberry Jell-O
1 large can crushed pineapple, drained
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, room temperature
1 9 oz tub Cool Whip
1/2 cup chopped pecans or nuts
Dissolve Jell-O in 2 cups boiling water.
In a blender, combine Jell-O and cream cheese. Refrigerate until the mixture has thickened slightly.
Stir in the pineapple and nuts. Fold in the Cool Whip.
Rinse a silicone mold with cold water and shake out excess water (do not dry).

Transfer mixture to the mold and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
When ready to serve, dip the outside of mold into hot water for a few seconds to release. Run a butter knife along the edge to loosen the gel from the mold. Flip over onto a dish and serve.

The following recipe is the party version of the drink but I serve it to my kids all the time. I don’t always add the soda water. The point is that the frozen strawberries make it nice and pink and add this really yummy sweet kick to the whole thing.

Pink Punch
6 (6 oz.) cans frozen pink lemonade concentrate, partially thawed
6 pkgs. frozen strawberries, partly thawed
6 (6 oz.) cans frozen orange juice concentrate
8 qts. ginger ale
4 qts. soda water
Ice

In each of two large punch bowls, combine half of each ingredient. Stir until frozen, lemonade and strawberries soften and break up. Add ice and serve.

I find making fun pink drinks like this is a good way of getting the kids to take their vitamin C!

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Ever since that Pepto Bismol commercial has come on talking about Cherryaki my kids have been asking me to make them Chicken Cherryaki!!
This is not a fictional food. After a little surfing on the Internet I managed to find a great recipe for this kid pleasing dish which includes cherries!
CHICKEN CHERRYAKI
2 pkg. Lipton Onion Soup Mix
2 cans cranberry sauce
2 bottles (8 oz.) Catalina dressing
8 to 10 chicken breasts
2 cans dark, sweet, pitted cherries (drained)
Mix top 3 ingredients together. Place some mixture in bottom of large Pyrex dish. Place chicken breasts on top of mixture and cover with remaining mixture. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 2 hour.
When done, place chicken and sauce on regular or wild rice. Heat cherries a sauce pot, drain of extra juice and spoon on top of chicken.
I know it sounds high sodium and tacky and all that but it was absolutely delicious. My kids loved it too, possibly because it was the color pink. It certainly gave the impression of being a fun food.\
That was the fun version. I found another version that is a little healthier, more Asian in appearance that would make an impressive dish to serve guests.
The sweet, yet tart flavor of fresh cherries, makes them a wonderful addition to this stir-fry meal.
Makes 4 servings.
Here is an even fancier version that is appeals more to adult palates.
Asian Chicken Cherryaki
4 tablespoons (60 ml) Teriyaki sauce (available in any supermarket)
1 tablespoon (15 ml) sesame oil
1 tablespoon (15 ml) grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon (15 ml) cooking sherry
1/2 tablespoon (7.5 ml) fresh lime juice
.75 pound (.35 kilograms) pork*, cubed
1/2 tablespoon (7.5 ml) vegetable oil
1 small white onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups whole cherries, pits removed
1-14 oz (398ml) can miniature corn cobs
1 cup snow peas
1 cup sliced red pepper
1 cup (250 ml) chicken broth
1 tablespoon (15 ml) corn starch
2 green onions, chopped (optional)
Combine first 5 ingredients and mix well. Add pork cubes. Set in fridge to marinate.
Prepare cherries, corn, snow peas and red pepper. Heat vegetable oil in wok or large saucepan on medium. Add onion and garlic. Heat for 1-2 minutes to soften slightly. Add pork marinade mixture and cook for 5 minutes. Increase the heat, add snow peas and red pepper.
Cook for 1-2 minutes. In small bowl, stir cornstarch into chicken broth until dissolved. Add to wok, cooking for 2 minutes until sauce begins to thicken. Add cherries and corn and cook until warm. Remove from heat. Garnish with chopped green onion.
To make it fancy for guests serve it over angel hair pasta! In fact this could be a great food for Valentine’s Day.

There is a lot of information out there about the plague but we forget that during this time of year other flus exist as well. There are so many types that it can get confusing. I thought you moms out there might appreciate this primer on the flu bug itself.
In terms of classification of the various different types of virus that we have so far isolated, influenza is what is known as an RNA virus, meaning that the virus itself is primarily made up of different variations of ribonucleic acid. Because there are different forms of RNA at the ‘core’ of the influenza virus, there are three different classifications:
• Influenza virus A;
• Influenza virus B;
• Influenza virus C.
Influenza virus A is the one that causes the most severe disease as it is an extremely virulent human pathogen. A huge variety of influenza virus A strains are naturally hosted by wild aquatic birds, and the genus is subdivided into many different individual strains, with all known flu pandemics having been caused by a variation of the influenza virus A genus.
Each variation of the virus A genus is identified by its reaction to antibodies, and many variations are seen more than once in a slightly modified form.
For example, the H1N1 ‘swine flu’ variety that was first identified in early 2009 was in fact a variation of the same strain as that which caused the infamous Spanish flu outbreak in 1918 that was notable for killing millions of otherwise healthy young adults all over the world. The Asian flu pandemic that originated in China in 1956 was H2N2, whereas the Hong Kong flu pandemic of the late 1960s was the H3N2 strain of the virus A genus.
Unlike the virus A genus, influenza virus B is almost exclusively limited to humans, meaning that there is no relationship between the infection and birds and pigs as there is with the virus A genus. Because there is little inter-reaction between the flu viruses carried by humans and other creatures, virus B influenza very rarely evolves or mutates, meaning that most people develop a degree of immunity to this particular form of influenza at a relatively young age.
Influenza virus C does however have the ability to cross from humans to animals (and vice versa), specifically to and from dogs and pigs. Consequently, virus C variants can cause serious illness and also local epidemics, although the only influenza genus that is known to have the ability to become a pandemic are variations of the A genus.
For reasons that are not fully understood, the most common forms of flu tend to be seasonal, with most people suffering ‘ordinary’ seasonal influenza during the winter months. Despite what you may have heard this type of flu is actually more virulent than other forms, including the bird flu!!!