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A Hexie Turtle Valentine

A Hexie Turtle Valentine

Hello Everyone!

1a. Hello Everyone

We’re the Hexie Turtles! And we’re here to tell you about what we did to get ready for Valentine’s Day.

Well… actually I’m going to tell the story because Sue made me first, so that makes me the oldest. Lanie is next oldest. She’s my BFF. And then Rexie is youngest. He’s my other BFF.

Sue was super busy this week working on things at the sewing machine. We get a bird’s eye view of everything she does from up on the sewing room bookshelf where we live.

Just look at those cool chef hats Sue made for us!

And if she made us chef hats, you know that means we’re going to be doing something in the kitchen.

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In the after Christmas sales, Sue bought a set of cookie cutters for making Linzer Cookies. Yesterday, she looked through all her cookbooks (she has an entire cupboard of cookbooks) but couldn’t find any recipes for Linzer Cookies. So she googled it.

The Hexie Turtles reading the recipe on the phone

We wanted to see how she did each step, so she measured everything out into bowls.

Ingredients for Linzer cookies all measured out

Then she got out the old cake taker so that we could sit up high and watch her mix everything together.

3. Turtle up on cake taker

First, she creamed the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a big bowl.

Cream together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla

Then she mixed the spices, salt and baking powder into the flour. After that she added the ground almonds.

Photo collage of mixing and adding the dry ingredientsWhile she was mixing the first half of the flour mixture into the creamed butter mixture…

Rexie’s hat fell off!!

Oops Rexies hat fell off

He said it was because I pushed him but I didn’t, honest!

I was just trying to get a closer look at what Sue was doing.

And then Sue did something really funny.

The spoon wasn’t getting everything mixed together, so she stuck her hand in the bowl and starting working the flour into the dough.

Sometimes hands are the best mixing tools.

Sue said that sometimes hands are the best tools for the job.

When it was all mixed together and you couldn’t see anymore flour, she divided the dough in half and wrapped it in plastic.

Divide dough in half and wrap

Dave commented that she couldn’t really say that she’d divided them in half because one was bigger than the other.

Sue told him not to be a smart aleck. That made us giggle!

And then Sue told us that the dough had to chill in the fridge for 2 hours.

Do you know how long 2 hours is??

It’s 120 minutes!

What were we going to do for that many minutes?

But Dave and Sue had already planned for that.

When Sue and Dave were little like us…

Yes, I know it’s hard to believe that they were once little but they say they were so it must be true.

Anyway, they said they used to decorate tissue boxes for their friends to put all their Valentine’s cards in.

You can’t buy turtle sized tissue boxes, so Dave made some for us. He even cut slots to put the cards through.

Tiny boxes for Valentines

Then Sue and Dave wrapped them in white printer paper and Sue wrote our names on them.

12. Tiny white wrapped boxes for Valentines

Then it was time to decorate them. Sue had cut out paper hearts and bought us lots of stickers.

Getting ready to decorate the boxes

Dave helped Rexie while Sue helped Lanie and me.

Dave helps Rexie decorate his box

Aren’t our Valentine’s boxes pretty!

All the boxes decorated

With the rest of the hearts and stickers, we made Valentine’s cards for each other and all our turtle friends.

Photo Collage of the Hexie Turtle making Valentine's cardsTeeheehee… Lanie had a little trouble with her tape.

Lanie gets tangled in the tapeClose up of Lanie tangled in the tape

The timer went off just as Sue finished getting Lanie untaped!

It was finally time to roll out the dough and cut the cookies.

Dave likes rolling and cutting cookies so he took over from Sue.

He showed us a neat way to make sure the the dough gets rolled out to 1/4″ inch thick.

You put a chopstick on either side of the dough. When the rolling pin starts rolling on the chopsticks, the dough is the right thickness.

Dave's shows a neat trick for rolling the dough evenly

Finally time to roll the cookies

We each got a turn using the cookie cutter. I got to go first!

Lexie gets to use the cookie cutter

The cookie trays are lined with the silpats (<- affiliate link) that Dave bought Sue for Christmas. That keeps the cookies from sticking to the pan.

The Hexie Turtles checking out the tray.

We wanted to stay and help Dave cutting and baking the cookies but Sue said each batch would take 11 minutes to bake and then they would have to cool before we could put them all together.

They wouldn’t be ready until after naptime!

She carried us upstairs and wrapped us in the quilts she made for us.

The Hexie Turtles wrapped in their quilts for naptime

When we woke up, the cookies were out of the oven and cool enough for the next step!

Cookies cooled and ready to put together

Lanie tried to help with the icing sugar sprinkler thingie but she knocked it over and the lid came off.

 Lanie tried to help with the icing sugar

Icing sugar sure is messy stuff. Sue even got some on us when she was sprinkling it on the cookie tops.

Oh oh icing sugar on turtles

Once all the cookie tops had icing sugar sprinkled on them, it was time to put the cookies together.

Sue spread the bottoms with jam. Then she put a top on each bottom.

Photo Collage of putting the cookies togetherDon’t they look yummy!

Sue had another surprise for us.

A tea party!

Time for a tea party

The cut out hearts were the perfect size for little turtles like us.

Rexie saw Sue dunking her cookie in her tea. (Sue has to be careful not to eat too much gluten but can have the occasional treat.)

Rexie decided to try dunking his cookie.

Rexie dunking his cookie in tea

He said it was really good, so Lanie and I dunked our cookies too.

34. All the turtles dunking their cookies in their tea

He was right. That made them really yummy!

Rexie, Lanie and I (and Sue and Dave) hope you had as much fun getting ready for Valentine’s Day as we did!

For the cookie recipe, click on the link below.

Snow Storm Linzer Cookies

 

 

Scroll down for a final note from Sue!

 

 

 

 

 

Just like on Valentine’s Day when our kids were little, in addition to the cards they made each other, Dave and I had little surprises for Lexie, Rexie and Lanie when they came downstairs this morning.

We made them each a card and a small bundle of candy.

A surprise for the turtles on Sunday morning

There’s even a new story book for us to read them at bedtime.

 

More Hexie Turtle stories can be found by clicking on the links below:

The Hexie Turtles’ Snow Adventure

The Hexie Turtle’s Cookie Baking Adventure

Teeny, Tiny Turtle Quilts

The Hexie Turtles’ Christmas Eve

There’s a clue in that last photo to a new Hexie Turtle story that’s in the planning stages.

 

 

 

If you’d like to save A Hexie Turtle Valentine to read to your little ones in the future please click on the Pinterest button underneath this post.

And of course, the Hexie Turtles and I would love it if you share our story on Facebook and Twitter as well. 🙂

Collage photo - top photo of the Hexie Turtles with their decorates Valentine's boxes and bottom photo of them dunking their Snow Storm Linzer Cookies in a white trough of tea

 

 

This post contains affiliate links. For more information please check my Disclosures and Disclaimers page.

I would be so pleased if you chose to share by clicking on one of the buttons below!

9 Comments

  • Susan
    February 15, 2016 3:55 pm

    Wonderful looking cookies! My boys are such cookie pigs, those would be gone in 20 minutes or maybe even less time! I liked the substitutions you made, because I’m not crazy about hazelnuts anyway. Thanks for the tip on rolling dough to exactly the 1/4″ needed!

  • Susan
    February 15, 2016 3:53 pm

    Is someone having a baby? Maybe Nexie? =)

  • MA
    February 14, 2016 11:31 pm

    NOW I understand the chef’s hats – I should have guessed!! Looks like everyone had a grand time (and please tell Dave he’s a good sport!!). Happy Sweetheart’s Day to all.

  • Susan
    February 15, 2016 12:08 am

    I was wondering what those little chef hats were for! Now I know. So cute!

  • Mary
    February 14, 2016 3:58 pm

    LOVE those little chef hats!!! How did they stay so clean in the kitchen? I think they need aprons too.

  • Sharon
    February 14, 2016 1:54 pm

    I love the turtle stories. I see the book. I’m impatiently waiting for the story to accompany the book. My daughter informed us when we told her about the new baby in our life, she thought she was getting a stereo. Nine year olds! She got the stereo five years later!

  • Jackie Hale
    February 14, 2016 10:57 am

    I love Linzer cookies! Thank you for the recipe and the great ‘Hexie Turtle Valentine’ story.

  • Rachel
    February 14, 2016 6:34 am

    And now I’ve seen the final result, it sounds as though Linzer cookies are a rather nicer version of what we called Jammy Dodgers when I was a child!

  • Rachel
    February 14, 2016 6:29 am

    I’m sure the supervision assisted the cook!

Comments are closed.