Happy Valentine's Day!

Since I (Julie) will be out of the country on Valentine's Day, I decided to make some cookies now to put in the freezer. I used a recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook - so easy, but I really like the way these turn out.

Soft No-Roll Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup oil
• 2 T. milk
• 1 T. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 4 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1. In a large bowl, beat 1 cup granulated sugar, powdered sugar, butter, oil, milk, vanilla, and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Stir in flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours or until firm.
2. Heat over to 350*.
3. Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place 1/2 cup granulated sugar in a small bowl. Roll balls in sugar. On ungreased cookie sheet, place balls about 3 inches apart. Press bottom of drinking glass on each ball until about 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle each cookie with a little additional sugar.
4. Bake 13 to 15 minutes of until set and edges just begin to turn brown. Immediately remove from cookies sheet to wire rack.

**Valentine's Day variation: instead of rolling balls in granulated sugar, roll in a mixture of sugar and red and pink sugar sprinkles. If you don't have pink sprinkles, put some sugar in the blender or food processor with a drop or two of red food coloring and process until blended. The sugar will be more like powdered sugar, which gives a nice light pink color to the cookies. Before baking, press a small heart cookie cutter onto the cookies.