<p>Now I feel like I need to do some emergency baking or something. I just sent a Starbucks gift card inside a Valentine’s card that wasn’t mushy enough to make son grimace. However, I took his grandma shopping for boxed goodies and got them mailed for her, so I’m taking credit for that stuff, too.</p>
<p>My 16 yr old daughter here at home will be expecting something a little more special.</p>
<p>LIMOM - You do bake the cookies after you put the frosting on. Also, make sure the cherries are well drained before you put them in the cookies.</p>
<p>Patient - I also think See’s is the greatest. When I visited my son at his new apartment in California this fall, I bought some See’s to send my daughter in China for her October birthday. She loved it. I also bought a second box of See’s into work after that trip and one of my colleagues who grew up on the West Coast was totally surprised and happy to see the See’s 
No one else I work with had ever heard of it before, but they loved it too!</p>
<p>And … a little off topic … my daughter also received the famous pumpkin bread (which I know is one of your favorites too) for Thanksgiving in China :)</p>
<p>Thanks MotherofTwo. I just wasn’t sure and figured I’d better find out before I messed up the recipe. Thanks also for the warning about making sure the cherries are well-drained. I will definitely give it a try and let you know how they turned out. Since my kids are both still at home, I will probably bake them on Valentine’s Day.</p>
<p>S is in Canada. This past week I sent homemade cookies, Valentine’s boxers and rice (his choice!) for Valentine’s Day. (I have always given my kids Valentine underwear.)
I also sent a Chinese New Year’s card with some $$ in another mailing. Both went USPS first class. They both got there in <2 days!!
MY last package to him was sent before Thanksgiving and he didn’t get it until the week after New Years! I think the fact fact that the recent package had cookies in it made it coast through customs.
PS re:^^Chambord above. You can’t send liquids through USPS.</p>
<p>It’s good to know about the USPS shipping info as I am the procrastinating mom of the year. I will be trying to make the cherry cookies tonite & mailing them with a card tomorrow!! (So no need for any of you all feeling guilty, I win at being the worst mom!)</p>
<p>I am not a big care package person usually either - it’s just that the cookies were such a hit last year that I decided to do it again this year!</p>
<p>Just ordered some flowers for the daughter. Low calorie and only a few clicks.</p>
<p>wish me luck, i’m rolling up the sleeves and going in (to bake!!!) And if she likes them I’ll give her the recipe as she has her own damn kitchen at her off campus housing but only knows how to boil water :D</p>
<p>OOPS!!! I went back to check my recipe, with all of the comments it’s been getting, and I noticed that I omitted a line. This is the corrected version:</p>
<p>Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies</p>
<p>1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 16 oz jar maraschino cherries (about 48) (recipe says 10 oz jar, but that is too few cherries)
6 oz semisweet chocolate pieces
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk</p>
<p>In large bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
In mixer bowl, beat together butter or margarine and sugar on low speed of electric mixer until fluffy.
ADD EGG AND VANILLA AND BEAT WELL.
Gradually add dry ingredients and beat until well blended.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
Press down center of dough with thumb.
Drain cherries well and reserve juice - Place one cherry in center of each cookie.
In small saucepan, combine chocolate pieces and sweetened condensed milk, and heat until chocolate is mleted. Stir in 4 teaspoons of reserved cherry juice.
Spoon about 1 teaspoon frosting over each cherry, spreading to cover cherry.
(Frosting may be thinned with additional cherry juice if necessary)
Bake in a 350 degree oven about 10 minutes or until done.
Cool on wire rack.
Makes 48.</p>
<p>These are not the easiest cookies to make, but they are festive for Valentine’s day and very good! Good luck!</p>
<p>yikes what the h changed? i already shopped for all the ingredients! whew, okay the ingredients didnt change…thank you & i’ll let you know how i do!</p>
<p>Just forgot the mixing in of egg and vanilla when I copied it!</p>
<p>OK, so the recipe was a success! I just made the cookies a little too big and had to cook them a little longer, but I know she’ll love em as she is a maraschino cherry nut. Thanks Mo2, I know she’ll appreciate it!</p>
<p>MotherofTwo, sorry I know I owe you an email. I’ve been so busy, what with work and politics :). Sorry!</p>
<p>I have tried every French or Swiss chocolate around (Godiva, not really French any more; Neuhaus; some other one they have at Stanford Shopping Center) and I always come back to See’s. Plus, it’s the tradition: heart boxes at Valentine’s, the Easter Egg box at Easter, the turkey at Thanksgiving, and as many boxes and chocolate Santas as possible at Christmas :). </p>
<p>It is now available at most airports around the country if anyone hasn’t yet tried it, although probably not as good as when you hand-pick the chocolates to put into the box at the store. Scotchmallow, Bordeaux, mocha, cashew brittle, caramel, yum yum yum.</p>
<p>Godiva is made by Campbell’s Soup. Was never French. Friend was a Campbell’s executive. Sort of the Haagen Daz (not foreign in any way) of chocolate.</p>
<p>Well, my kids are getting homemade frosted sugar cookies and chocolate-cinnamon scones, all heart-shaped of course! I’ll pack the box with all the Valentine’s Day colored chocolates to buffer the baked goods. They know I’m crazy, but if I forgot, they’d notice…or at least I hope they would!</p>
<p>Godiva was never French, but it was definitely Belgian.</p>
<p>How do you package cookies to ensure they are fresh and not broken up? I am not a baker but might give it a try.</p>
<p>I stuff (pack almost too many) cookies in those plastic containers from takeout restaurant meals. There is no room for shifting and breaking. They go in an appropriately sized Amazon or shoe box, USPS priority.</p>
<p>If you put them in a plastic food storage container in layers ,and then put bubble wrap or other packing around the storage container in the mailing box so it fits tightly, the cookies will not break. For the frosted cookies, I put parchment paper (or wax paper) between the layers, but for Tollhouse, I just put the layers with nothing in between. If there is extra room at the top inside the storage container, fill the space with folded paper towels or something like that. I tell the post office to mark them Fragile and Perishable, but I don’t think that really does anything except make me feel better. Priority mail arrives very quickly even cross country and costs much less than Express.</p>
<p>Edit - Cross posted with Mominva. I use the inexpensive Glad food storage containers from the grocery store which are meant to be disposable (as opposed to the more expensive Rubbermaid which are not meant to be disposable).</p>
<p>I also use the Chinese takeout boxes, after scrubbing out the garlic :eek: Between the layers of cookies I use wax paper, and also little scrunched balls of wax or tissue paper in gaps. Fudge ships very well, easy to make and stays fresh longer than cookies. My last shipment was double chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge and peppermint fudge.</p>