Happy Valentine's Day!

We sure had fun making sugar cookies this past week--and we ate the last two this morning. Perfect timing. My little honey sure had fun making the frosting--and then of course frosting his own cookie. He would frost some, take a bite, frost some more, take another bite, etc. Anytime he thinks I am making anything, he asks to sit on the counter or says "I want to help you!" I sure do love this boy!

If you want to see more fun pictures of motherhood, or add your own, go here:

Donuts and more

Here is a delicious looking cake donut recipe.

I have an obsession with the idea of making donuts. I've never actually made them--I was completely planning to for Halloween this year but I was starting to experience the nausea phase of pregnancy and things that were really sweet I just couldn't handle...so we didn't make them. But I love these ones because you can bake them instead of fry them in oil! Someday. Someday I will make donuts and they will be amazing! :)

Also, go here to watch a video showing how to make Venetian Chocolate Amaretto Crepes. These look so delicious to me.

Crepes:

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp almond extract

Method:

Stir together flour and cocoa, mixing well. Set aside. Whisk together eggs, milk, sugar butter, and almond extract. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, whisking until smooth.

Pre-heat omelette pan over medium heat, when hot, pour in about 3 tbsp batter. Swirl to evenly coat pan. Cook until crepe has a dull finish. Carefully loosen edges then remove to a plate lined with paper towels. Repeat. And cool.

Makes 18-20 crepes

Perugina Italian Chocolate Sauce:

Ingredients:

• 3.5 oz bar Perugina Dark Chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1/2 cup whipping cream

Method:

In small saucepan heat cream to almost boiling.
Remove from heat and add chocolate pieces.
Stir until smooth.

Makes about 3/4 cup



Additional ingredients:
Pistachio Gelato
Belgian Milk Chocolate Gelato
Double Dark Chocolate Gelato
Fresh Raspberries
Chopped roasted and Salted Pistachios
Cocoa and powdered Sugar for Dusting


To assemble:
Fill each crepe with 1 small scoop of each gelato, fold to close in a triangle shape if desired.
Place on a plate drizzled with chocolate sauce.
Place crepe on top. Sprinkle with chopped pistachios and fresh raspberries.
Dust with sugars if desired.
Serve Immediately

Be Mine

If you're still looking for some ideas for Valentine's Day...here are some more great ones!


How fun would it be to make personalized snowglobes! I love this great idea! You can go here for full instructions, including a video.
Homemade Circus Animal cookies!! Of course for Valentine's day, I would probably do heart shapes instead of circus animals...

I love this envelope! How fun would it be to put a coupon for something special in each pocket?


I love this Valentine yahtzee game! How fun would that be for a family activity? Or even just something a little different for you and your sweetheart!

I love this as a garland! This is made of fabric--check it out here.

I have seen this idea in a few different places, including Martha Stewart, but this image and instructions come from here. I can't wait to make crayon hearts to hang in our windows!

Valentines Galore

I love this fun, easy way to make a candy dish a little more elegant? Check it out here.

I really like this idea! You could again do a countdown until the day, or give it all at once...how personal and sweet at the same time!

Brie and Strawberry Pastry with Chocolate Sauce

I've never had brie cheese before. But this looks so beautifully yummy--I might even attempt it despite my allergy to strawberries. Sometimes it's just worth it.

Brie Cheese & Strawberry Puff Pastry "Ravioli" & Chocolate Sauce

Ravioli:
1 sheet store-bought puff pastry, defrosted
Flour for dusting
2 oz. Brie cheese, chilled
2 medium-sized strawberries, cut into eighths
1 egg white
2 tsp water
2 tbsp turbinado sugar (such as Sugar in the Raw)

Chocolate Sauce:
½ cup heavy cream
2 oz. high-quality bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate, finely chopped
1 ½ oz. high-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Ravioli:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

On a surface lightly dusted with flour, roll the puff pastry sheet into a 12-inch square. Cut the sheet in half to form two rectangles.

Thinly slice the Brie cheese and cut each piece into thirds crosswise for a total of 8 squares. Lay the Brie cheese pieces at even intervals on one rectangle of puff pastry. Top each piece of Brie with two strawberry pieces. Cover with the other puff pastry rectangle and, using your hands, gently press the top puff pastry sheet to form loosely around each cheese/strawberry mound. Using a handheld circle ravioli cutter or a knife, cut around each mound to form eight “ravioli”.

Using a small metal spatula, lift the ravioli onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them evenly. With a small sharp knife, cut two small slits in the ravioli to release steam while cooking.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg white and water and brush the surface of the ravioli with the mixture. Sprinkle turbinado sugar evenly over the ravioli. Bake until the ravioli are golden brown, turning the baking sheet halfway through cooking, about 12 minutes. Place on a cooling rack for 5 to 10 minutes.

Chocolate Sauce:
In a small saucepan, heat the cream until it just starts to boil. Place the bittersweet and semisweet chocolate into a medium bowl and pour the cream over the chocolate, whisking until smooth.

Place 2 ravioli on each plate and drizzle with the chocolate sauce. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Various Valentines

I think this would be so sweet to make for your sweetheart and fill with reasons why you love that person or you could exchange love letters to each other--whatever you want!


I love this idea of a Valentine's countdown--although you could probably do the same thing with a full box of chocolates and just stick the papers underneath each one with instructions to eat one a day until Valentine's Day. :)
I love flowers. Roses are so expensive at Valentine's day...but wouldn't this also be a lovely gift from your sweetheart?
This could be a fun and easy gift to give the love of your life--or you could turn it into a countdown as well and leave them one a day!

Frames for all Seasons

I found this idea and totally love it--they use these three simple frames for all holidays, just changing what goes inside of them! Check it out here.

Food from the Heart

I completely love both of these ideas! How fun would it be to make cupcakes for your family and they get to bite into a yummy surprise for their eyes as well as mouth! The cupcakes instructions I found here. I used the cake picture from here--but love the instructions found here instead, where you get a heart shape in each slice of cake--plus you can watch a video showing you exactly how to do it!

P.S.

Blue Cricket Design is hosting a love letter week...and I absolutely love today's love letter! You could keep this one up all year long if you wanted.

Simply Valentine

Here are three more fun decorating ideas for Valentine's day. They all look pretty simple and inexpensive! Children could even help out with these!

Origami Hearts



Paper Heart Garland


Valentine Wreath

I found all of these great ideas from the fun blog Gordon Gossip

Love at First Sight

I am in love with this.


And this.

And this one too.


I think these wreaths are so romantic and lovely and just perfect for Valentine's Day. But I know I wouldn't want to take it down afterward. Find the instructions here.

A little of everything

XO Smores! How cute is that--I love this fun idea, found at The Idea Room.


I've been wanting to make these since we moved into our house. I also love the idea of putting them next to your child's bed so they can read before going to sleep at night, or just relax on their bed reading. :)


The following recipes from Studio 5 look good to me. :) I am also trying to obtain a three month supply of food for our family--here is a great resource you might want to check out!

Hot cocoa Sticky Bundt
Ingredients:

• 24 Rhodes™ Dinner Rolls, thawed but still cold
• 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup Stephen's Gourmet Hot Cocoa mix
• 1/4 cup pecans
• 2/3 cup toffee bits
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Method:

Cut rolls in half. Wrap each half around 1 teaspoon chocolate chips and completely enclose. Dip each roll half in gourmet cocoa mix until well coated. Place in a large sprayed bundt pan, alternately with pecans and toffee bits. Sprinkle any remaining cocoa mix over rolls. Combine butter and brown sugar in a small microwave safe bowl. Microwave 30 seconds. Stir until completely combined and pour over rolls.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until almost to the top of the pan. Remove wrap and bake at 350°F 35 minutes. Cover with foil last 10 minutes of baking. Invert immediately onto serving platter.

Korean Tacos with Cucumber Cilantro Lime Salsa

Korean BBQ Meat

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 - 3 pounds short ribs or chuck roast
• 1 Bartlett Pear peeled, and diced
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 3 tbsp Rice Vinegar Dressing
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup Ginger Flavored Soy Sauce, or regular soy sauce
• 1/2 cup pear nectar
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 tsp minced garlic
• 3 tsp minced ginger
• 2 tsp coarse ground pepper
• 3 tbsp sesame oil

Method:

Whisk together all the above ingredients. Place trimmed meat into slow cooker and pour the blended ingredients over meat.

Cook on high for 4-6 hours, or on low for 8-10 hours, until meat is tender, and easily pulls apart.

Cucumber Cilantro Lime Salsa

Ingredients:

• 2 cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 1/4 red bell pepper diced
• 2 scallions thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup snipped cilantro leaves
• 1 tbsp minced jalapeño, if desired
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar dressing
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1-2 tsp fresh minced ginger

Method:

In a medium sized bowl, toss together, cucumbers, peppers, scallions, and cilantro.

In a separate bowl, whisk vinegar, oil, lime juice, sugar and ginger together.

Pour over cucumber mixture and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups


To assemble Tacos:
Warm tortillas on on griddle, or wrap in foil and heat in the oven.
Place desired amount of meat on heated tortilla.
Top with lettuce and Salsa. Drizzle with additional Ginger Soy Sauce if desired.

Makes 6-8 servings

Countdown to Kisses

I didn't love this at first...until I glanced through the tutorial and realized that those are Hershey Kisses with numbers glued on the bottom! How cute is that? I would love to have one of these now! If only I had some woodworking skills...

Love is in the Air

I'm getting so excited for Valentine's Day! I really need to get jumping on all these cute ideas I've been finding if I want to do any of them! Here's one more to add to the mix...love it! Although pretty sure I won't be making my own frame like she did in the tutorial. Wow.

And remember all those free printables? Well you can find out how to make your own customized prints here!

Pillows

I have been wanting to get some nice throw pillows to go on our old ugly couch...since we won't be buying a new couch anytime soon, at least we could have cute pillows, right? I LOVE both of these ideas!! But I think I would want them to stay all year round...not just for February!

I also like the idea of this little piece of art, although I would probably change the words since I'm certainly not in love with the Beatles at all and that's what I would think of all the time seeing that... any other suggestions?

Valentine Art

I've been seeing so many fabulous Valentine printables all over lately...what a simple and inexpensive way to make your home feel a little more love for the holiday!
Find them here, here, here, here, here and here.

V-Day

Um...I love these! How fun would it be to eat off of special heart shaped plates and/or bowls for Valentine's day? If only they were a necessity or something... :) They also come in pink...you can find them here.

Flower Clips and Candy Canes

I am really in love with this flower clip and want to make one for my hair!! These would be fun to make for Valentine's Day...or any day really! :)


Also if you have a collection like this, you might want to try this recipe for peppermint popcorn!

Thoughts on Love

"Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." ~ Robert Heinlein

"To love a person means to see them as God intended them to be" ~ Dostoevski

"True love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well being of one’s companion" ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

Love Stories

I have loved the book Guess How Much I Love You? ever since I was first introduced to it in a Spanish class...we obviously read it in Spanish and I loved it. Here are a couple other great love books to read to your little one...or maybe even your significant other. I love the idea of giving children's books with meaningful words to Mr. Wonderful...I did it for Christmas when we were dating. :)