Corny Cards for Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day! This is the earliest I have been up in a while. Andy goes to work between 5:30 and 6am, so this morning I got up at 5am to make him breakfast before work. (Why he goes to work so early, I have no idea!) I made pancakes, some in the shapes of hearts (harder than it looks), and added red food coloring to make them pink. Ha, corny, yes I know. Our theme for this Valentines Day is 'corny'. We made corny cards to give each other and had corny pink heart pancakes for breakfast. It was actually quite nice, I think we may have a new tradition. I hope your day is special and filled with love.

Which would you choose? Valentines day edition!

Happy Valentines day! Well in light of the holiday of love, this is a Valentines day edition of my weekly Which would you choose. So, here is my little scenario...... your significant other has decided to surprise you and whisk you off to your absolute most favorite restaurant in the world. It can be anywhere, no worries..the "travel fairies" have it all arranged! So go for it, and make it something goooood! You get to be wined and dined all night long by the person you love (does it get any better)  but there's one detail missing.....the dress! Always about the dress. So here are your choices.....all in various shades of love (red and pink with a few blacks thrown in for good measure). Take a close look and which one most says "Be my valentine"? Can't wait to hear.....   CHOICE 1

Marchesa

CHOICE 2

Temperley London

CHOICE 3

Missoni

  CHOICE 4  

Diane Von Furstenberg

CHOICE 5

Alice by Temperley

CHOICE 6

Valentino

CHOICE 7

Diane von Furstenberg

 CHOICE 8

Jason Wu

CHOICE 9

L'wren Scott

CHOICE 10

\

Donna Karan


CHOICE 11

Lela Rose


CHOICE 12

Milly



CHOICE 13 

 Lanvin

CHOICE 14 

Etro

 CHOICE 15

 Valentino    Ahhh so many beauties, I would wear any one of them.  So tell me which you would choose! Do you like dressing up going all out or do you prefer a casual night to kick back? We have a long standing tradition with one of my best friends and her husband, we go out to a favorite restaurant to celebrate every year and have been doing it for years...always look forward to a night of friendship, love and laughter! So tell me, what are you doing on this day of love?  PS Want to know what I am giving myself for this special day? Besides the small box of hand dipped chocolates I treat myself to every Valentines day. Well I always wanted to try this and lately am really into skincare, so bit the bullet and finally indulged in the award winning cream to the stars, La Prarie's famed Caviar cream. Yes its expensive, but hopefully worth it. As I have heard repeated, "never ever go cheap on your face". Right on. Will let you know how my face likes it:)

  

Happy Valentines

Happy Valentines, may your day be filled with love, laughter and happiness.

French Macarons

With Valentines Day approaching I wanted to make French Macarons. Not only do they taste fantastic, but they are a beautiful treat. I love a good excuse to make a great looking and tasting dessert. The basic recipe that I followed came from here. I changed it up a bit though, to create the flavors that I wanted. The macarons are raspberry with a lemon cardamom butter cream filling. The flavors went together excellently! To make some of the macarons pop more I added some hot pink sugar sprinkles. These are such a girlie treat! Below is my butter cream recipe. Next week I'll post a picture how-to for making macarons with a few tips that I have learned.

Here is my Lemon Cardamom butter cream recipe:
-1/2 stick butter (4-5 Tablespoons)
-1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest
-1 (scant) teaspoon cardamom
-3 Tablespoons milk
-3 cups powdered sugar
(yellow food coloring optional)
Mix all ingredients together with a high speed mixer. Add yellow food coloring to your desire.

Etsy Valentines Day Gifts

Andy and I are not big gift people. We have everything that we could want, so we don't usually give gifts. For Valentines Day we will probably go out to dinner and exchange cards. This doesn't mean I don't enjoy looking for fun gifts though. As I have mentioned plenty of times before, Etsy is the perfect place to find homemade gifts along with supporting the small business community. These gifts are so much fun, I may actually give a gift this year. :)

For Him:

 Wild cent for your wild man. Cedar and Lime, with subtle hints of Lavender and Rosemary, wow. Find it Here.

 Hot chocolate with earl grey for the man with a more defined pallet. Find it Here.

A leather cuff for him with the latitude and longitude of your favorite place. (Andy would love this!) Find it Here.

 Guys like getting gifts of chocolate too...bacon covered chocolate! Find it Here.

For the coffee lover man. Some morning joe with a sweet note on it. Find it Here.

For Her:

 Dried and laminated bougainvillea petal earrings for the nature/flower lover. (I want these.) Find it Here.

 

 An anitomical heart illustrated tank for the literal woman. Find it Here.

 Fancy gourmet chocolate truffles. Flavors like bourbon, raspberry, and spicy mayan. Yes! Find it Here.

 Care for a mug of sensuali-tea? Calming herbal tea for the hot drink lover. Find it Here.

A simple delicate gold and red bracelet for the jewelery gal. Find it Here.

If you find something good, order it now so you'll have it by Valentines Day- next Thursday! And no, Etsy, nor any of these products endorse me for this. I just love Etsy.

Raspberry & Chocolate Ganache Tartlets

In preparation for Valentines Day (coming up!) here is a wonderful, delicious tartlet recipe. (If I do say so myself.) I am not a huge fan of Valentines Day, but I do love the excuse to make fun desserts.

I used a crust recipe from Epicurious and it will work for either a full 9" tart pan or about 4-6 mini tart pans, which is what I used. This crust recipe is great to make ahead of time and then freeze until you need it. If you make it ahead of time, form the dough into a disc (or discs if you are using smaller pans), wrap, and freeze/refrigerate it that way.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
• 2 tablespoons chilled whipping cream

Preparation:

Blend flour and salt. Add butter; using a pastry cutter, cut in until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3 tablespoons ice water and cream. Process just until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; chill 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 375°F and spray or butter the tartlet pans. Roll dough into a small circle and then push the tart dough into the pans, poke holes in the bottom with a fork, and place in freezer for 10-20 minutes. Remove from freezer and bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

For the Ganache:

• 6 ounces dark or bittersweet chocolate (finely chopped)
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 4 tablespoons raspberry jam
• 3-5 cups fresh raspberries

In a small sauce pan allow the cream to boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam. Then stir in chocolate. Continue to stir until all of the chocolate has melted. Let the ganache cool for about 10-15 minutes, then pour into baked tartlet crusts. Arrange whole raspberries on top of the tarts. Over medium heat stir remaining 3 tablespoons of raspberry jam and 1 teaspoons of water until melted. Pour this glaze over the raspberries on the tartlets.