Valentine Conversations

It’s just a couple of days now, until National Chocolate Day, uh, I mean Valentine’s Day… honest mistake.

There’s still time if you need to make a treat to share. Today I wanted to feature a product I found at my local discount grocery/underwear store, (aka, Wal-Mart), Brach’s Create Your Own Conversation Hearts. Up until now, if you wanted personalized hearts you had to buy a complete run of 1.7 million candies. I think this is a better deal…  AND, they can say anything you want – you personalize them with the food-grade, red marker included. Use standard block letters in all caps and folks will think you bought them that way.

I have fond memories, as many of you probably do too, of covering shoe boxes or oatmeal canisters with construction paper,  ribbons and paper doilies to make lovely “mailboxes” for receiving those dozens of special Valentine greetings so thoughtfully chosen. One can never be too careful about sending just the right message. Cursed was the mother that picked up a box of Valentine cards with sentiments that were too icky and mushy!

Being homeschoolers, this is one of those scholastic traditions my kids miss out on… like cafeteria food, bullying and wearing clothes to school instead of pajamas. To make up for it, I make cupcakes for them to share with their class. The recipe I found online (and tweaked ever-so-slightly) would make enough for the standard classroom… I got 24 regular sized cupcakes and 36 mini ones. That’s 12 mini and 8 regular cupcakes per student in this school. I haven’t had to make lunch for 3 days.

The “art” on my silver tray chalkboard is a complete and total (bad) copy of the chalkboard art of Rhonna Farrer that I saw on Facebook.

If you’re making just the regular sized cupcakes you should easily get 36-40 cupcakes. These are more dense than just a box mix and taste more “homemade”.

Valentine Cupcakes

• 1 box Duncan Hines French Vanilla cake mix
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 3 eggs

• 1 1/3 cups water

• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

• 1 cup sour cream

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling

• 1 can Duncan Hines Comstock cherry pie filling

Mix all of the dry ingredients then add the wet ingredients. Using an electric mixer for about 30 seconds to incorporate and then for a full two minutes.

I use a gallon sized Ziploc bag with the corner clipped off to fill my cupcake papers. Squeeze in enough batter to cover the bottom of each cupcake liner then carefully set the bag aside (or have an assistant hold it for you…) Spoon one or two cherries from your cherry pie filling into the center of each cupcake. (You will have pie filling leftover.) Continue filling each cup with batter to about 3/4 full, covering the cherries, and then bake at 350° F for about 20 minutes. Cool completely.

Two-toned pink and white Wedding Cake Frosting tops these beauties – it’s a favorite around here..I especially like it because there’s not shortening in it – just basically butter, whipping cream and sugar. I used a 1M tip to make the big swirls on top. You can find my frosting recipe and piping tips here.

I loved being able to personalize my conversation hearts, the possibilities are endless here. The only other tip I would give is not to place the hearts on top of your cupcakes too early…they will absorb the moisture from your frosting and the ink will tend to “swell” or bleed just slightly.after a day or two.

I was not compensated in any way for this product review – just found something I liked and shared my personal opinion.

Are you planning any special treats for your students on Valentine’s Day?

I’m linking up to this party at my friend, Lisa’s blog with more than 600 Valentine crafts, recipes and décor ideas and this Valentine link up at Project Inspire and also the

Make Your Sweetie Pucker Up

It’s upon us once again and as far as “made-up-good-for-little-just-a-sneaky-way-to-get-us-to-buy-greeting-cards” holidays go, this is probably my favorite. A holiday dedicated to LOVE (and chocolate) wins my vote every time.

For the first few years (in the 25 year plus adventure my babies’ daddy and I have been on) we tried to actually go “out” on Valentine’s Day.  We eventually got tired of the long lines at theme parks and 2 hour waits for a table at the nearest chain restaurant and started staying home on February 14th and going out another night.

Since we had our brood we’ve tried to do a little “Love” themed dinner for the whole family on Valentine’s Day and I try to come up with something that maybe we don’t usually eat.

This is a challenge, since, 1) my family is vegetarian,  2) I don’t really have a large repertoire of things that I make, and D) I’m really not a fan of standing around in the kitchen cooking all day (and then cleaning up). So just about everything I make is fast and easy.

I took some inspiration from my aunt Margaret this summer (when she made us vegetarians a yummy Lemon Spaghetti – she really rocks in the kitchen…) and from Rachael Ray.

Lemon Spaghetti

Ingredients

• Salt
• 2 pounds spaghetti
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 8 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper 
• 4 lemons, zested and juiced
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream (or 1 1/2 cups milk & 2/3 cups melted butter)
• 2 cups finely shredded Italian Cheese blend (Mozzarella, Provolone, Parmesan, Romano, Fontina and Asiago cheeses)
• 1 cup (20 or 24 leaves) fresh basil, very thinly sliced
• black pepper, freshly ground

Directions

Boil a large pot of salted water and drop in the spaghetti..

Add extra-virgin olive oil, garlic and cayenne pepper to a large skillet over medium heat.

When the pasta is about half done (about 5 minutes into cooking), add lemon juice, 2 cups of the starchy cooking water from the pasta and the cream (or milk/butter mixture) to the garlic and oil. Raise heat a bit to bring sauce to a bubble.

Cook the pasta al dente and then drain. Add lemon zest and half of the cheese to the sauce. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste. Add pasta to the sauce and turn off heat. Toss the pasta with sauce allowing it time to soak up the sauce. Mix in about 2/3 of the basil.

Garnish the plates of pasta or the serving dish with remaining cheese, and basil.

This is an excellent side dish or even great for an interesting addition to a potluck.

What are you making for your honey this V-day or your next “meatless Monday”?

Ho Ho Humbug

I’ll admit it, I’ve had a really rough time getting into the spirit of the season this year. Normally this isn’t an issue at all, in fact, I usually have to talk myself out of putting up my tree before Thanksgiving and it’s generally a rush to drag out the boxes before the turkey day plates are even cleared from the table.

That hasn’t been the case this year.

We’re now almost two weeks into December and the “big day” is just two weeks away and I’ve only barely  just gotten my main tree put up. Yes, main. I’m skipping the other six this year.

I’m not sure why I’m so behind in my excitement this year. I’ve done all my shopping and nearly every gift is wrapped, I’m co-hosting a party this weekend and I’ve been belting out Christmas carols for six weeks, but I’m used to being much more excited by this point.

I suppose it could be because of all the gloom and doom chatter, you know, with the world ending several days before Christmas and all… but I really think it’s all because my pre-lit Christmas tree wasn’t this year. That’s right, I had to take a step back in time to 2007 – the last time I had to string lights on a tree myself rather than just plugging it in. It was humbling and horrible. My cuticles and forearms are still recovering.

I think the worst of it was pulling off the burnt out lights so the entire tree could be re-lit. Well, I exaggerate – not the entire tree… there was one string of lights still working.

Eventually we got to this point

And finally got the whole.thing.done.

Just in the nick of time for my baby sister’s big 4-Ooh birthday celebration at our house last weekend. Somehow she doesn’t look a day over 12 to me.

I must say, now that the featured décor item of our holiday is complete it’s much easier for me to get excited about Christmas.

But I’m REALLY not looking forward to taking it down and putting it all away in another two weeks or so. We just may keep it around until Valentine’s day…

How about you? Are you caught up on the “spirit of the Season” required to pull it off?

Pump Up the Pumpkin

I’ve been on a cupcake jag lately and felt I should find a flavor appropriate for the Thanksgiving season. I combined several flavors that I enjoy (and that make me think of cool, crisp temperatures) and decided the perfect opportunity to try it out was at a combination church Game Night and Bake Sale. I’m pleased to report that it was a great success of flavors and would be a sweet treat for Thanksgiving dinner that isn’t pie..

And the big bonus is… You start with a MIX! Yay! I love a good “semi-homemade” recipe.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

• 1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® Butter Pecan cake mix (if you can’t find Butter Pecan you can use Spice cake mix.)
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

In large bowl, beat cake mix, pumpkin, water, oil, eggs and pumpkin pie spice with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Don’t overmix your batter. Divide the batter evenly among muffin cups (fill about three-quarters full). Bake at 325°F for about 22 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when tested in the center.

When the cupcakes are completely cool, frost with something that would go well with "pumpkin” or “spice”. The obvious choice is Cream Cheese frosting. The even better, but maybe less obvious choice is CINNAMON Cream Cheese Frosting. The flavor difference is subtle, but marked.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/2 Cup butter, softened
• 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
• 2 (16 oz.) packages powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

Gradually add mixture of powdered sugar, salt and cinnamon, beating at low speed until blended. Beat at high speed 2 minutes or until creamy. That’s it! No more. If you overbeat your cream cheese frosting you’ll break down the cream cheese, and it will end up grainy looking and be too soft to hold shape when you pipe it. (Makes about 5 cups)

This is the easiest cupcake to decorate – all you need is a big zip-top bag. Fill it with your luscious cinnamon cream cheese frosting, snip about a half inch from one corner and swirl it on top of your cupcakes.

To add to the depth of the flavor even more, generously drizzle  some homemade caramel over the top of the frosted cupcake. Oh man!! You won’t believe the flavor… this is really simple, impressive and oh so good!

Homemade Caramel

• 1/2 Cup butter
• 1 Cup sugar
• 1 Cup whipping cream

Combine butter and sugar in a 2-quart heavy saucepan and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture is caramel-colored, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and slowly add cream, stirring constantly until blended.

Seriously. That’s it.

Be sure it’s cooled sufficiently before you drizzle. I like a little candy decorating bottle for this, but you could do your drizzling with a spoon or out of the snipped off corner of a bag.

You could add the little Wilton leaf sprinkles if you want, but it’s even pretty without them.

Now you might notice a little hint of something orange there are the top of my cupcake in the photo above. That’s an upside down Pumpkin Spice Hershey’s Kiss. I pushed it into the cupcake while it was still very warm.

Don’t do this.

There are a couple of reasons. First, it’s overkill – you don’t need it – it’s actually too much.

Second, this cupcake will need to be refrigerated because of the cream cheese in the frosting. (Assuming you don’t eat them all at once…) That will just make this Kiss get hard and cold. It’s not quite as tasty that way. So just leave it out.

So, mix it up on your dessert table on Thursday, pass on the pumpkin pie and try a pumpkin-y cupcake instead.

I’m linking up with

 

Relish the Thought

Long ago (like about 30 years) and far away (in the Inland Empire of southern California) when I was but a wee child (in seventh grade) I had my first taste of THE most amazing dipping sauce ever. It happened on a “movie night”, a traditional fundraiser for our little parochial school, there in the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains.

Movie night back then was a pretty big deal. Yes, children, this was long before we were able to watch movies on our phones or in the back of the minivan, long before the DVD vending machine and even before the VCR (or trendy Betamax)  was common in every household. The movies were actually rented for several hundred dollars and were reels of film delivered in a can (or two) played back on a temperamental dinosaur sort of contraption.

On fall and winter nights we watched such film greats as The Snowball Express, Apple Dumpling Gang, and My Fair Lady (with the volume obviously turned down during the swearing parts…I feel sorry for the poor sap that had to memorize each spot.) 

But the movies were never the main event. What you really came for, (besides sneaking outside with your friends) were the hand dipped (vegetarian) corndogs and the incredible dipping sauce served with them. You’ve never had anything like it. (Unless, of course, you’ve actually had it…)

After decades of yearning for this sauce my mom finally dug up the recipe for me. I haven’t been the same since. Once you try it you won’t be able to thoroughly enjoy a corndog again without it. Our current plan is to have the children make it regularly, bottle and sell it and put themselves through college.

Loma Linda Foods Sandwich Relish

Circa 1983
Mix together and keep refrigerated:

• 1 quart mayonnaise
• 1 cup dill pickle relish
• 1 cup celery, chopped super fine
• 4 Tablespoons pimento, chopped fine
• 4 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped fine – measure after chopping.
• 3 or 4 green onions, chopped fine
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
• 1 teaspoon  sweet basil, dried or fresh
• Turmeric for color

These measurements yield about 2 quarts of the relish, if you need to make a huge amount let me know in the comments and I’ll send you the proper measurements.

This is also an excellent sandwich spread or vegetable dip. But the real memories flood in when you serve it with a Morning Star Farms “classic” vegetarian corndog.

I’d tell you how long it keeps, but we usually don’t have any hanging around… Yes, it’s that good.
I’m linking up with