Happy Valentine's Day

I LOVE any holiday and I'm sure inherited this from my Grandma Evelyn who was the Queen of Holidays.  Up until she died, she sent big, generous packages to my kids and me even for Valentine's Day.  She was so amazing.

We spent the weekend working on the kids' Valentines and baking treats for the big day.



The Valentine's Treats


Because Gus and Greta are performing a basketball routine on Valentine's Day night, we are celebrating tonight on Monday, the 13th.  For supper, we enjoyed some delicious heart-shaped banana pancakes.  These were a hit with everyone!

Pour Pancake Batter into Cutouts for Heart Pancakes

Banana Heart Pancakes

The kids and I made some Valentine's Day Sour Cream Cutouts.  I used this recipe because I just happened to have the ingredients (the other cutouts called for whipping cream which I didn't have) but this recipe will be my new go-to:  Sour Cream Cut Out Cookies

We get messy when we bake!  Here's Greta with my Grandma's rolling pin

Sour Cream Cutout Cookies

I signed up to bring 4 dozen cookies for Nordic Kids on Sunday, so it worked out perfect.  We had fun making cookies, we ate a few, and gave the rest away.   Honestly, I find sugar really addicting so I do not like to have cookies in the house.

 Next we made some Valentine cupcakes to bring to Greta's class.   Just because.  We made 36 cupcakes from scratch, but they looked less than desirable (ok, HORRIBLE).  I could not force myself to take a picture, but I did have a good, long, laugh about it.  I hope Greta's class didn't mind the disheveled cupcakes  but at least they tasted good.

My Grandma's 64 year old Cuisinart - works great!

Greta mixing frosting for the cupcakes

And last but not least, we made chocolate covered strawberries.  We're still eating berries in the freezer from this summer's harvest, but for this special occasion we found some reasonable organic berries at Second Street Market in Hayward.  Keep in mind, organic berries are never super-sized because they are not pumped full of pesticides, but they taste GREAT.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries!


To make the berries, microwave milk chocolate chips until soft, dip the berries in the chocolate, and refrigerate for one hour.

Happy Valentines Day!   Instead of a romantic date, I'll be spending the evening at a basketball court with my kids.   Honestly, I wouldn't want it any other way.

Kristin