You're Smokin' hot

I found this message website a while ago. It is so much fun. If you haven't yet done anything for Valentine's Day (or even if you have) this is a great last minute Valentine. You can send smoke signals or crop circles (or a few other things) that say anything you want, via email, to anyone you want. You can go to a google map and the smoke signals will come from your own chimney or the crop circles can be in your own back yard or anyplace else you want them to come from. It's free and immediate. If you want to see mine it is here. Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to get it to show on my blog. To send your own message go to MapMSG.com - Smoke signals

A Token of My Love

I put four of these in my husband's coin purse with his change, over a week ago. It took him until yesterday to discover them. I think he will keep them there, with his change. I like that. Then he can be reminded of me every time he uses coins (which apparently isn't all that often).

I bought washers at Home Depot. I used 1 1/4 inch with a 3/8 inch hole. Then I used 1/8 inch metal letter stamps to write on them. I got the stamps at Harbor Freight (if there isn't one near you, you can order them online). It took a little "Good 4 All My Love". One says, "Hug Token" and "Good 4 a Hug". One says "Kiss Token" and "Good 4 A Kiss". The last one says "I Love You" and has our names on the back.

(Sorry the picture is so blurry

This year I started Valentines a little early because I had a great idea. My husband Loves KrispyKreme doughnuts, and they have heart shaped doughnuts so I thought I would do something with them for valentines, but the closest KrispyKreme is in Orem. I was going to drive down to Orem to get them for a surpise, but Craig took me down to Provo yesterday for my birthday, so I really had a hard time justifying driving down when I was just down there yesterday, so I started early.

I gave them to him and I used the doughnuts to spell love, I just printed off the "L" and the "E" on my printer and cut them out. I told him, "I Do-nut know what I would do without your love."

You're my Sweetie Pie

This is my contribution to our annual neighborhood Valentine exchange. I bought Hostess Pies and put notes with it that say, "You're the apple of my eye. I'm so glad you're my Sweetie Pie" or "I love you berry much. I'm so glad you're my sweetie pie". I think when I give it to my husband I will give him a real pie. It's a lot of fun to see all the ideas that other people come up with. Thank you, thank you for all your ideas.

Chocolate Puzzle Heart

Baker's Cash & Carry has a cute chocolate mold for a Heart Puzzle. You can put a note with it that says, "You hold a piece of my heart", or, "You complete me", or, "I fall to pieces without you" or "I love you to pieces". If you would rather just buy it ready made, it is available here complete with a gift tag. She has other cute Valentine candy, as well.

Personalized M&M's

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the wedding reception of some friends of ours. They had a candy bar at their reception. One of the candies at the bar was M&M's with their picture on them. They were so cute. Last week, my daughters took their families to Las Vegas. While they were there, they visited the M&M store. Their kids were able to pick out the color of M&M's and choose what they wanted printed on them. Then they got to watch as they were printed. They brought a cup of M&M's personalized just for me and my husband. How sweet was that?! These would be really cute as a gift for your honey or even your kids. This is a movie of my grandkids choosing the M&M's for me.

The people on the M&M's in the picture above are our friends who got married. The rest of the M&M's are the ones my kids got for me. You can order your own M&M's here.

I Have To Say "I Love You" In A Song

Give your Valentine a CD with your favorite love songs. Or, make a playlist of them and put it on their iPod or mp3 player. Choose songs that mean something to both of you. Make sure you either own the original CD or that you download them from a legal website like ITunes, Walmart or Amazon. You can download songs from them for 99 cents to $1.29 each. Burn the collection onto a CD and make a cute label for it. Or if you don't have any favorites, just make a CD of songs that say I Love You. Here is a list of songs that have the words "I Love You" or some variation of them. It is a long list but I'm sure it is far from complete. Some of these songs are pretty recent. Some are really old. Some are kids songs and some are just plain dumb. Most of them are available on ITunes or Walmart. If you can think of any others, let me know in the comments.

Al Green--I’m So In Love With You

All 4 One--I Can Love You Like That

All 4 One--I Swear

Anne Murray--You Are My Sunshine

The Archies--Sunshine

Back Street Boys--I Will Love You More

Barney--I Love You

The Beatles--I Love You

The Beatles--P.S. I Love You

Billy Joel--Just The Way You Are

Billy Joel--To Make You Feel My Love

Blackhawk--I’ll Always Love You

Brad Paisley--Then

Britney Spears--I Will Still Love You

Captain & Tennille--Love Will Keep Us Together

Chicago--Call On Me

Chicago--Color My World

Chicago--We Can Last Forever

Chicago--Will You Still Love Me

Celine Dion--I Love You

Dan Fogelberg--Longer

Delfonics--La La Means I Love You

Diamond Rio--One More Day

Dionne Warwick--I Say A Little Prayer

Dolly Parton--I Will Always Love You

Donna Lewis--I Love You Always and Forever

Doris Day--A Bushel and a Peck

Eddie Rabitt/Crystal Gayle--You and I

Elton John--Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues

Elvis Presley--I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You

Elvis Presley--I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

Eric Clapton--Wonderful Tonight

Faith Hill--Please Say You Love Me To

Firefall--Just Remember I Love You

Frankie Valli--Can’t Take My Eyes Off You

Harry Connick Jr.--All The Way

James Taylor--How Sweet It Is

James Taylor--You’re Smiling Face

Jason Mraz/Colbie Cailat--Lucky

Jeff Larson--Valentine Note

Jennifer Hudson--Love You, I Do

Jessica Simpson--I Think I’m In Love With You

Jim Brickman--You Are The Love Of My Life

Jim Croche--I Have To Say I Love You In A Song

John Lennon--Grow Old With Me

Keith Urban--Making Memories of Us

Landon Pigg--Falling In Love At a Coffee Shop

LeAnn Rimes--I Do Love You

Linda Ronstadt/Aaron Neville--Don't Know Much

Lionel Richie--Hello

Lionel Richie--Truly

Lobo--I Love You To Want Me

Lonestar--Amazed

Madonna--True Blue

Mandy Gledhill - All About Your Heart

Marc Anthony--I Need You

Marc Anthony/Tena Arena--I Want To Spend My Lifetime Loving You

Mariah Carey--I'll aBe Lovin You Long Time

Mark Wills--Because I Love You

Martina McBride--I Love You

Michael Bolton--Said I Loved You...But I Lied

Michael Franti--Say Hey (ILove You)

Minnie Ripperton--Lovin’ You Is Easy

Minnutes--More To Luv

Mostly Sunny--More Than Anyone Else

Nat King Cole--L.O.V.E.

Norm Wooster Singers--I’m Lovin’ You Lots and Lots

Olivia Newton John--I Honestly Love You

Partridge FamilyI Think I Love You

Paul McCartney--Silly Love Songs

Peter Cetera--Glory of Love

Peter Frampton--Ooo, Baby I Love Your Way

Phil Collins--True Colors

Phil Vassar--That’s When I Love You

Plain White T’s--1,2,3,4 Queen--You’re My Best Friend

Randy Newman--We Belong Together

Reo Speedwagon--Keep On Lovin' You

Restless Heart--I’ll Still Be Loving You

Roberta Flack--The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Rolling Stones--Honest I Do

Rod Stewart--Have I Told You Lately

Ronan Keating--When You Say Nothin’ At All

Savage Garden--I Knew I Loved You

Savage Garden--Truly Madly Deeply

Selena--I Could Fall In Love With You

Shania Twain--Don’t Be Stupid, You Know I Love You

Sharon, Lois & Bram--Skinnamarink

Spiral Staircase--More Today Than Yesterday

Steve Earle--Every Part of Me

Steve Poltz--Everything About You

Stevie Wonder--I Just Called To Say I Love You

Styx--Babe

Sugarland--All I Want To Do

T Minus 5--I Love You

Taylor Dayne--I’ll Always Love You

Tevye (Fiddler On The Roof)--Do You Love Me?

Train--Marry Me

Van Morrison--Have I Told You Lately

Whitney Houston--I Will Always Love You

10CC--The Thing We Do For Love

Mmmmm...Junior Mints

Yesterday while I was grocery shopping I found some Valentine Junior Mints. I don't remember them from past years but maybe they have been around for a while. They are heart shaped with red filling. So fun for Valentine's Day. And they taste good, too! You can put a note with them that says:

Me and You,
You and Me,
That's the Way
It was "MINT" to be.

Divinity Hearts

My mother always made divinity at Christmas when I was little. My mother in law made it, too. It was one of my favorite things when I was little. But whenever I tried to make it, I failed. However, I finally found a recipe that works for me. Last night I made some and used a pastry bag with a very large star tip (B6) to make Heart shaped divinity. It took a little practice, but I think they turned out to be pretty cute.

Don't bring the first hump of the heart clear down to the bottom of the point (make it smaller) Then overlap with the second hump, bringing it down to the point of the heart. Squeeze the bag a little at the top of the hump and release the pressure as you pull the divinity to the point.

Divinity sets up rather quickly so you have to work fast. I was only able to get about half the batch to work as hearts. The rest I just formed into normal divinity.

Here is the recipe I used:

Divinity

4 cups sugar

1 cup white corn syrup

3/4 cup cold water

3 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla

3-4 drops food coloring

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir only until sugar has dissolved. Do not stir after this point. Cook syrup mixture until it reaches hard ball stage (260 degrees at sea level).

While the syrup is cooking, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Once the sugar mixture reaches hard ball stage, carefully pour a slow steady stream of syrup into the stiffly beaten egg whites, beating constantly at high speed. Add the vanilla and food coloring and continue to beat until mixture holds its shape. (this will take 5 minutes or more).

Using 2 spoons, drop the divinity onto waxed paper or parchment paper, using 1 spoon to push the candy off the other. Or put mixture in a pastry bag and pipe into heart shapes.

Always remember to calibrate your candy thermometer so it measure correctly for your altitude (hard ball is actually 253 degrees at my altitude)

Happy Valentines Day!!

I remember when I was about 10 years old, my dad wrote a poem for me and each of my sisters for Valentine's Day. He just wrote it on a heart cut from red construction paper. Nothing fancy. I don't remember exactly what it said. I was too little then to appreciate it enough to save it. But I do remember how I felt when he gave it to me.
I treasure copies of letters that my Great grandfather wrote to my grandma when she was a young girl away from home at a boarding school. In the letters he expresses his great love for her and how much he misses her and how he trusts that God is watching over her.
There is really nothing I want more, than for my children and grandchildren for generations to come to know how much I love their dad and them and the Savior. How will they know that, if I don't write it down? They won't.
I guess that is the point of this blog entry. If you do nothing else this Valentine's Day, write the people you love a love letter. Not something hot and passionate (although you could do that, too), write your true feelings, something that you want your grandchildren to know. It doesn't have to be fancy. It just needs to be sincere.
If you want to make it cute, Martha Stewart has some cute ideas for love notes on here website here, here, here, and here.

The Queen of Hearts, Made Some Tarts

I made Heart Shaped Tarts to take to my husband at work today. But this morning, I remembered he has the day off. I guess I'll put them in the freezer and give them to him next week. Valentine's Day will just be extended for a few days and I get to spend the day with him.

I got this recipe with a little Martha Stewart heart tart press. But you can use a cookie cutter and crimp the edges with a fork. They are really good served with a dish of vanilla ice cream.

I may put a note with them that says "To My King Of Hearts".
This is the recipe:

Raspberry Heart Tarts

5 cups flour
1 ½ tsp. Salt
4 tsp sugar
2 cups (1 lb.) butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
10 Tbsp. Ice water
1 jar of jam (about 1 cup)
2 egg yolks
2 Tablespoon cream
Sanding sugar (optional)

In a bowl combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter and cut in with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal. (Or process in a food processor for about 8 - 10 seconds)

Add ice water slowly while mixing just until dough holds together.

Turn dough onto work surface. Form into a disk.

Warm raspberry jam in microwave for 1 minute (so it spreads easier).

Heat oven to 400 F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough about 1/8 inch thick. Using heart press or cookie cutter, cut out heart shapes and put them on a clean surface. Brush edge with water. With back of spoon, spread 1 ½ tsp. Jam evenly to within ¼ inch of the edge of each tart. Carefully place another heart on top. To seal, place the heart press on top of the filled pastry and press down, crimping the edges together or use the tines of a fork to crimp the edges together all the way around. Repeat with remaining hearts. Using kitchen shears or a sharp knife, trim off any excess dough. Transfer to cookie sheet, placing about 1” apart.

In a small bowl. Combine the egg yolks and the cream. Brush evenly over each heart. And transfer to the freezer for 20 minutes. Remove from the freezer and sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired. Bake until crust is golden, 25-30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Pretty Cheesey

Today I took my husband a heart shaped Cheese Ball with heart shaped crackers. I just made his favorite kind of cheese ball and shaped it like a heart. Or you can just buy a cheese ball. Just push a dent into the top of the cheese ball and squeese the bottom to a point. I bought the crackers at Pirate O's, in Draper, UT. They are probably available at other specialty food stores ,too. I have seen them, occasionally, in regular grocery stores, as well. I have a recipe for a Pina Colada Cheese ball that would be cuter. It is white with little chunks of cherry in it and is covered with coconut instead of nuts. You could even color the coconut pink. But My husband likes the one I made better, so that's what he got. This would also be a good apetizer at a Valentine party.

The card says:

"I know this sounds cheesey, But I'm crackers over you!"

Here are the recipes for the Cheese Balls:

EASY CHEESE BALL
2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese
1 bunch green onions, Chopped
l-2 Cloves garlic (minced)
sliced almonds

Mix Cream cheese, onions and garlic. Form into ball. Roll ball in sliced almonds. Refrigerate, till ready to serve. Serve with Crackers.
You can add some chopped pimento or chopped red pepper to make it look more festive (for Christmas)

PINA COLADA CHEESE BALL
2 8oz package cream cheese
½ cup powdered sugar
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple (well drained)
2/3 cup flaked coconut
8 marachino cherries chopped (optional)
Flaked coconut to roll ball in.

Mix first 5 ingredients. Form into a ball. Chill. Roll in flaked coconut.
Serve with sweet crackers or fruit.

Games of the Heart

If you are in charge of the games for a Valentine's Party, here are a few suggestions. If you are have an adult party with married couples, you can play The Newlywed Game. A list of questions can be found here. I personally think that the goal of a Valentine party is for everyone to go home at least as good of friends as they were when they came. So, the questions here are pretty tame. I don't think there are any that will make anyone go home angry or with hurt feelings (they may be a little embarrassed, but not too bad). Use your own judgement.

Another game that you can play is "Pick Your Honey's Nose". In this game you make a large screen/wall out of butcher paper. It has to be tall enough for all the spouses to stand behind it in a line. Nothing can show (no shoes or tops of heads). Cut holes in the paper, either all at the same height or at varying heights. We drew stick figures on the front of the paper with the hole where the nose should be. Write a number above each hole. Have all the husbands (or all the wives) stand behind the screen and poke their nose through a hole (if you make the holes at varying heights, make sure that the people behind the screen don't stand at a hole that is the same height as their nose actually is). The other spouse has to guess which nose belongs to their spouse. You would thing that it would be pretty easy, since you see it pretty closely every day, but it really isn't. Even the most distinguishable noses become more ordinary when they aren't attached to a face. You can also have people try to identify all the noses. Whoever gets the most right wins.

Valentine Bingo is fun for parties with kids. You can use conversation hearts for the markers. There are free downloadable bingo cards with pictures here. They have all kinds of free bingo cards there. You can also download card with numbers here.

Another game I found there was a game called, "Find Your Heart Mate". Cut enough hearts that each child can have a half heart. Cut each heart in half at different angles or a different shape line. Give each child a half a heart and have them find the person with the other half of his/her heart. This website has a lot of fun ideas for classroom activities and games for childrens parties.

Roses and Noses

Chocolate and Roses are lots of peoples favorite Valentine's gift. So what could be better than Chocolate roses? These roses made from Hershey's kisses have been around for years. My son used some to ask a girl to a dance 10 years ago. But they are still fun. You can get instructions here. Then check out these ideas for chocolate and flowers on KSL Studio 5. I particularly liked the chocolate bowls.

And speaking of Chocolate Roses, here a little different spin. How about long stemmed chocolate noses. The molds are available at Bakers Cash & Carry in Salt Lake. I also found them on Ebay. I used bamboo skewers for the stems.

I included a note that read:

I ordered long stemmed roses for you, but they must have misunderstood. Because when I went to pick them up, they gave me long stemmed noses, instead. I guess it's alright, though. Because, of all the noses, on all the faces, in all the world, I'm glad I picked yours!

Happy Valentine's Day, anyway.

Oh, and just in case you are wondering, here is a list of the meaning of the different colors of roses and one of the significance of the different number of roses you give.

Conversation Hearts

This is another of those things that I'm not quite sure what the purpose is. But it is kind of fun. You can write anything you want on the picture of a conversation heart and then you can post it anywhere you want. Or you can print it and give it for a valentine. It looks just like the real thing.

The Way To a Man's Heart is Through His Stomach

Today we had a Valentine dinner. It was really delicious. We had Spinach Salad (my husband's favorite). I put sliced strawberries on the top. They looked like little hearts. I also made Heart shaped croutons.
For the main course we had steak. I bought one large rib eye steak. It was really enough for four people. I had the butcher butterfly cut it. He said it would look like heart. But we had to do a lot of trimming for it to actually resemble a heart. He said Fillet Mignon works a lot better. But I couldn't afford $17.00/lb. So we went with the rib eye. I also made heart shaped dinner rolls.

This is the recipe for the salad:

SPINACH SALAD

2 bunches of spinach or spring green mix (torn into bite size pieces)
1 head of lettuce (torn into bite size pieces)
1 purple onion (sliced)
3/4 lb. fresh mushrooms (sliced)
3/4 lb. Swiss cheese (grated)
1 C drained cottage cheese
1/2 C crumbled bacon
sugared almonds
mandarin oranges
crasins
sliced strawberries
croutons

Toss all ingredients together (except onions and strawberries). Use sliced onions and strawberries as a garnish. Top with following dressing immediately before serving.

DRESSING

3/4 tsp poppy seeds
3/4 C oil
3/4 tsp grated onion
1/3 tsp mustard
1/2 C white vinegar
1/3 C sugar
3/4 tsp salt

Buzz in blender. Pour on salad right before serving.

Croutons:

Brush both sides of slices of bread with olive oil or a garlic butter mix. Sprinkle with Salad Supreme or herbs of your choice. Cut with small cookie cutters or cut into cubes. Place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 300º for 20 to 30 minutes until crisp, turn them over every 10 minutes.

Sugared almonds

Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 2 T. water in a sauce pan. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Add 3/4 cup sliced almonds. Continue cooking (while stirring constantly) until the sugar crystallizes. Remove from heat and dump on a cookie sheet with a cooling rack over it. Separate out the sugared nuts from the excess sugar.

The first Valentines I ever gave to my husband were like these. We were in high school. My older sister had found the patterns when she was in college and gave them to me. I made several more for him while we were in college. I'm not sure that it made him fall in love with me, but at least they kept his attention until he did. I made them from colored card stock. But you could just download them and color them if you want. However, the patterns are really just sketches so you might still have to improve them.

The first is a fireman. His heart says "You Set My Heart On Fire".

The next one is a cat or a tiger, depending on what color you make his stripes. His snout lifts up and it says either, "You're My Purrr-fect Valentine", or "You're Grrrreat".

When you lift the tag on the Dog it says "Without You".

The lion's snout lift up and it says either "I Love You" or I Think You're Grrrreat!"
The heart on the Owl says, "Guess Whooo", When you lift his arm it says, "Loves You". Lift his glasses and it says, "Eye Do".

The bear has a sign on the outside that says, "I Love You". When he opens his arms it says, "This Much".

The Hippo Says "Happy Valentine's Day". Under her fan it says, "From Your Biggest Fan".

On the front of the Skunk card it says "It Stinks". When you lift up the arm it says, "When You're Not Around".

Pop Ups

I'm a big fan of Pop Up books. Particularly Robert Sabuda and David Carter. So, naturally when I found patterns to make my own pop up cards, I got a little excited. Pop up cards can be a little tricky. So I suggest you start with the ones on Robert Sabuda's web site. He has a lot and they are pretty easy. You can even do them with kids. You can do them with paper, scissors, glue and maybe crayons or markers to color them. There are more intricate designs here. They are a lot more difficult but worth the effort. They are not designed with kids in mind. You need an exacto knife and some sort of mat to cut on. They are printed on the wrong side of a piece of cardstock so you work from the back. You fold them one way on the dotted lines and the other way on the dashed lines and you cut on the solid lines. I found that they are easier to work with if you enlarge them before you make them. I think they look better, too. You can color them also if you prefer. Then mount them on a contrasting color of cardstock and include a message. You can really WOW someone you love!

mmmmm Hot Chocolate

My grandkids like hot Strawberry milk lots better than hot chocolate. That's o.k. because pink is so pretty for Valentines Day. So if they were closer, this is what I would make them. I'll save the Hot Chocolate for Grandpa.
On second thought, maybe I'll send them some.

Cut the marshmallows in half. Then dip the cut edge in powdered sugar. Cut a heart in the center of the marshmallow half with a very small cookie cutter or Hors d'oeuvre cutter. Then shake both pieces in powdered sugar (to cover the sticky edges), shake off the excess powdered sugar in a sieve. Serve them in Hot Chocolate of Hot Strawberry milk.

Dip a plastic spoon in chocolate or white chocolate. Then drizzle with a contrasting color of chocolate or while the chocolate is still a little gooey, dip the edges of the spoon in sprinkles.

If you are giving it away, be sure to include a card with instruction on the back.

On the front mine says:

You melt my heart,

The back says:

1. pour into a cup of warm milk

2. stir with spoon

3.remember Grandma and Grandpa love you!

Rice Hot Packs

Rice Packs are the greatest invention ever. You can put them in the freezer and they make good ice packs or you can throw them in the microwave for 2 or 3 minutes and they make great hot packs. They are wonderful for sore muscles or cold feet. And you can use them over and over and over. You can easily make your honey one with the pattern found here or you can make up your own. You can also fill them with dry corn.
Make sure you warm it up before you give it to them.