I Love....

I love February. I have finally settled into those new years resolutions, the Primary rush is over and here in St. George it starts to warm up. We are looking forward to a weekend in the 60's. It is also Valentine's Day. Not that since we have been married there has been any spectacular Valentine's Day events, but I just like the idea of a holiday where you let the people close to you know you love them. My dad used to knock on our door when we were little and leave a Valentine for us. One year it was a box of crayons that were chocolate one year we each got a huge bucket of redvines from Costco, we always loved running to the door to see what he left. Do you remember when we were small, everyone in the neighborhood would bring valentines and ring the doorbell and run? How come we don't do that any more?

I love making valentines for my kids and their friends. Here is an idea I found online. I ordered all the stuff to make these fun valentines for my kids' school classes. I ordered all the stuff from LorAnn's website. It was way cheaper than in the stores. LorAnn’s makes the most ingenious Pencil Pops. This little piece of plastic molds in the lollipop in place of sucker sticks. When the lollipop is finished it then will fit onto a pencil. If you want to use lollipop molds like we did you must make sure to buy the molds that have a space made for the pencil pop. We used 3 sheets of molds, yielding 15 lollipops.

Old Fashioned Lollipops

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup light corn syrup

¾ cup water

1 tsp Flavoring (we used LorAnn)

¼ tsp Liquid Food Coloring

Candy Thermometer

Lightly spray molds with cooking spray and insert pencil pops into your molds.

Pour hot candy into molds.





Here are a couple other recipes that I plan on trying this month.

Fortune Cookies
This recipe is from Martha Stewart


These delicious cookies don't have to be confined to Chinese meals; they also make wonderful party favors, place cards, or everyday desserts. The batter used to make these fortune cookies is traditional tuile batter. Tuiles are thin, crisp cookies that are easy to mold into curved shapes while still warm from the oven. Remember, the key to success with these oversize cookies is to shape them quickly.
Ingredients
Makes 15
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 large egg whites
1 cup superfine sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon almond extract
Nonstick cooking spray
Directions
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet liberally with cooking spray. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine egg whites and sugar, and beat on medium speed, about 30 seconds. Add flour and salt, and beat until combined. Add butter, heavy cream, and almond extract, and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.
Pour 1 tablespoon of batter onto half of the baking sheet, and spread with the back of a spoon into a thin 5-inch circle; repeat on the other half of the sheet. Bake until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown, about 8 minutes.
Transfer baking sheet to a heat-resistant surface. Working as quickly as possible, slide a spatula (an offset spatula, available at specialty kitchen shops, works best) under one of the cookies. Lift it up, and place it on a clean kitchen towel. Using your fingers, fold the cookie in half, pinching the top together to form a loose semicircle. Hold the cookie with your index fingers inserted at each open end, and slide your thumbs together along the bottom line. Press into the center of the cookie while bending the two open ends together and down to form the shape of a fortune cookie. This whole process should take about 10 seconds. Once the cookie hardens, which begins to happen almost immediately, you cannot fold it. Place the fortune cookie on the kitchen towel to cool, and shape the second cookie. Repeat until all the batter is used up. To speed up the process, bake four cookies at a time, staggering two cookie sheets by 4 minutes to give you time to shape. To avoid wasting batter, practice folding with a circle of paper first.
Write your message on a long strip of sturdy art paper, such as Japanese moriki. Thread the fortune through the cookie when it has cooled.


Baked Hot Chocolate
This recipe is from Good Things Utah. The girls said it was THE best dessert they had ever had!


Ingredients:

9 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 ounces butter
4 whole eggs
1/4 cup sugar

Combine chocolate and butter in a mixing bowl and melt over a double boiler; combine eggs and sugar in a separate mixing bowl and warm over double boiler until warm to the touch; transfer egg mixture to mixer and whip until fluffy; fold whipped eggs into melted chocolate; divide evenly into 4 bake proof dishes and bake at 350 degrees for 17 to 20 minutes.

What are your valentine traditions and recipes?