Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Valentine's ... a special day

I started my day with my friends wishing them a happy valentine's day over coffee ... Valentine's day is a goofy kind of holiday, but one women seem to really get into.  Honestly, do you know any men that look forward to Valentine's Day?  I don't ... my husband goes along with it, but he considers this day a Hallmark holiday.  I get it ... I saw a show where the man said "Valentine's Day is for amateurs;" I thought that was a great line!  A day to celebrate love ... give yourself a hug!

Time to load another quilt on the frame today ... outside of the granny flat the dogs are keeping guard while I'm inside sewing ...
They might look like they're resting, but all it takes is one delivery man and they would be up . . . barking and teeth gnashing!

Someone I know is going to be really happy this quilt got loaded today ...

This is a pattern called Apron Strings ... my friend made this quilt for someone special.  It came out great ... I love this quilt ... this was a class I did a couple months ago, and am teaching it again.  The quilt I made was all from scraps out of my stash.  I love the way it came out, and I keep entertaining ideas of making several more ... it was such a fun, easy to make quilt.  Had to start my Valentine dinner festivities, so I knew I wasn't going to be able to quilt it today, but at least I could get it on the frame ... now for a thread decision ...

The golder/bronzer one, or the brown?  Think I'm leaning towards the brown ... I have to rest on it for a night, look at it again tomorrow, and then I'll know which one to pick.  What color would you choose?

I detest going out for dinner on Valentine's ... I don't like crowds, and of course everyone is dining out with their special someone/friend or whatever.  I always make a nice dinner at home ... tonight I was planning on steaks, grilled asparagus, twice baked potatoes ... I was trying to think of an easy, light dessert.  I knew I had some yummy, ripe strawberries ... and of course I have all those bags of Hershey's kisses leftover from my Christmas baking.  An idea starts ...

Half a bag of kisses (out of the freezer) ...

Some rinsed and dried strawberries ... does everyone get strawberries like this in the winter time?  I don't think so, but I'm not positive.  In San Diego, we get fresh strawberries all year long ... another reason we are spoiled!  They were really yummy ... big and sweet.

Now this might look out of place, but when you're melting chocolate for dipping, you need a little something to help the chocolate harden without getting melty (a technical term there), and the paraffin wax makes the chocolate smoother.  My grandmother made bon bons for years at Christmas and when I saw her recipe called for paraffin wax I thought ... eewwww, I've been eating wax all these years?  You just use a little, and you can't taste it.  I have heard you can use Crisco instead ... I have tried Crisco and it doesn't work as well.  Just make sure you start the paraffin melting in the double boiler first ... because it's in a chunk, it takes longer to melt than the chocolate.

I did not melt the paraffin first ... my daughter wound up with a small glob on one of her strawberries ... oops, that's how I know you're supposed to melt it first!

They were delicious ... the best part of dinner ... well, the best part of dinner besides dining with my hubby and daughter ... my Valentines!  Hope your day was special no matter how you chose to celebrate!
P.S.  My sweet son is my Valentine too, but he's away at college ... making his own Valentine's dinner for his special someone.

1 comment:

jayne said...

Did you make enough for all your friends? They look wonderful!