Homemade Valentine's Day Goodies

Day 42.

Valentine's Day is this weekend and foodie bloggers everywhere are gearing up for it by making homemade treats. I am no different. This year, my gift recipients will be given little take-out style boxes filled with homemade peanut butter cups, salt water taffy, and chocolate chip cookies. It is a very lucky day indeed to be my friend. ;)

Heart-Shaped Peanut Butter Cups

You will need:

1 cup creamy peanut butter
a dash of sea salt
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 cups of milk chocolate chips (you could use a different chocolate but I am going for Reese's flavor)
3 Tbsp additional creamy peanut butter

First, combine 1 cup of peanut butter, the salt, and the sugar in a mixing bowl. Keep at it until it's smooth again, with no white specks.

Then, shape 1/4 cup hunks of your mixture, by hand, into rough heart shapes. Don't be a perfectionist. The rustic, homemade look is really, really hip for this project. Place each heart on a piece of waxed paper. Work quickly. The less you touch the peanut butter, the better, because it likes to melt when it gets warmed up.


When you're done, pop the tray into the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour, until the hearts are good and firm. Now, melt your chocolate chips and 2 Tbsp peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until the chips are melted. Go get your frozen peanut butter hearts.

Push one heart onto a skewer gently.

Use a spoon to coat the peanut butter center completely with chocolate. Place coated heart on a smooshed muffin tin liner. Put it back in the freezer until firm.

Then invite someone to come take a bite out of one. And see if they can stop at one bite. They won't be able to. And they'll want milk, so have some ready.

Tomorrow I'll post about the salt water taffy. I promise.

Cooking for Kids' School/Club Parties

Day 40.

Forty days and forty nights is a concept that appears frequently in the Bible. Did you know that? There is something spiritual about doing something for forty days. Here are some biblical events that took forty days:

• The Great Flood. 40 days and 40 nights of rain.


• Moses on the mountain with God -- 40 days.


• Goliath - he was around for 40 days before David killed him.
• Elijah had a meal that sustained him 40 days.


• Nineveh, the city in the Jonah & the Whale story? They had 40 days to change or else.


• Jesus had a 40 day fast in the wilderness.

There is a scientific significance of the number 40, too. Every 40th day marks the end of a solar year or something or other which I don't really understand so won't try to explain. ;)

Anyway, no, there's nothing spiritual about my 40 days of cooking, although sometimes I do utter my thanks to the Good Lord for my wonderful creations, sometimes quite verbally and with great enthusiasm. I just wanted to share the significance of 40 days of doing something with you. A little trivia for you to store away, if you will.

I'm told that my daughter needs something tasty to bring to her club's Valentine's Day Party, which is this afternoon. Of course, I was only just told an hour ago, as she was kissing me goodbye in the doorway of her school. Never to fear! Mommy is here! And Mommy is always, always armed with real butter, sugar, and flour. And thanks to Daddy's hard work in the Army, Mommy can stay home and bake up a delicious something for the club. (I love my wonderful, hard-working husband and am thankful to be able to do what I do.)

So as I was running my dishwasher, I softened my butter on the counter above it. Try that trick. It works really well on days when you lack a sunny windowsill.

And then it took me about five minutes to whip up a batch of Alton Brown's Sugar Cookies dough. (I love Alton, don't you?) Then I put it in the fridge for a couple hours and went about my business.

>>>Fast Forward Two Hours>>>

When you roll out your dough, use powdered sugar, not flour, to keep the dough from sticking. This will keep your cookies from tasting floury when they're baked. Also, keep your rolling pin dusted with powdered sugar. Don't over bake your cookies. You want them to have lightly browned edges and that's all. Over baking causes burnt cookie taste and brittle or rock-hard cookies. None of those are pleasant, especially for the baker who just invested several hours into her work.

I made my dough into heart shapes, and decorated them to look like conversation hearts. I had fun choosing the sayings from my memory and from the internet. I hope the kids have fun eating them. :)