Valentine's Day 2018

I realized I hadn't made my Valentine cookies for two years so suddenly got the urge on Tuesday. I made them without the frosting this time and decorated them with different types of Valentine sprinkles and sugars before I baked them. My brother-in-law, Jim, was serving a dinner on Valentine's Day to all us ladies and we were instructed not to cook or bring anything. Now that's pampering! But Valentine's Day is one of my favorite days for food and goodies so I could NOT just do anything. I decided to make cookies, put them in cute little Valentine bags and gave them to each of the three other ladies at the dinner. Two of Barbara's friends were there, one husband, myself, (Bruce was out-of-town for work), and my sister, Barbara, and Jim. I also gave Jim his own bag of cookies for all his work pampering us.

The dinner was superb and it turned out to be a wonderfully, festive Valentine's Day.

Jim even gave us little, wrapped Valentine gifts at our place settings along with ribbon-wrapped coconut soap as another gift. Like I said, we were soooo pampered!

Jim cooked a dinner from Bon Appetit Mediterranean edition (that he found in their basement.)

The dinner included steak with a salsa accompaniment, roasted asparagus, a vegetable dish of tomatoes, shrimp, olives, and feta cheese that you'd scoop and eat with a crusty, delicious half french and half sourdough bread that was fabulous

and, of course, a salad that was a Mediterranean-style salad.

For dessert, Jim served angel food cake with mixed berries and a scoop of Talenti gelato (our favorite gelato.)

Before dessert was served, all us girls opened our presents, as we were full of suspense! We all closed our eyes and tore off the wrapping and tried to guess what is was. We all guested correct...CHOCOLATES! We each got a different 8 ounce variety of See's chocolates. Mine were California Brittle, similar to our almond roca we make at Christmas. SOOOO good!

But that wasn't my only Valentine's Day gift. Even though Bruce was out-of-town, he gave me a dozen roses before he left

and he got cupcakes from Cupcake Royale for dessert on Monday night.

So, I guess you could say I've been being pampered since Monday night, an extended Valentine's Day is always a good thing.

Comments

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of meatloaf . This must be meatloaf season. It was surprisingly similar to the Pioneer Woman's version who was also recently on. I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book, Food Matters . His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese! I must be doing something wrong. The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life. If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health. He tells his story in Food Matters and provides a plan for responsible eating that covers a no-nonsense rundown on

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free. But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one. My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends. We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop. She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots. We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.) The views are always quite lovely, too. Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception. I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, there was a big party go

Waking Up in Vegas

and just like that...we were Waking Up in Vegas. Just like the Katy Perry song. We went to her 78th performance which was her second-to-last Las Vegas residency show entitled "Play". That was perfect for us because we went to Vegas simply to play. Her concert was a great finale for us because it was high energy and full of silliness, just the way Katy Perry is. And we were feeling it after three nights in Las Vegas. "Get up, and shake the gutter off your clothes now, That's what you get for waking up in Vegas". Here's what she said about her show: "I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove. When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. This show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. Because never forget, love is and will always be the key,” she said. We went to Vegas spur of the moment because Br

Sylvia's Scenario

Search This Blog