Day 1: Heart-shaped pancakes
This morning we made pancakes. I love pancakes - especially whole wheat buttermilk pancakes. Here is the recipe I use: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/03/whole-wheat-buttermilk-pancakes/. It doesn't take ANY extra time to make them heart-shaped, or even to make them pink. My husband and I like to try new things, so we make 4 different kinds:
From the top right going clockwise, we have whole wheat chocolate chip, regular whole wheat, pink whole wheat, and pink whole wheat with butterscotch. It was so fun! The biggest hit was the butterscotch (and the biggest surprise!). The flavor of the butterscotch mixes surprisingly well with the wheat. Give it a shot!
Day 2: Experimenting with heart-shaped cheese
So today I made Pastel de papas (here's more or less the recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/pastel-de-papa-potatoe-and-ground-beef-pie-498972). My husband and I love it with cheese melted on the top. So I thought I would try two different methods of making the cheese heart-shaped.
In this first method, I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter and put the cheese inside of it. I think smaller shreds would have worked better.
I did find that if you fill the cookie cutter to the brim and push the cheese down, it holds its shape better.
The second method I tried was simply cutting hearts from a slice of cheese.
They were so cute I put tons of them on. Then it was time for the real test: to see how they would cook.
The shredded heart that fared the best was the one where I pushed down extra on the cookie cutter and it formed an indent in the potatoes. Good to know. The heart cut-outs kept their shape for the most part, but obviously the one that did the best was the one that was farthest from any other cheeses (the middle one).
So when you're thinking of a Valentines meal, it doesn't have to be a heart-shaped chicken breast. It can be a casserole. This same concept could work with bread crumbs or most other casserole toppings. Give it a shot!
Day 3: Heart-shaped biscuits
My husbands loves biscuits. And they are so cute when they are fun shapes! So I grabbed my go-to heart-shaped cookie cutter and patted out a biscuit, put it on the pan and pressed the cookie cutter into it. No rolling pin involved!
Super easy and super cute!
And they still taste just as good!
Day 4: Heart-shaped vegetables
You can really make anything heart-shaped, of course.
Yesterday we had lentils (here's the recipe we use http://javirecetas.hola.com/lentejas-receta-de-lentejas/. Sorry it's in Spanish...) and it just made sense to cut up the vegetables involved into cute little hearts. Above are some carrots.
And of course it involved potatoes. Super cute!
Day 5: Bread heart cut-outs
I love eggs. And toast. So good. Last night my sweet husband brought home some rosemary olive oil bread from our local bakery and I was really excited to use some of it for breakfast!
You first need to cut a heart shape out of the middle. If you're using normal store-bought bread, a metal cookie cutter should work just fine.
I didn't have normal bread, or even a metal cookie cutter, so I went old-school and cut out a heart.
Next, you put the bread in a frying pan with some oil or butter, and carefully break an egg into the cut-out.
You can also toast the cut-out bread heart and add it. My husband was very impressed and said it was a huge success!
Day 6: Surprise muffins!
Last year, I made almond poppyseed muffins and made hearts to put in the middle of them.
This year, with a new recipe and a new color, I wanted to try something different.
My husband loves bran muffins, and so do I (I'm too lazy to write down the recipe I use - it's my mother's recipe. Here's one I found that's similar http://allrecipes.com/recipe/classic-bran-muffins/), so I decided to do the experiment with this.
First, you take half the batter (or a little less than half) and dye it a color. I have been doing a lot of red lately, so I figured blue would be just as cute. Put it in a bread pan and bake until done (this will differ depending on your recipe).
When the "bread" has cooled, cut it into slices and cut hearts out of each slice. Then, get out the remaining batter and fill each greased muffin tin with about a tablespoon of batter. Then put a colored "muffin heart" into each tin and cover each with the remaining batter. Keep an eye on them - they won't take as long to cook as normal muffins since the inside is already mostly cooked.
When they are cut open, there is a cute little surprise inside!
Day 7: Happy Birthday to my sweetheart!
My husband's birthday is one week before Valentine's Day, so I always make him a heart-shaped cake. The cake he just LOVES is Italian Cream and it's three layers. Here's the recipe (courtesy of his mother):
Italian Cream Cake
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup oil
5 eggs, separated
1 tsp. soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 cup angel flake coconut
1/2 tsp. butter flavoring
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Cream sugar, shortening & oil. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition.
Stir soda into buttermilk. Add buttermilk alternately with flour to batter. Add flavorings.
Fold in coconut. Beat eggwhites until stiff and fold into mixture. Pour into 3 greased &
floured 9" pans. Bake at 350 for 25 min. Cool cake layers before icing.
Icing
1 8oz. pkg. cream cheese
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 lb. box powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1/2 tsp. butter flavoring
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Cream cheese & margarine together. Beat in sugar gradually. Add pecans and flavorings.
The only problem with it being three layers, is that I only have two heart pans. So, I could be patient and wait for the two to be done and reuse one of the pans, but I'm not that patient. So I used an 8x8 pan and cut out a heart. It worked just as well.
It was such a pretty cake. And SUPER delicious!
Day 8: Pink biscuits and gravy
So this is an example to show you that not EVERYTHING can be dyed pink.
I made biscuits and gravy and dyed the gravy pink. It looked awful (even though it tasted good). FAIL!
Day 9: Hearts on waffles
I love waffles. Like a lot. But I don't have a heart-shaped waffle iron, so I figured I could use the idea of negative space and make a heart on a waffle.
I cut out a heart from an advertisement (why waste good paper?) and placed it on the waffle.
Then I sprinkled powdered sugar around it. Pretty cute, right?
I didn't feel like you could really tell it was a heart, so I added peanut butter.
Then I outlined it with syrup (which did basically nothing). But it was a fun idea!
Day 10: Heart Pizza 2 ways
My husband and I love pizza. Especially pesto and red pepper pizza
I decided to add some pepperoni to the top in the form of a heart. I cut the pepperoni in thirds so it wouldn't take up so much room. Then I added parmesan.
It was super delicious!
On the other pizza, I cut each pepperoni into a heart shape. By the way, pizza in a cast iron pan = WIN!
It was also incredibly delicious and cute!
Day 11: Something Red Velvet
It's kind of a must to make SOMETHING red velvet during the Valentine season. Like these: http://therecipecritic.com/2014/01/red-velvet-sugar-cookie-bars-cream-cheese-frosting/. Red Velvet sugar cookie bars. They were seriously the best dessert we have tried in a LONG time. You HAVE to give these a shot. We ate the whole pan in just three days (glutenous, I know). So amazing!
Day 12: Heart smoothie
I love a good smoothie. You can make your pink by adding berries, but my husband isn't into berries very much. So I made our usual - bananas, peanut butter, oatmeal, and milk (we used to drink this after going on long runs and add protein powder). Then I took a banana slice and cut it into a heart, and place it on top. Pretty cute.
Day 13: Cinnamon Roll pancakes
If you can't tell, I have kind of a sweet tooth, and pancakes are so good to me! We once had cinnamon roll pancakes at a bed and breakfast and we decided to give it a try. You just make buttermilk pancakes, then in a bag put melted butter mixed with brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag and pipe the mixture onto the pancakes into whatever design you want!
We always eat them with coconut syrup and love them!
Day 14: Make something he (or she) loves
Valentine's Day is TOMORROW!!! Make something that you know your significant other will love. Above are some ideas. My husband LOVES Reese's, so tonight I'm going to make this:
only, I'll make them into heart shapes.
I'm also going to make him a snack of spiced pecans:
Spiced Pecans
3 Tbs butter
1 1/2 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped pecans
Over medium heat, melt butter in a pan and add sugar, spices and salt. Add pecan pieces and stir until well-coated. Continue to cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally, until sugar caramelizes and pecans darken slightly in color. Transfer mixture to a paper bag to cool. Shake bag occasionally to break up pieces.
(recipe courtesy of his sister)
So make this Valentine's Day special without spending a fortune or going out to eat. Have a nice, romantic, heart-themed dinner at home!
Butterscotch pancakes actually do sound really good
ReplyDeleteSo glad you're posting these, Whitney!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE rosemary bread!!
ReplyDelete