Valentines Day Past and Present

I do believe Valentines Day is my favorite Holiday next to Christmas.  Like most of you, we have enjoyed having Valentines parties for the kids, baking cookies, making Valentines mail boxes or buckets, and making Valentines cards.  Steve and I have sometimes gone on dates in the evening, or stayed home and had little picnic in front of the fireplace or fancy dinner just the two of us at home.  It is a happy week to look forward to in the middle of muddy, snowy, winter months.

I had some pictures I wanted to share from Valentines past, but haven't been able to find them in the midst of this move, because we still have  many things stored in boxes.  So, I decided to share our little Valentines Party from this year.  We combined it with our Valentines card making day.  This Valentines Day, Steve and I are in North Carolina, enjoying a nice catch up with our son Nathan and his family. We have had the fun of distributing all the cards the Florida kids made for them.  Here are a few of our highlights from our Valentines party last week.

Luke made his nephews a Rubber-band Rifle.

Which they all loved.

"Oh… I love these ones Grammy."

"… and I love the Pigs in a Blanket Grammy". 

Pigs in a blanket….

Marie's delicious Blackberry Scones….

Sugar Cookies….

Orange slices….

cheese slices and sprouts….

…...and tea…. always seem to make their way into our Valentines Party every year.

Each addition is a memory of someone in Valentines Days Past.

"Sorry Toby, its all gone".

Making Valentines

Roses are red, 

Hydrangeas are blue

You are my dear one

  and I love you.  

Who can resist a Valentine poem this time of year?   Those little Rhymes get in my head. Making Valentines is something I love to do, but don't get to do it as often as I would like. It isn't always easy to plan an extra day before Valentines to make them, so they will be ready to give away on  Valentines day.  This year was a year that we were able to plan ahead and have a Pre-Valentines party.  My daughters and 3 of my grandons and I got together and made Valentines cards to our hearts content… or at least until dinner time.  What fun we had.  We were able to make Valentines for all of our loved ones, and get them wrapped and sent, or ready to deliver.

"Lets make some Valentines Grammy".

The day before our "Valentine Making Party", I cut out hearts,

Stamped some little tags

Gathered some stickers.

Pulled outs some paper roses, and little "do dads".

Spread it out on the dining table.

When everyone arrived, we went to work ("went to play" may be a more accurate thing to say).  We all had more fun than I can tell you.

The boys loved having the freedom to stick all the stickers on, and thinking up their designs, deciding who they would make each card for….. and so did we.

"Look Grammy"

Glue, Clip, Stick, Glue some more.

Every last card they made was a treasure and a story in itself.

Making Cards, or even just writing a sweet note on a pre made card to someone you love is a treasured memory and a blessing to the one who receives.

Have a wonderful week Everyone, and enjoy your Valentines preparations.

Whole Wheat Almond Sugar Cookie Hearts

Valentines and Christmas are my two favorite seasons to make Sugar Cookies.  Those two holidays don't seem the same without some kind of sugar cookie to enjoy through the festivities. This recipe is a healthier, sugar cookie recipe that you will love, and will help if you are worried about  too much "junk" for the kids.  By the time you add cupcakes, candy, and chocolates to a Valentines party, you can end up with a lot of sugar and food coloring.  This sugar cookie is lighter on the sugar than most, and uses whole wheat flour and almond meal as the base, which transforms it into a healthier version of our old favorite Sugar Cookie.  It has delicious, buttery, and lightly sweet almond flavor that reminds me of a cross between a shortbread cookie and a Digestive cookie.  They are  perfect with a cup of tea. I topped these with two different glazes; one is an almond glaze, made of organic powdered sugar, pure vanilla and cream, the other is made with pure organic strawberry powder, organic powdered sugar, vanilla and cream. The past few years, I have been trying to come up with ways to add color and beauty when I cook without adding food coloring or overly processed decorations that really play havoc with all of our health; these are a couple of the ideas I came up with. I have used this  icing for scones, and various cookies, and it works nicely;  Plain and simple, but still lovely and delicious.

Whole Wheat Almond Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups Whole Wheat Flour (I prefer the White Whole Wheat, especially for these, as it is lighter in color, texture and taste)
1 1/4 cup Almond Meal (made with blanched almonds).
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
3/4 cup Butter, softened
3/4 cup Organic Cane Sugar or Sucanat (Sucanat is fine for these, but it is darker in color, which will make a darker colored cookie.  I used organic unbleached Cane Sugar).
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Pure Almond Extract
1 Egg

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, mix and stir together the dry ingredients (first 3 ingredients).
3. In another bowl, mix together remaining ingredients, and beat well with a mixer.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
5. Mix well using a large wooden spoon until it clings together as is thoroughly mixed.
6. If  your butter was "very" soft, you will want to refrigerate the dough 30- 60 minutes to make it firm enough to roll out
7. Roll out onto a floured surface, I rolled them out about 1/4 inch in thickness.
8. Cut out and place onto a cookie sheet.  I use parchment paper on my cookie sheet, but if you don't have parchment paper, you can lightly grease or spray with cooking spray.
9. Bake 8-11 minutes, or until just beginning to brown.
10. Cool and frost as desired.

Note: I have made these with Barley Flour in place of Whole Wheat at times, and it is delicious variation that gives you a break from the Wheat if you need it.  I find that the Barley Flour is an even whiter flour, and gives a nice light colored cookie as well.

Icing

Ingredients:

1 cup organic powdered sugar

1 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

1 teaspoons Pure Almond Extract 

1 -2  Tablespoons cream or milk

Instructions:

1. Put powdered sugar and extracts into a medium sized bowl.
2. Add Cream a little at a time until you have a loose, but not too runny consistency.
3. Spoon onto cookies and spread evenly.

Natural Strawberry Icing

Ingredients:

3/4 cups Powdered Sugar

1/4 cup Dried Powdered Strawberries

1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

1-2 Tablespoons Milk or Cream 

Instructions:

1. Put powdered sugar, Powdered Strawberry and Vanilla Extract into a medium sized bowl.
2. Add Cream a little at a time until you have a loose, but not too runny consistency.
3. Spoon or Dip onto cookies and spread evenly.

Note: You could also use strawberry juice in place of the cream and replace the 1/4  cup dried strawberry powder with another 1/4 cup powdered sugar.  This would produce a pretty pink icing as well…it would probably come out even a little pinker, as the dried strawberries in this powder take on a slightly brownish effect, which is common with dried fruits.

Root Vegetable Hash

I've been enjoying my root vegetables.  They are delicious, satisfying, and full of vitamins and minerals, (especially iron, beta-carotene/vitamin A and vitamin C). They satisfy that winter comfort food craving that I often get.  This dish is a simple preparation of diced root vegetables stir fried together in Olive oil. 

It is as simple as pulling together any of your favorite root vegetables; such as potatoes, beets, sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, turnips, onions, garlic, any that you like.  Pre-cook all but the garlic and onions, by boiling them in a pot of water with skins on.  Pull them out when they are just beginning to get tender, but are still slightly under cooked.

Cool until you are able to handle them comfortably, peel them and dice them up.

Place them into a hot pan drizzled with olive oil.  I like to brown the onions first, add the garlic, and then the vegetables.  Leave the vegetables unstirred to cook and brown for a couple of minutes, then stir all together getting a good brown on them.  Add salt and pepper to taste. You could also bake them instead of frying them if you desired.

Dish them up and sprinkle generously with chives or green onions.

Serve as a side dish for dinner….

Or top with an egg and serve for breakfast. 

Root Vegetable Hash

Ingredients:

4-6 root vegetables of choice, including onions, and garlic.

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh chives or green onions

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions:

1.  Pre-cook all but the garlic and onions, by boiling them in a pot of water with skins on.  
2.  Pull them out when they are just beginning to get tender, but are still slightly under cooked.
3.  Cool until you are able to handle them comfortably; peel them and dice them up.
4.  Place them into a hot pan drizzled with olive oil.  I like to brown the onions first, add the garlic, and then the vegetables.  Leave the vegetables unstirred to cook and brown for a couple of minutes, then stir all together getting a good brown on them.  
5. Add alt and pepper to taste. 
6. Dish them up and sprinkle generously with chives or green onions.
7. Serve them as a side dish, or serve them with eggs for breakfast.

Enjoy!