Happy Heart Week
/We’re excited to announce our “Galentine’s Giveaway” this week! The winner was chosen randomly, Congratulations Kirsten Stanger! Thank you for following and supporting us through the past few years! We hope you and your bestie enjoy all the lovely items in your baskets! Plan a day just for yourselves and indulge in all the goodness friendship brings!
If you’re still looking for the perfect Valentine for anyone on your list, here are a couple ideas. I’m a little late getting my Valentine’s prepared this year, but they will be done and delivered on Friday!
I did a few different Valentine’s this year. The kids and their spouses got another tin of “Chewy Peps”. They loved them last year, and so I decided to keep up the tradition. You can get these in the tins, or a smaller bag option at “The Treasure Basket” in South Ogden, Utah – one of my favorite little shops to support.
The tins are also available on Amazon in a two pack. Just remember to tell your Valentine not to bite into these at first, they will break a tooth. You need to suck them for a little while to soften them up, and then you will know when it’s ok to start chewing on them.
They are addicting! I love the smooth peppermint flavor – not too strong, and not too sweet. The perfect combination of sweetness and mint in your mouth.
I discovered a new Trader Joe’s in Salt Lake City, on 2160 South and 700 East a few weeks ago. It’s more convenient to get to than the one downtown. I decided to try one of their big bars of Belgian chocolate. Oh, My Goodness!!! It is delicious! I’m a bit of a chocolate snob, and this stuff is addicting! They offer four flavors in big one pound plus bars – Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate (my favorite), Milk Chocolate with Almonds (another favorite), and a surprise favorite – Milk Chocolate with caramel and broken up pretzels. I wasn’t going to try that one at first, but the young man at the check-out counter sold me on them. He told me he’s not really a pretzel fan, but his friend bought one, and he ended up eating most of it before his friend got any! 😊 He wasn’t wrong, it is delicious. The mix of milk chocolate, caramel, and salt from the pretzels is divine! This chocolate is smooth and not waxy.
Since our grandkids prefer chocolate over candy, I got them each a big bar of their own, tied it up with a cute ribbon sprig, and a paint-with-water Valentine Card from “Inklings”. I purchased these at a Valentine Boutique, but I found them online as well.
I just searched “paint with water Valentine cards by Inklings”. They have a few different choices. Here is the link.
I love giving them an activity to do in addition to a sweet treat. I hope they love their huge chocolate bars this year!
We’ll see if this becomes a new tradition as well. I would post the link the for the chocolate bars, but Trader Joe’s doesn’t have an online store. It’s worth the drive to go buy them in their store.
I simplified my friend gifts this year which is quite a miracle!
I bought some cute Valentine paper cups from “Meri Meri” and filled them with my favorite gummy candies, put them in a clear cello baggie, and tied them up with a ribbon sprig and a simple heart tag I made on my Cameo Silhouette.
I have also been wanting to try to make a chocolate sauce to go over fresh sliced strawberries, like the ones offered at Borough Market in London. I stopped at Gygi’s in Salt Lake City to get instructions on how to accomplish this.
They have a free handout, in addition to a little booklet that’s all about chocolate for $8. I learned a lot about chocolate, but in the end came home and ended up using a recipe from our friend’s the Brian’s. They usually use Guittard chocolate chips for their hot fudge recipe, which is out of this world. I decided to use the Trader Joe’s milk chocolate with a few squares of dark chocolate to make it not quite so sweet. This was one of those trial-and-error things where you discover the original recipe is better than your hopeful experiment. After going to all the work to go to two stores in Salt Lake, I should have just bought the Guittard chocolate chips from the grocery store and stuck with the tried and true Scott Brian Family Recipe! I will include it here, hoping Scott and Sue don’t mind if I share! It really is the BEST hot fudge you will ever taste!
Scott Brian’s Hot Fudge
· 1 Cup (6 oz.) Guittard Chocolate Chips – they use 2/3 semi-sweet ones and 1/3 milk chocolate ones.
· ½ Cup Butter
· 1 1/3 Cup Evaporated Can Milk
· 2 Cups Powdered Sugar
· 1 teaspoon Vanilla – add after removing pan from heat
Melt Chocolate Chips and Butter
Add Milk and Powdered Sugar – stir together
Bring to a boil, keep stirring so it doesn’t burn
Lower heat, then simmer and stir for 8-12 minutes until thickened. You can add a little more powdered sugar if you need it a little thicker.
Remove from heat and add Vanilla – stir together
This would be a fun dessert for Valentine’s Day Dinner at home, with strawberries or vanilla ice cream, which is where Ronnie and I will be celebrating ours. We gave up on going out years ago as we are not fans of crowded, noisy restaurants. We prefer a quiet evening at home helping each other cook one of our favorite meals which usually includes crab, shrimp cocktails, asparagus, steamed baby potatoes with butter and parsley, and some Welch’s Sparkling White Grape Juice.
Congrats again to our Galentine’s Giveaway winner, Kristen Stanger and her bestie! May your week be filled with LIGHT as you celebrate those you love and adore in every form of love! The world needs all the LIGHT and LOVE we can share!
Love Ya, Les 😊