Conversation Heart Cookies

Continuing on with the Valentine's Day theme, I made some conversation heart sugar cookies. I'm a sucker for baking treats that portray a specific holiday or event. You can see where I made these sugar cookies with a Christmas theme HERE.
Making these cookies for Valentine's Day was even more fun because I got to add some of my own little phrases.

Ingredients: 

1 and 1/2 Cups Sifted Powdered Sugar

1 Cup Butter, Softened

1 Egg

2 Teaspoons Vanilla or Almond Extract

2 and 1/2 Cups Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar

Desired Cookie Cutters

What you'll need for Royal Icing:
 3 Tablespoons Meringue Powder
4 Cups Sifted Powdered Sugar
6 Tablespoons Water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream sugar, butter and egg; add flavoring. Blend in dry ingredients. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Divide dough in half, roll onto floured surface and cut as desired.

Bake on greased cookie sheet for 5-8 minutes. (Keep an eye on them, they bake quickly!)

 

Then, of course, decorate them as your heart desires. The best part, right?! 

 

Tell us about your Valentine's Day plans this year! Are you going out to dinner? Having a date night in? Seeing a movie?

Steven and I will be in Detroit for the George Strait farewell tour, and I'm so excited to take him to see a country legend, as it's our last chance to see him live. It was on Steve's bucket list to see King George in his lifetime, so I'm glad I can help cross that off his list. <3

xoxo,
Laura

Cherry Chocolate Fudge

With little-to-no plans this past weekend, I thought it would be a good time to start making some Valentine's Day treats. I always enjoy spreading the love around the office and leaving sweets in the kitchen for everyone to enjoy. Yesterday, for the sake of being festive, I made some cherry chocolate fudge. 

Ingredients:
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
7 ounces marshmallow cream
1 package white chocolate chips
6 ounces chocolate chips
1 jar (12 oz) maraschino cherries (chopped)
red food coloring (if desired)

Line a 13-in. x 9-in. pan with foil and grease the foil with 1-1/2 teaspoons butter; set aside.
In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, cream and remaining the butter. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 4 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the white chips and marshmallow cream. Add the chopped cherries and red coloring (if desired) right before pouring into the prepared pan.

For chocolate topping: Melt chocolate chips in a double-boiler and spread over the the fudge. Swirl as desired with knife or toothpick. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Using foil, lift fudge out of pan. Discard foil; cut into 1-in. squares. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. 
Yields: about 3 pounds.

Make sure to share with your loved ones!

xoxo,
Laura

Balloons and chocolates and food, oh my!

Happy Valentine's day everyone!

Unfortunately, Alex works the majority of the day....but we already celebrated our Valentine's day! So here's a little re-cap:

I recently read the book The Five Love Languages and I realized that Alex's love languages are Gifts and Acts of Service. So I thought I would combine the two and make him a delicious home-made dinner! He chose chicken pasta primavera...and I have to admit I did a pretty awesome job. Here's some proof.

First I cooked the chicken

While that was cooking, I got the rest of my ingredients together

Added the veggies while my pasta was cooking

Enjoyed a nice glass of wine out of my queen wine glass ;)

AND VOILA! A super-mega-yummy-dinner!

Next up was Alex's turn!

First off...what girl doesn't swoon when they get this text message

That would be the number of days until our wedding :D

Okay so later in the day Alex was suppose to work all night, but instead he texted me and told me to be ready in 45 minutes. He showed up with the BIGGEST balloon I've ever seen, and a box of chocolate kisses.

Alex doing his sorority pose...what a goon.

Seriously 

SO

BIG!

To finish the night off right, we went for dessert at the Melting Pot. We chose the Snicker-doodle option which was chocolate, butterscotch, and then a shot of Bailey's mixed in. It was heavenly!

I also feel like Valentine's day isn't just about your significant other...but for everyone you love. Therefore I stopped by one of my favorite coffee shops in GR (Madcap) and got myself a delicious almond milk cappuccino, and I delivered a scrumptious mocha to Laura at work! 

Thanks Madcap!

That's all for now! Laura and her Valentine are celebrating tonight so look for her update soon!

xoxo, K