Valentine's Day

Tristan and I decided to stay home for Valentine's Day this year.  Well, I decided.  I wanted to make a nice dinner and just relax at home.  It has been a long time since I have made a big dinner so it was a lot of fun.  We had Cilantro Lime Shrimp, roasted potato salad, salad and rolls.  However - it was kind of tricky getting everything to stay warm and be done at about the same time.  Because there was so much going on, I didn't really have time to make notes about the recipes or take any pictures.  I did get some good ones of dessert, though!!  (More of that to come...)

One thing I realized while prepping to make dinner, is that I will never again buy raw shrimp that has not be deveined!  I had never bought it before so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.  It turned out to be such a pain, though!  Like I said - NEVER AGAIN!

For dessert, we put the fondue pot we got for our wedding to use.  We hadn't had an opportunity to use it yet - so I was pretty excited.

Chocolate Fondue
24 ounces milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups fat-free half & half
2 teaspoons vanilla

Melt ingredients together in fondue pot, set to about 300 degrees.  Stir to keep the chocolate from sticking to the bottom.

We had marshmallows, sliced fruit and french vanilla cake cubes (dyed pink for V-Day, of course!).  I think the strawberries and bananas were my favorite - but it was all REALLY good.  The chocolate turned out pretty sweet, so I think the fruit helped cut the richness a bit.

I didn't realize how much fondue this would make.  There was a lot of chocolate left over.  We actually froze the leftovers and, oddly, the mixture didn't freeze solid like I expected.  It got much thicker and really cold - but not hard.  It worked out well though - it's the perfect dip for apples!!

My final Valentine's Day project for this year is to make a card for my husband.  I am pretty impressed at all the use I got out of the 8 or 10 pieces of scrapbook paper I bought!  I know I've mentioned it before, but if you haven't checked out Echo Park's paper collections - you MUST....I love them!

 

This sheet that I got had a bunch of little individual "tags" that you could cut apart - really cool.

Another one of my favorite products - Distress Ink:

 It gives your stamping a really neat, older look.  I used this to stamp the front of the card

Here are a few other pictures of the final product.  I wanted to give it a kind of "worn" look - some new techniques I am experimenting with.  I focused on torn edges for this project.

I HOPE YOU ALL HAD A WONDERFUL VALENTINE'S DAY WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!!