Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

A new command I give you:

Love one another.

As I have loved you,

so you must love one another.
John 13:34

Much love to you today - I hope your day is filled with sweetness and smiles!

 

Valentine Cookies

Another round of Danish sugar cookies. . . this time hearts for Valentine’s Day. 

This is my Grammy Snelling’s recipe and is my favorite.  You can use this recipe to make thick and soft cookies with lots of frosting:

How about painted cookies? 

Or even slice and bake candy corn cookies.

But my favorite way to make Grammy’s Danish cookies are rolled thin with sprinkles and no frosting: 

It’s how Grammy made them :)
DANISH SUGAR COOKIES
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind (the dried kind in a jar is fine)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 tablespoon cream

1.  Cream together the shortening and sugar.

2.  Add eggs and whip until light and fluffy. 

3.  Mix in cream, nutmeg, lemon rind, and baking powder.

4.  Stir in flour to make a firm dough.

5.  Chill at least 1 hour.

6.  Roll thin and cut out with a floured cookie cutter.  Use sprinkles now, if not planning to frost them later. 

7.  Place cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350, 7 minutes for thin cookies- up to 12 minutes for thicker cookies.

Yarn wrapped Valentine hearts

 

I am really in love with anything yarn-wrapped lately.  A fast and easy way to use up leftover yarn. . . what’s not to love?!

Hearts are the latest thing I’ve subjected to the yarn wrap.  You could make them any size, but I made some smallish ones to use as bowl and vase fillers. 

Start by drawing hearts onto cardboard.  I traced around a cookie cutter onto a box leftover from Christmas morning. 

Cut them out.  Don’t worry if they’re not perfect!  The yarn will cover up any uneven edges or stray pen marks.  Begin wrapping around the heart.  You can secure the first strand of yarn with a piece of tape or just hold it for a few wraps, until it’s covered. 

Switch directions while continuing to wrap the heart.  Make sure as you wrap that you are covering the heart evenly and hiding the cardboard, so it doesn’t peek through at all. 

Once you’ve completely covered the heart, tuck the end under a few strands of yarn and add a dab of hot glue. 

Use as filler in bowls, vases, centerpieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VaLeNTiNe BLeSSiNGs!

 

The Sweetest Valentine

I completely love this VaLeNTiNe arrangement of John 3:16 . . .

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

Notice how the words and lines are positioned so that the word VALENTINE is spelled from letters in the verse?

I make some every year in different craft forms.  This year I made a wood version (which I’ll show you soon) and this pillow. 

The words are embroidered on muslin.  I sewed and stuffed a larger red heart, then used buttonhole stitching to attach the muslin.

Added fabric flowers, a vintage key and some buttons. . .

The sweetest Valentine. 

I participate in THESE linky parties!

Love Never Fails Valentine Box

I found this vintage wooden recipe box at the thrift store awhile ago.  And it languished about before until I could decide what to do with it ;) 

I had planned to use it to display some seasonal  decor and finally decided on a Valentine theme.   I left the lid open and put everything in the area where recipe cards would have gone. 

The hearts are sewn from cotton fabric.  After turning right side out and stuffing with poly fill, I hand stitched a smaller heart to the front and then embellished with bits of lace, old buttons, rusty safety pins and rolled felt roses. 

The love bird is my favorite!  I drew him like a hundred times before I got the pattern right.  He’s holding a chocolate brown crochet heart in his beak that has a vintage key pinned to it. 

The tag is tea stained and stamped with “Love Never Fails” from 1Corinthians 13:8.  I put another crochet heart on it and then pinned it to one of the bigger hearts. 

Tucked them all into the box along with some greenery and berries, then tied a strip of red fabric around the box. . .  Now I can’t wait to start decorating for Valentine’s Day!

Chocolate-Strawberry Cake

It has fresh fruit.  Therefore, it is not bad for you.  

Right?

Okay.  Maybe not.  Still.  It’s really fun for a special celebration.  We enjoyed  it as a Valentine’s treat.  It  takes a little more time to make, but it’s not hard and the results are so pretty! 

The recipe starts with a boxed cake mix, but you definitely could make your own from scratch cake for the layers instead.  This chocolate frosting is so good.  Not too sweet and it tastes like French silk pie!! :)

CHOCOLATE-STRAWBERRY CAKE

CAKE:
1 chocolate cake mix
1 package instant chocolate pudding mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/4  cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup water 

Dump it all in a bowl and mix on low for 30 seconds.  Scrape bowl and beat for 2 additional minutes.  Pour into 2 greased and floured 9” cake pans.  Bake at 350 degrees 28-32 minutes or until cakes test done with a toothpick.  Cool in pans 10 minutes.  Remove from pans  and cool completely on wire racks.  

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 to 5-1/3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup half and half, cream or milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Sift the sugar and cocoa together to remove any lumps.  Cream butter.  Blend in vanilla.  Add powdered sugar and cocoa alternately with the cream.  Beat well; until desired texture is achieved. 

STRAWBERRIES:
1 pound fresh strawberries

Wash, hull and core.  Place with points up onto paper towels and allow to air dry. 

CHOCOLATE SCROLLS:
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate or 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Melt until smooth.

ASSEMBLY: 
Frost the cooled cake layers with chocolate buttercream. 

Put the  melted chocolate into a zipper bag and snip off a tiny part of one corner.  Pipe squigglies onto wax paper and refrigerate until cool and solid.

Use the remaining chocolate to drizzle onto the frosted cake.

Arrange the strawberries on top and gently push the cooled chocolate scrolls into the frosting. 

The end.  

More recipes at Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday :)

HaPpY VaLeNTiNe’s dAy!

May the Lord make our LOVE increase and fill our hearts to overflowing today.  God’s love has been POURED out and LAVISHED upon us as His sons and daughters.  God’s love is patient and kind, it ALWAYS protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres.  Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).  May we fully EMBRACE the love of God today and extend that love to the world around us.  May the abundance of God’s love for us OVERFLOW in patience, KINDNESS, hope, trust, and perseverance as we care for family, friends, co-workers and others around us today.  In JESUS’ name I pray,  Amen.

"May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for every one else, just as ours does for you."  1 Thessalonians 3:12 (NIV)

Valentine Sodas

 

I’m posting an easy one this week.  We have these every Valentine’s Day as a special treat.  You probably don’t even need the recipe, but just in case…

Valentine Floats

Strawberry Soda
Vanilla Ice Cream

For each serving:  In a tall glass, put two scoops of vanilla ice cream. Pour the soda over the ice cream. Slap in a straw and prepare to slurp.

Find more recipes at Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday:) 

Danish Sugar Cookies...

This thin little sugar cookies are incredibly light, with just a hint of nutmeg. They can be rolled more thickly and slathered with frosting, but we prefer them thin and dusted with colored sugar or sprinkles.

These were the cookies my Grammy Snelling made for us at Christmas every year. I like to make them for more than just Christmas...really any holiday will do! Just vary the cookie cutter and sprinkle or frosting colors according to the occasion. Oh, and you might want to double the recipe. Just sayin'.

Grammy's Sugar Cookies

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg1

1/2 teaspoons grated lemon rind (the dried kind in a jar is fine)

1/2 cup Crisco shortening

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

1 tablespoon cream

Cream together the Crisco and sugar. Add eggs and whip until light and fluffy. Add cream, nutmeg, lemon rind, and baking powder and mix. Stir in flour to make a stiff dough. Chill at least 1 hour. Roll thin and cut out with a floured cookie cutter. Place cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet. If using sprinkles, add them before baking. Bake at 350, 7 minutes for thin cookies- up to 12 minutes for thicker cookies.

This recipe is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

grammy snelling's cookies...

OHMY! These are wonderful little cookies. We have them nearly every holiday. The major ones, anyway. They're good with frosting, but at their best rolled thinly and dusted with colored sugar or sprinkles.

These cookies were made with my Grammy Snelling's recipe. They are just slightly different from most sugar cookie recipes I've seen or tried. All of them are good. Delicious even. But to us, Grammy's recipe is the perfect sugar cookie.

Grammy's Sugar Cookies

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon rind (the dried kind in a jar is fine)

1/2 cup Crisco

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

1 tablespoon cream

Cream together the Crisco and sugar. Add eggs and whip until light and fluffy. Add cream, nutmeg, lemon rind, and baking powder and mix. Stir in flour to make a stiff dough. Chill at least 1 hour. Roll thin and cut out with a floured cookie cutter. Place cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet. If using sprinkles, add them before baking. Bake at 350, 7 minutes for thin cookies- up to 12 minutes for thicker cookies.

ruffled heartstrings

Just finished... Two new Valentine table runners. This one is a "heartstring" of five individual hearts joined together. It's made in rag quilt style, the edges clipped to allow the ruffling effect.

This runner is a simple rectangle with five hearts appliqued across the top. It is also made with the prim rag quilt process. I just love these happy Valentine fabrics and their bright colors!

You can find them in my Etsy shop or on Ebay.