Because I Love You, Dang It!

Sorry this took me so long. Lots of pictures to go through. I really need to take a photography class...

This year for Valentine's Day I continued my masochistic tradition of serving a heart-shaped dinner. We've been stuck in a pizza rut for too long so this year I didn't give the family a chance to pick that again. Democracy is over-rated when I'm the one that has to do all the work.

Last year, I used heart-shaped cupcake liners to make individual cakes. They were cute so I put them to work again this year as liners for sloppy joe buns. I call these "sloppy kisses."

And I had to include pears.

These I soaked overnight in pear juice mixed with grenadine and red food coloring. Not only did they have a gorgeous red color but they had a spectacular taste. Probably could have heated them up, added a little chocolate syrup, and had dessert.

While I'm not exactly the salad eating type, we needed vegetables on the table. I briefly considered beets. Very briefly. I stuffed veggies into a heart-shaped bowl and called it good. Instead of Sprite with heart-shaped fruit juice, I made sparkling pink lemonade and used black cherry for the ice cubes. A little too much on the sweet side. When the ice cubes melted, the darker color stayed on the top and looked pretty cool. The jell-o was a big flop this year...I thought I had a good idea but was attempting to multi-task and that's just not smart for airheads.

And now for dessert. My favorite part.

Cupcake, heart strawberries with cream, and heart candies. I couldn't stop myself. The cupcake was really the star of the show. My pictures were horrible so go check out the site where I got the recipe for the magic: Bake it in a Cake. And yes, I made the Laffy Taffy frosting.

But I wasn't finished yet.

You might remember that the Boy is quite the picky eater, even turning up his nose at kid-staples such as mac n' cheese and pizza. Still, he couldn't escape my madness:

Heheheh...I am evil.