Stop What You're Doing

That's it. No preamble. No long-winded story about my childhood. No self-reflection.

Just stop what you're doing RIGHT NOW and make these Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats from Smitten Kitchen.

They are the lazy person's version of The Best Thing I Ever Made. Only 4 ingredients. And they are extremely delicious.

Not pictured: butter.

That is all.

P.S. This recipe easily doubles which is good because God help you if you only make a single 8x8 pan of this goodness. I could eat an 8x8 pan of them all my myself. Which I may or may not have done for dinner last night.

Consider the Dishtowel

Because a lot of the people I work with are in other non-San-Francisco offices, in future time zones, I spend a lot of time on early morning phone calls, which sometimes turn into all-day phone calls, which often means I work from home.

Here's a shot of my at-home "office." (It's really the breakfast room.) I try to keep the table relatively clean (doesn't always work, but I try).

The gorgeous orchids are courtesy of my buddy Sherwin. Thanks Sherwin! My kitchen-office suddenly feels so posh. It's amazing what flowers can do for the spirit.

And this, dear friends, is my office's view.

Yes, I could sit on the other side of the table, and have a view out my kitchen window. But for some reason I prefer sitting this direction. I really don't know why. It makes no sense.

I am weird.

But you already knew that and that's also really not why we're here today.

See those posters on my wall of my at-home office space?
They aren't posters. They are dishtowels.

Proof I am not a perfectionist - the canvas is definitely not stretched evenly!

If you've been with this blog since the beginning, you will see other examples of my love of using dishtowels for tasks beyond dish-drying. This is another sneaky use for them.

I ran across these two towels at Sur La Table a couple of months ago. Turning them into fun, cheap wall art is easy; here's how.

Equipment:
A piece of fabric. See below for tips. 
A staple gun and plenty of staples. Just your basic one will do. I have one like this.
4 canvas stretcher bars that are an appropriate size for your fabric/desired finished piece. You can find these at art supply stores. They will have two kinds, the cheap ones and the expensive heavy duty ones. If your piece of fabric is less than 4' square, get the cheap ones.
Two picture hanger screws and picture wire
A tape measure or ruler

Bonus Equipment: DIY frame from the art supply store. These come in metal and wood. If you get the wood kind, you will also need a touch of super glue to join the pieces. You don't need glass for this project.

Directions:
1. I was going to type out instructions but then I found that the internet had already solved this problem for me. Instead, please enjoy this video.


2. Try not to get too annoyed as this lady is super nice but oddly bouncy.
3. Frame if you wish, then add the hanging hardware and hang your art.

So easy!

Tips for choosing fabric for this project:
Think outside the bolt on this - you can use dishtowels, napkins, old tablecloths, pillowcovers (taken apart at the seams), even old favorite pieces of clothing. Thicker and woven fabrics are easier to use; but super-thick and very thin fabrics can be challenging. Stretchy fabric is practically impossible; don't use it if you've never done this before.

A note: if you are framing something that you need to protect because it's an heirloom or whatever, take it to the professionals to get it framed. This project is more about doing a quick change on what's on your walls and creating some "cheap art" for yourself. Otherwise, if your fabric is iron-able, iron it as best you can.

Some other examples from around my home:

My motto. In the kitchen, of course. This piece also began life as a dishtowel.

A Marimekko "Lokki" panel atop a bookcase.

More Marimekko panels. Previously in my office, now adding some color to a quiet corner of the living room.

A Fall Salad and My Perfect Granola

Hi Blogosphere,

I miss you. It's been awhile. A lot has happened since I saw you last. Although nothing very exciting, to be honest. I made a bunch of food. I took some pictures. I did a lot of work. I went to some concerts. I had lots of fun with friends.

Mostly, I didn't blog. But I'm back and I'm vowing to do this more regularly. I'm sure I'll regret this. But like taking my packet of vitamins each morning, I believe it's good for me. Kind of like this salad.

Because I've been a bit under the weather lately, I've been doing a lot of working from home. The benefit to working from home (i.e. one of the few benefits to being sick) is making lunch for myself, on the spot. For some reason, I love making lunch for myself. A couple of days ago, I opened the fridge and decided to just make a salad from what was in there. Here was the result - a very tasty autumnal salad.

Mixed greens, sliced fennel, mission figs (fresh!), green apple, halved grapes, sliced parmesan, toasted walnuts with a dressing of sherry vinegar, olive oil, a little bit of honey, and salt and pepper.

It was a delightful little lunch and I think it even made me feel a little bit better. Food can do that, you know.

Unlike the salad, which I made up on the spot, this granola recipe has been several months in the making. I actually honed it at the end of July but, as previously discussed, have lacked the time to blog about it. By which I mean, I totally didn't prioritize it. Clearly, I had time. I just didn't make time. So now. I'm making time now. Even though I did a terrible job taking pictures of this granola. Oh well. I'm out of practice. Or something.

Anyway, I've finally got My Perfect Granola. I still can't believe how easy it is to make. I'm never buying granola again. For real this time.

This recipe is super easy to modify. You can add or change the quantities on pretty much anything. I like the balance of this one. It's just a little bit sweet and just a little bit nutty.

I certainly don't know anyone like that. 

Kate's Perfect Maple-Vanilla-Pecan-Coconut-Pepita Granola

Ingredients
3 cups old-fashioned (not quick!) rolled oats. Quaker Oats. Obviously. 
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup pepitas
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
pinch of kosher salt
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons real, pure maple syrup

Directions

1.     Preheat oven to 350F. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

2.     Combine oats, pecans, pepitas, coconut flakes, and pinch of salt in a medium to large bowl. 

3.     In a small bowl, combine canola oil, maple syrup, and vanilla bean seeds. Whisk to combine.

4.     Pour maple syrup mixture into oat mixture. Stir until all the future-granola bits are coated evenly.

5.     Dump granola into baking pan and evenly distribute across pan.

6.      Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Stir once in the middle of baking.

7.     Cool completely, then store in an airtight container. I like to keep mine in a glass jar with a rubber gasket like this one. 

8.     Eat! I like mine over Fage 0% Greek Yogurt with whatever fresh berries I can get my hands on. Or peaches. 

Or straight from the jar with a spoon.

16 Months in the Making

Remember a while ago when I discovered that I needed to either close my bathroom door or put up cafe curtains in my kitchen? Clearly, curtains were the option as I'm pretty sure there is no roommateless person on earth who closes her bathroom door when no one else is around.

It's not just me, is it?

Yeah, well I've been wanting to make a valance for the kitchen window that matches the cafe "curtains" (really two striped dishtowels) I put up in January.

Not January 2012. January 2011.

Indeed, I am a little bit behind.

I can't quite figure out how nearly a year and a half passed since I assigned myself this project. There was nothing tricky about this valance. I just got busy with life, I guess. And my cute stripe-y valance got backburnered. Big time.

Today, I finally, FINALLY, made the valance.

It was so easy, I'm embarrassed it took me as long as it did to finally get around to it.

Basically, here's how this went:

I took two dishtowels and cut them in half horizontally.

I joined three of these panels by overlapping their side hems and sewing double-stitched hems.

Joined panels on the floor next to the old non-matching Target-issue valance. I wanted a little more volume in the valance than I got from the old red one. Luckily, the width of three panels is a few inches longer. I love it when things work out.

Then I hemmed the tops of the joined panels by folding in the raw edge 1/4" and then folding over again to create a  1/2" hem to match the prehemmed bottom of the dishtowels.

The first fold, ironed.

Finally, I cut 2 1/2" strips of fabric from the remaining fourth panel, sewed them together lengthwise, pressed a hem, and sewed them on the back of the joined panels 1" down from the top hem to create a channel for the curtain rod.

You can see the two lines of stitching on the front of the panels that indicates the curtain rod channel. This is now ready to hang!

And voila! A matching valance! And after all that buildup, I think this project took me all of an hour and a half to do. It was really a snap and I love the possibilities for changing up the look in the kitchen. All in all, these 4 dishtowels cost me about $20 bucks plus a little sewing time for cute, custom cafe curtains and a valance. Not too shabby!

Yea! Finally! The drapes match...uh...the drapes.

My Gift to You

As previously mentioned on this blog, I used to have a job at a Williams-Sonoma store. This was during my glamorous phase of being 23 and underemployed and living the dream. I’m not kidding.  Living. The. Dream. 

I know I was living the dream because a busy day for me constituted picking up clothes at the dry cleaner and I frequently was able to take advantage of our apartment complex pool, on, say, a Tuesday. At 1pm.

The holiday season at Williams-Sonoma was enough to make any sane person seek out anti-psychotic drugs. I’ve discussed some of this insanity here.  The jars of Turkey Gravy, for example, sold out so rapidly and inspired such fervor in our customers that you would have thought we were dealing heroin or something. I mean, for God’s sake, people, it’s just jarred gravy. It’s not even that hard to make your own from scratch. If you own a whisk, you can make gravy. End of story.

Another total Chuck Williams racket was the holiday peppermint bark. You know exactly what I am talking about. It’s famous. It comes in a little tin and it sells for approximately the same per ounce price as uranium. 

It’s time to stop this holiday madness. You can make your own peppermint bark. 

No, stop right there. I am raising a hand to you in Heisman-fashion. 

Hear me out.

This is one of those things that you don’t even need cooking skills for. You can be incompetent in the kitchen and still be successful at this. 

Trust me. 

I wouldn’t lie to you about food.

The glory will come when you make this. Handel’s Messiah will play in the background, the heavens will open, and sun will shine down upon you. Everyone will think you bought this fabulous candy, but then you can tell them that, actually, you made it. From scratch. Jaws will drop. I’m telling you, they will drop on the floor. It will almost be awkward, but you’re gracious and will handle it with aplomb.

Do me a favor and try this, just once. You’ll never buy the pre-made stuff again and you’ll save a boatload of cash. Unless you have more money than you know what do to with. In which case, here’s my Christmas list…

Kate’s Perfect Peppermint Bark

Ingredients:

6-7 ounces of really good quality dark chocolate, chopped.  I used Lindt because it was on sale (at Walgreens!) but any really good quality dark chocolate bars will do - Callebaut and Valhrona are both awesome

6-7 ounces of really good quality white chocolate, chopped. Again, I used Lindt, but Callebaut is great if you want to get fancy about it and Baker’s is good if you want to be ultra-cheap about it

1 teaspoon of flavorless vegetable oil (like canola), divided

6 full-size candy canes, peeled and crushed.

I like to crush my candy canes with the bottom edge of a small sauce pan, like so.

Directions:

1. Prepare an 8x8 baking pan by lining it with foil.

2. Melt the dark chocolate in either a double boiler, or the way I do it, which is as follows:

Put the chocolate and ½ teaspoon of oil in a microwaveable mixing bowl.

Microwave on high for one minute.

Stir and stir and stir until it seems that the chocolate bits are not melting any more.
           

Microwave another 30 seconds.

Stir and stir and stir. 

After a couple of minutes of stirring, all the chocolate should be smooth and melted. If it’s not, you can microwave it for another 15 seconds (no more!) and continue stirring. If you need subsequent microwavings, keep them to no more than 15 seconds apiece and really stir for a couple of minutes in between as you do not want to over heat the chocolate. (You’ll use the same method for the white chocolate, but that typically takes even less time to melt because of the higher cocoa butter content.)

3.  Pour the dark chocolate into the prepared pan and tilt the pan so that the chocolate evenly covers the bottom of the pan.

Pour.

Tilt.

4. Refrigerate the dark chocolate for 30 minutes, until solid.

5. Melt the white chocolate using the same process you used for the dark chocolate. Don’t forget to add the ½ teaspoon of oil before you start the melting. 

6. Pour the melted white chocolate over the dark chocolate, and working relatively quickly so there are no streaks, tilt the pan so that the white chocolate completely coats the dark chocolate. 

7. Sprinkle the crushed candy canes on top of the melted white chocolate. Once you’ve coated the surface with candy cane bits, press them gently into the white chocolate. Two notes here:

• Put more candy canes on top than you think is reasonable. Plenty will fall off when you break the bark into bits
• When you’re pressing the candy canes into the chocolate, use a light hand. Your fingers should not touch the white chocolate, only the candy canes.

8. Refrigerate for at least an hour to cool completely. Longer is fine. 

9. When the bark is solid, remove from the pan and peel off the foil. Place the bark on a large cutting board and get out your nice, sharp, heavy chef’s knife. Cut the bark into irregular pieces. Keep in mind that you’re aiming for pieces that are no more than an inch or two in surface area as people typically just want a nice little bite-sized piece of candy. Before they eat another one. And another.

That’s it.  This keeps for two weeks in the fridge in an airtight container or plastic zip-top bag. It makes an excellent holiday hostess gift.

Sorry, this picture is totally blurry!

Let me know if you try it!

A Cool Kitchen Tool

And no, it doesn't go in a drawer.

Epicurious has a Peak-Season Map which shows you what's in season in your state at any given time.

I love this. Not to preach from the gospel according to Alice Waters or anything, but seriously, everyone should use this, at all times.

I had no idea artichokes were in season in California now. I thought they were just a spring vegetable! What a delightful surprise.

Check it out!


P. S. Sorry I've been slacking on the blog. I've been out of town fourteen days since the last post and all that travel makes for a lack of time for homemade anything. I even had people over and the only thing I made from scratch was cookies - a recipe I've made so many times I have it memorized.

These are, indeed, dire times. 

I'm optimistic I'll be able to crank out some goodness over the upcoming holidays. In the meantime, thanks for your patience.

From Scratch

You may have realized that I love making things from scratch. In this vein, the trickier and more complicated, the better. I just read a another blog's post about preserving your own lemons and I am definitely going to look into this come the height of Meyer lemon season. Because you know how I love a Meyer lemon...

In the meantime, I thought I'd start with something a little simpler. 

I picked up a nice little packet of vanilla beans (only $8!) when I was traveling in Minnesota for work a couple of weeks ago. I had the good fortune of staying in a hotel right next to the Midtown Exchange, which was pretty much my version of heaven - markets of all diffrent cuisines, with take out and eat-in options as well as grocery items to take home. Love, love, love. I had an absolute feast for dinner one night (yea!) while working in the hotel room (boo): a wonderful roasted red pepper and boquerones salad from Sonora Grill; some black bean hummus and gluten free preztels for dipping from the Produce Exchange; and some more delicious things I can't remember. 

The next morning, on my way out of town, I stopped back over at the Exchange for coffee from Mapps and a breakfast treat - a savory leek tart - from The Salty Tart (how can you not love that name?). The Salty Tart also had these lovely little packets of five - yes, five! - vanilla beans for a mere $8. (The three vanilla beans I bought at Eataly in NY were $13, but I guess that's the price you pay to keep Mario Batali in orange crocs...)

Clearly, I needed to make some vanilla extract. 

After searching for recipes, I finally settled on this easy one from a great food blog, Chocolate & Zucchini.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Take 3 vanilla beans and split them. 

Get out your favorite (flavorless) vodka. I'm loyal to Tito's (an Austin original!)

Put one cup of vodka and the split vanilla beans in a sterilized container. 

I like this flask from Sur La Table.

Shake it, shake it, shake it like a Polaroid picture. 

Now put the bottle in a cool, dark place and wait 8 weeks. 

Go ahead and shake it every week or whenever you remember.

Patience is a virtue. 

I'll report back in mid-October with the results. 

Cracking Up

This morning I got up at the crack of dawn. Actually, it was the pre-crack of dawn, if we're being specific about it.

This is because most of my team sits in New York and they had scheduled a training session - one that, based on the subject line, seemed incredibly crucial to my job as it covers 95% of what I do all day at work.

The session was at 9:30am. On the East Coast. For those of you who are not good at math, that's 6:30am for me. That's earlier than I get up most days, unless I'm trying to catch a flight. Not cool. Not cool at all.

I decided the only way to get over my bitterness at being totally inconsequential to the decision to schedule this meeting was to treat myself. I hauled myself out of bed at 5:50am (oh, how it hurts) and stumbled down the hill to Peet's coffee to order a LARGE cafe au lait. If they had a VAT size, I would have ordered that. The brisk walk back up the hill helped wake me up and I then dialed into the WebEx, put my phone on speaker, and got to making myself some breakfast.

My super smart friend Leslie told me something really interesting the other day: the reason you feel hungover is not because of the alcohol, per se, but because the alcohol in your system prevents you from sleeping normally, so you actually wake up incredibly sleep deprived. Which is why if you can "sleep it off," you tend to feel so much better, not that I have any personal experience in this area, Mom and Dad. Ahem.

Anyway, it logically follows that if you are sleep deprived, you feel a bit hungover, even if you didn't have a drop of alcohol the night before. Witness my morning.

Thus, hangover food was required. My dear friend Meredith texted the other day asking about migas, so I had them on the brain. Migas is this incredibly delicious Tex-Mex breakfast involving, in essence, eggs scrambled with salsa and tortillas. There are all kinds of ways to gussy them up, but those are the basics.

Here's my own migas recipe. Please, please keep in mind that everything in here is approximate and if you decide to make these, you should really adjust everything to your own taste. Play around with this, it's hard to mess it up.

Kate's Migas for One
(Can be easily doubled, tripled, or even duodectupled to meet the needs of your crowd, should you have a crowd demanding breakfast)

Seriously, this couldn't be easier.

Essential Ingredients:
2-3 eggs
1 - 4 tablespoons salsa (Any salsa you like is fine, the fresher, the better. I really like to make migas with green chile-tomatillo salsa)
1 corn tortilla, torn into 1-inch-ish pieces (precision not required) or a handful of tortilla chips (crunched up) - Note, do not use flour tortillas for this part

Optional Ingredients:
~ 1/4 cup finely diced red or green bell pepper
~ 1 tablespoon finely diced onion or shallot
Half a jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed (or keep them if you want it HOT), finely minced

Accompaniments, For Serving (all optional):
Flour or corn tortillas
Guacamole
More salsa
Sour cream
Finely shredded cheddar or jack cheese
Whatever else you want

Directions:
Saute any "optional" ingredients you are using in a bit of olive or canola oil until they are softened but not browned. Set aside to cool for a bit.

In the meantime, crack your eggs in a bowl and whisk with a fork to blend. Add salsa, salt and pepper. I recommend using about 1/4 cup of salsa for every 2-3 eggs. There aren't precise measurements here, you just have to go with it. Add the slightly cooled veggies and stir to blend. (You can also add a quarter cup of drained, rinsed canned black beans at this point if you want to.) Add the torn up tortillas and stir to coat all the bits. Let this mixture sit for 15 minutes or so, 30 minutes if you are using hard tortilla chips instead of soft corn tortillas.



Torn up tortilla example in front of the egg mixture. Sorry to provide pics so late in the process but it only occurred to me midway through the process to write about this. I blame the brain fog resulting from the early wake-up.


Then you just scramble this mixture like you would normal scrambled eggs. Once they are done to your liking, that's it!

Voila! (What's the Spanish for "voila?") Migas!

SO EASY!

I topped mine with a little cilantro (which I also mixed into the eggs) and some yogurt in lieu of sour cream which is a tasty trick taught to me by a darling 2-year old. Try it!

You can scale this up or down as needed, I have made it with two dozen eggs before for a brunch party. Anything goes, so just find the combo of ingredients you like. It is a great way to use up those broken tortilla chips in the bottom of the bag. 

Happy Friday!

Have a Heart

I had an absolutely delightful day today. It went something like this:

I got up at a reasonable hour after a reasonable amount of sleep, for a 9am flight.

I got to the airport and parked in the first spot next to the elevators in the parking garage.

I checked in and got upgraded.

My flight was on time.

I got to Hertz and they upgraded me (which has NEVER happened before) to this:

I drove with the top down 55 miles to Camarillo.

It was sunny and gorgeous. An excellent day for singing in the car.

Somewhere near Thousand Oaks, I belted Eternal Flame at the top of my lungs.

I arrived an hour before my meeting and found a lovely cafe at which to lunch. I had a delicious spinach salad with grilled chicken, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and caramelized walnuts.

I got to the client meeting, and it was delightfully productive.

I drove back to LAX in almost no rush hour traffic, returned the car, and had a quick chat with my favorite Hertz employee, who is so kind and always remembers me.

There was no line at airport security.

I went to the gate area for an earlier flight that was leaving in 10 minutes.

I got a seat on the earlier flight. It was in the bulkhead, so I could put my feet up.

There was no one in the middle seat.

And no traffic on the way home.

I found a parking spot right away.

I checked my mail and got an absolutely wonderful and sweet note from my fabulous stepmom, Lindy.

I sat down to a Valentine's smorgasbord dinner of leftovers from Saturday's party, a menu consisting dominantly of cheese and chocolate.

And now I'm working on this blog entry.

In my world, Valentine's Day rarely gets better than this, a day where everything almost magically goes exactly, perfectly right. It got me to thinking about past Valentine's Days - some of which have been good, some decidedly less so, some downright disastrous. I will leave those stories to my memories. Suffice it to say, food poisoning and potted plants do not make for a romantic Valentine's Day. Trust me.

At some point in my life, I decided that I wasn't going to be a Valentine's hater. What I am a hater about is people bitching about Valentine's Day. What is the problem, people?? It's a day when you have license to eat chocolate without feeling guilty, and project love to everyone. How can anyone be bitter about that? All you need is love! Just because I'm single doesn't mean there aren't people that I love, and who love me. I refer to these people as "family and friends." And I like to celebrate them today, because they are wonderful people.

In all honesty, I didn't get my act together as much this year as in years past - I usually make and send Valentines but the two weeks of traveling prior to today really precluded serious crafts. (I still have those darn cocktail napkins I've been planning to make since October on my project list.) What I did do was manage to get a few things together for a Valentine's-themed party on Saturday. I think it was a good party because the last guests left after 3am Sunday morning. And it's taken me a few days to clean up.

Herewith, the menu:

Savory
Heart Goat Cheese, Heart Brie, Manchego and Mahon with Jams (Pumpkin and Violet) and Grapes
Mango-Avocado Salsa and Chips
Peppadew Peppers Stuffed with Boursin
O-love and Artichoke Heart Tapenade with Crostini and Carrot Sticks
Meatball Parmigiana Sliders

Sweet
Outrageous Heart Brownies
Mini Black Bottom Cupcakes
Peanut Butter and Jam Heart Cookies
Conversation Hearts Candy
Hershey Kisses

Liquid
Cherub’s Cup
Wine, Champagne, Beer

And now, in pictures:


The beginning of the brownies. Lots of chocolate and butter.
These brownies could probably kill you.

Ok, not probably. The will definitely kill you. At least this recipe makes 100+ brownies!

Now, with flour. I used half whole wheat and half all-purpose. It worked well.

Brownie batter spread in the pan.
 I saw this trick on Martha Stewart's show - what a brilliant idea to use binder clips to keep the parchment paper in place! I now keep four of these in the kitchen drawer.



These look done to me. A toothpick confirms the diagnosis.


 

I cut half the brownies into squares for Jen & Ryan's Super-Housewarming-Bowl Party last weekend, then froze the remaining brownies. (They freeze really well.) The day of my party, I took them out of the freezer in the morning and used a cookie cutter to cut them into heart shapes. Super cute and super easy.

   

Peanut Butter and Jam Heart Cookies. Another recipe from Martha. She and her minions are geniuses for coming up with this stuff. I mean, seriously. How cute is this? I can't wait to make these again next year. I might make them "heartless" in the interim. Turns out they are delicious for breakfast, too.  



Valentine's Torta - goat cheese and sundried tomatoes.

I couldn't pass up this heart-shaped bamboo cutting board. It was the perfect way to serve two of my favorite cheeses - Manchego and Mahon.

The olive and artichoke tapenade. Mer (who, along with Christine, came over early to help)

assembled the platter. I normally split my veggies and carbs into quarters instead of sixths, but Mer's way looks better. Definitely doing this next time!



Christine added the "e" to this label on the wine. It looked so professional, everyone thought the wine was really named "Valentine".  (She also took over assembly of the sliders, of which I do not have a picture. But they turned out looking just like the picture in the recipe link above.)

  

Mango-Avocado salsa and chips. Honestly, the salsa was not as well-loved as some of the other things I made, but I had two mangos from the farm box that were ripe and needed to be used. One perhaps slightly inebriated guest who shall remain nameless offered the suggestion that "the guacamole needs to be smushed up more."

Oh well. I thought it was tasty and am looking forward to having it on a piece of grilled fish tomorrow for dinner.

This stuff will knock you on your ass. Kind of like the little diapered man's arrow, I suppose.
(Tito's, for those of you unfamiliar, is the best vodka on God's green Earth.)

Heart-shaped brownies and mini black bottom cupcakes. A veritable tower of choco-love.

Stuffed peppadews. This is the EASIEST "recipe" and a crowd pleaser to boot. Take a jar of peppadew peppers, drain them and pat them dry with paper towels. Pipe boursin that's been softened with a little cream or milk into their centers. The end. (You can pipe them with a plastic sandwich bag with a tiny corner cut off if you don't have a pastry bag and tips.)

Requisite candy.

If it can be made into a heart, I will make it so. No food is safe from my paring knife when there's a Valentine's theme at stake.

Hearts over the bar table.

Red roses, of course!

Happy Valentine's Day!