As you may have noticed, we had a guest this morning.

That, my friends, is because I was working on a few Valentines of my own…

for some little cupids that hang around these parts.

And just when I finished with these, a cute bald kid I know begged asked politely for…

a bit of this. Amazing what you can pull off in the wee hours for the ones close to your heart.

Hope you have a happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow!

Oh, and please do kiss someone.

Wouldn’t want you to waste the day!

heh, heh

Here’s the cool loot that came in the mail from the current blog swap over at “the Mommy Files.”

My partner for the swap was the one and only Shannon herself–the sweetheart that sets all these fun things up in the first place.

Look at all this cool stuff!

Her next swap–that you should totally join will be at Easter time–so be on the lookout for that!

More later…

:]

These little lovelies remind me of those fabulous Devil’s Food cookies that my mama used to buy and….

hide from us. What?!  Too good to share with the kids? Aparently so.

Well fine then.

I’ll make my own.

Ooooh baby.

Do brace yourself.

Devil’s Food Surprise Cookies

Ingredients:

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
24 large marshmallows, cut in half horizontally or 4 small marshmallows
Chocolate Frosting for Surprise Cookies

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, milk, and vanilla, and beat until well combined. Add reserved flour mixture; mix on low speed until combined.
3. Using a tablespoon or 1 3/4-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto ungreased baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies begin to spread and become firm, 10 to 12 minutes.
4. Remove baking sheets from oven, and place a marshmallow, cut-side down, in the center of each cookie, pressing down slightly. Return to oven, and continue baking until marshmallows begins to melt, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
5. Spread about 1 tablespoon of frosting over each marshmallow, starting in the center and continuing outward until marshmallow is covered.

Devil’s Food Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Nowwww then…I triple-dog-dare you to make these incredible little devils and NOT sneak six of them in your purse.

Ha!

I’ll win.

Buckeye Bars

Before we get into the Valentine ideas, crafts and recipes–I wanted to be sure to remind you of all the great stuff that is already here in the Holidays and Recipe tabs. We’ll have tons more good stuff coming up-so stay tuned. In the meantime–check out where we’ve been.

Tiny Cookie Valentines

Valentine Pancakes

Note: Any resemblance to persons born or unborn is strictly coincidental.

Candy Ipod

Valentine Caramels

Bear Hug Valentines

Hot Chocolate Cake

Good luck resisting these goodies!

Be sure to have a tall glass of milk when you take a slice of this lovely little “pizza.”

Now I suppose you could wrap one of these up and give it to someone you love…a lot…

but only if they are willing to share…

or make you one in return.

Trust me, you will be tempted to just keep it.

Sorely tempted.

Yeah…

that would be my vote.

Candy Pizza

Ingredients:

1 tube (18 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough

1 cup M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Candies

1 cup chopped assorted chocolate candy bars (we used mini Snickers, Kit Kat, Fast Break, and Baby Ruth bars)

1/3 cup mini-marshmallows

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Press cookie dough evenly into a pizza pan.Bake in a preheated 350°F for 15 minutes.

3. Remove from oven and top with candy and marshmallows. Return to the oven and bake for another 7 minutes, to soften candies.

4. To serve, cut cookie into wedges.

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If you know us at all–you’ll know that we–as a family–just aren’t into the noisy, flashy, spinny toys that seem to be all the thing these days. I swear, some of them seem kind of…possessed…ummm…I mean, a bit over the top. Which is why I love, love, LOVE these sweet little finger puppets from Wee Knit.

No, this is not a paid endorsement, I just really love them.

Years ago, I bought a little Gingerbread Man at Mormon Handicraft in Salt Lake City. He was so sweet and tiny and adorable that I couldn’t help myself. I soon found that he fit very nicely on top of a knitting needle that was poking out of my pencil cup. He has lived there ever since.

So then one day, I’m dinking around on Etsy (the online shop for all things Handmade) and I found the WeeKnit shop–where my little cookie man came from! Wahooo!

I contacted them to see if they could conjure up an Edward and Jacob finger puppet for our New Moon party. Jennifer was wonderful with my silly special order. As you can see–they did an incredible job!!

(Wait until you see what I’m going to order for Christmas! hee hee…)

You need to visit the shop–seriously. These gals–Tracy and Jennifer, a mom and daughter–have thought of everything. Movies, TV shows, Story books.

Recognize these little guys?

You need animals? Circus clowns? Ninja Turtles?

Pirates? Easter? Nativity?

Trust me…they’ve got them.

They even have a Valentine set—and it’s on SALE!

What a great gift for your little Valentines–hint, hint.  ;]

Now–since it’s been such a long, long time since we’ve had a giveaway AND because, again, I can’t help myself–we are giving one lucky reader this adorable “Little Red Riding Hood” Finger Puppet Set–from WeeKnit.

Sooo. Dang. CUTE!!

To enter, simply go to the WeeKnit site and tell me in the comment section below, which set is your very favorite. Oh, and it has to be one that I haven’t show here.

I’ll announce the winner Monday morning January 25, 2010–first thing.

Good luck my dah-lings!

A few weeks ago, I told you all about the Blog Swaps that are going around in the Blogging world–you know, where you send a fellow blogger a treat and they send you one in return. Some of you may remember that Lyndi and I participated in the “Blog or Treat” and earlier this month the “Santa Swap,” both set up by cute little Shannon over at the Mommy Files.

Well, Shannon–who is incredibly on the ball–is already setting up the Valentine Blog Swap. If you’d like to be part of the fun–just click on over to her site and leave a comment saying that you’d like to be included. You don’t have to do anything right now, except say you’re interested and she will email you the details in a week or so. Trust me–this is a good way to get into the holiday spirit–no matter which holiday you choose!

You know how fun it is to get a surprise in the mail, right? Of course you do.

So, come on–join us.

Let’s SWAP!

Whether you are headed off to a romantic evening with someone you love or are staying home to celebrate with a whole bunch of someones you love–kiss somebody and…

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Creamy Caramels

Ingredients

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C packed brown sugar

6 TBSP butter

1/2 C heavy cream

1/2 C corn syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Mix all ingredients except vanilla in a saucepan. On low heat, stir constantly until butter is completely melted and sugar is dissolved. Don’t get impatient and up the heat, or stop stirring or the cream could scorch.

Once sugar is dissolved, increase heat to medium. Heat to boiling–keep stirring! Once it’s boiling, you can lay off on the stirring, just occasionally should do the trick. Let it boil (gently–again, don’t turn up the heat) until you can drip some in a cup of ice cold water and it firms up just a bit–not enough to pull your teeth out, just enough that you can eat it, and it stays intact and chewy. If it just dissolves in the water–it’s not ready.

It should take about 8-10 minutes. (I have used half-and-half when I didn’t have heavy cream, and it took more like 20 minutes cause of the extra water…they also weren”t as rich.) Remove from heat.

Update! Add the vanilla after the caramel has stopped bubbling and boiling. Just stir it in with a spoon. (Thanks Sue!)

When it’s ready, pour into a greased 8×8 pan or pie tin.

Let cool completely, then cut with a metal spatula. It works much better than a knife, trust me. Then, if you want, you can wrap individual pieces in wax paper or decorative cellophane.