Printable for Secret Decoder VDay Cookies

When I saw the adorable Secret Message Decoder Cookies on the Family Fun Community page a couple years ago, I loved the idea!

We haven't made them in awhile, so we decided to whip up some for the girls' classes as an extra treat this Valentine's Day. To make things simple (and a little harder to read without the decoder cookie), I designed the secret messages on the computer and thought I'd share the printable.
You can download/print them here or click on the image below.
There are four sheets with six each that say:
"Happy Valentine's Day!"
"You are Sweet! Be Mine!"
"I spy...someone cool! Happy VDay!"
"It's no secret, you are awesome!"

If you're whipping up decoder cookies for Valentine's Day, hopefully these will help make it a snap! Enjoy!

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Raspberry Chocolate Magic Shell

How about some homemade Raspberry Chocolate Magic Shell topping for you and your sweetie this Valentines Day?...

If you don't know what Magic Shell ice cream topping is, it's a liquid topping that becomes a hard shell when you pour it on ice cream. Yum! So we decided to make our own homemade version. It's incredibly easy and soooooo tasty! It only takes a few ingredients and a microwave...

You could even put it in a cute jar and give as a gift! We devoured ours before I could do anything that cute, though.;)

Raspberry Chocolate Magic Shell
Ingredients:
16 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
12 oz. coconut oil
1/4 c. raspberry syrup
3-4 drops raspberry oil

Notes: I found the coconut oil at our local health food store. You can get coconut oil refined or unrefined. Either one works--unrefined will give you a slightly coconutty flavor. You can find raspberry syrup by the regular pancake syrups in your grocery store.

Directions:
Combine all ingredients except flavoring oil in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 60 seconds on high power, remove and stir. Microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring after each, until ingredients are melted and combined. Stir in 3-4 drops raspberry oil or 5-6 drops raspberry flavoring. Store in a sealed container at room temperature (do not refrigerate!). If it hardens, simply microwave for 20 seconds before serving.

To serve, pour over your favorite ice cream...

You know, I think I'd like a little more...

Mmm....getting better...
That's more like it!...

Warning: this liquid lusciousness has been known to cause serious romance. Use at your own discretion!

Valentine Mystery Dinner

How about turning this ordinary spaghetti night in to a crazy fun family Valentines dinner? "How?!", you say...

By using these menus to make a Valentine Mystery Dinner!
(Click on either image to download and print)

If you've never had a Mystery Dinner before, the names of all the menu items (utensils, too!) have been changed to silly Valentine-inspired names. Everyone gets a menu, writes what they want for each course, then they get served a mixed-up dinner. The kids loved it because one of my daughters got an Ice Cream sundae for her first course....however she didn't have a spoon to eat it with.:)
Here's what you need:
Puppy Love (Crush soda)
Cupid’s Arrow (toothpick or wooden skewer)
Love Trouble (jam)
Rising Love (roll or biscuit)
Melted Hearts (pasta sauce)
Angel’s Coiffure (cooked angel hair pasta)
Kissing and Hugging (spoon)
Girls Best Friend (Carrots...get it? "karats"...)
Persuader (fork)
Cold Shoulder (Ice Cream Sundae)
Heart Breaker (knife)
Snuggles (napkin)
Lots o’ Pick-up Lines (shredded cheese)
Mystery Dinner Menu

Directions:
Gather all your dinner ingredients and keep on the counter, away from everyone's eyesight. (Note: If you want to get fun with your rolls or biscuits, you can make them into simple heart shapes. I just took a can of Grands biscuits, cut a triangle out of the top of each one, then pinched the bottom to make a heart shape. Bake as directed.)

Place a menu, pencil, and plate for each person on the table. Have everyone fill out the menus, gather them up and serve the first course with everyone's requests written on them. After everyone has eaten for a few minutes, serve the next course and continue until everything has been served. Enjoy laughs together while everyone eats their mixed-up dinner!

(Note: once a person ordered a utensil or napkin, we let them keep if for the rest of the dinner.:))
More Valentine ideas to come! Hope you can all enjoy a fun family dinner this VDay!

Healthy Valentines Snack

I love Valentines Day but the kids seem to get candy everywhere! Here's what I made to encourage healthy snacking during this candy-crazed week.

These are great for a class party or just to have on hand for snacking. My girls loved the tiny hearts. It was a great chance to have a chat about loving our bodies and taking care of them with good foods. Peppers are expensive, so I used the leftover scraps for fajitas. yum!

Pepper Heart Snacks
Ingredients:
Red and Yellow Bell Peppers
Light Ranch veggie dip
Small heart cutter (we used a pastry cutter)
Oven Mitt or glove

Directions:
Cut off the top and bottom of pepper, remove center and unroll. Use small cutter to make heart shapes. If you're looking for a small heart cutter, Williams Sonoma used to make a great set of tiny pastry cutters. It's discontinued, but I found a similar one here.
Why the oven glove? After the first pepper, the heel of my hand hurt from pushing down. So, I put on on a oven glove and it worked like a charm! Save scraps for fajitas or pasta salad.
Serve on a tray with light ranch veggie dip. Enjoy!

Valentine Red Letter Day Ideas

We're giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to McCormick & Schmick's so you can celebrate VDay in style! Go here to leave a comment and enter.

We just received this lovely basket from McCormick, they are encouraging famlies to make Valentines Day a "Red Letter Day". Thank you! Next week we'll show you what we've whipped up with these adorable tools! On McCormick's website there are all kinds of scarlet treats and colorful crafts for you to try this Valentines Day! Here are a few of our favorites, you can view all of them here along with some tasty tips to make your family's day special.
(Click images for recipes)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Overnight French Toast
Tender Heart Cookies

And for a super fun and silly craft,
Funny Putty

Penguin Oreo Valentines

Need a cute Valentine idea?
I decided to do double duty by making these in advance for Little H's birthday party AND using them as Valentines for Little C's school class. Lazy? Maybe. Cute? Oh yes!

You can download and print the igloo valentine cards I made here--attach for serious cuteness.

Penguin Oreos
Ingredients:
Chocolate sandwich cookies (I used double stuff oreos)
Dark Chocolate candy melts (found in craft stores or at Wal-Mart)
White candy melts
Orange Candy melts (or you can use pieces of gumdrops, starburst, or other orange candies)
Wax Paper
2 ziploc quart freezer bags
Igloo Valentine Cards

Directions:
Melt dark chocolate in microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring after each. Dip oreos in dark chocolate and set on wax paper to harden (don't worry about making them perfect, I just held onto the edges, dipped them, then smoothed a little chocolate on the sides after setting them on the wax paper). When set, melt white chocolate and put in quart ziploc freezer baggie. Cut a small corner off the bag and draw rounded hearts on each cookie, seen below:

After the white chocolate has set (about 10 minutes), melt orange candy melts, put in ziploc baggie, and draw on beaks and feet. You could also use orange candies or gumdrops if you don't have access to orange candy melts. Simply snip them with clean scissors to your desired shape. Use a toothpick and a little more dark chocolate to dab on eyes (or you could use mini chocolate chips and set them in the white chocolate before it hardens).

Print the Igloo Valentines (they say "it's so 'cool' to be your friend! Happy Valentines Day!"). I set it up with two pages--print the first page then flip your paper and print on the other side. Fold at the top of the "igloo" and cut out. Be sure to leave some white space at the bottom to write people's names. Put one penguin in a baggie and attach card with ribbon.

I hope you enjoy--Happy Valentines Day!

Easy Valentine Chocolates

Gourmet Great-Grandma was a professional candymaker and makes the most fabulous fondant! She also has a recipe for a quick, no-cook center that happens to be my hubby's personal favorite. I make it quite often so I don't have to do all the work of turning fondant. Grandma, if you're reading this, we love you and have loved learning some of your chocolate skills--please don't cringe at my sloppy dipping!:) So, if you really want to "wow" someone this year, whip up some homemade chocolates! These two 'shortcut' recipes will have them made in a snap.

Almond Dreams-Gourmet Dad's all-time favorite!
Ingredients:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 c. softened butter
4 1/3 c. powdered sugar
chopped roasted almonds as desired (at least 1 cup)

Directions:
Warm condensed milk can in hot water for a few minutes. Mix all ingredients, freeze in greased 9 x 13 pan. cut into small squares and dip in chocolate while frozen. (they become very soft and gooey when thawed). Make sure the entire square is covered in chocolate or it will ooze out. It sounds so easy but they are soooooo good!

Tip: a reader mentioned how hard they were to dip because they thawed quickly. What I do is cut off one row of the filling, put the rest back in the freezer, cut that row into squares, and dip them. So, I'm only working with 10-12 pieces at a time and the rest can stay in the freezer. Hope that helps!

Microwave Caramels adapted from Bakespace
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup Light Karo Syrup (not dark-doesn't set right)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup SWEETENED CONDENSED milk
1 t. vanilla
Sea Salt (I used a pink sea salt)
Chili Flakes
Toffee Bits
Buttered 8x8 baking dish

Directions:
Melt butter in large microwave bowl. Stir in Karo syrup, both sugars and sweetened condensed milk. Mix until dissolved. Microwave on high 3-1/2 minutes. Stir down and scrape sides of bowl. Microwave on high 3 1/2 minutes. You may have to adjust your cooking times by 15-30 seconds since all microwaves cook differently. Stir in vanilla. Pour into buttered dish and refrigerate until set. When set, remove from fridge and cut into squares.

Dip in melted chocolate and set on wax paper. Add a few chili flakes, sea salt, or toffee bits to the top (if desired). Let set completely.

NOTES: Jessica had a great question about what kind of chocolate to use for dipping, see comments for more info. I personally use Guittard Signature chocolate, you can use most anything. Avoid chocolate chips since they do not harden well after melting.

Now, just in case you want Gourmet Great-Grandma's caramel recipe here it is. I made about 20 batches of these for my wedding!
BJ Caramels
Ingredients:
2 C sugar
1 1/3 C corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
2 C. cream

1/2 C. milk

Directions:
Add cream and milk together. Add 1 c. of cream mixture to sugar and corn syrup and bring to boil. Simmer on medium low for 25 min. Add half of remaining cream mixture and simmer on medium low for 25 min. Add remaining cream mixture and bring to 237degrees or soft ball. Pour into greased pan and cool. When adding cream turn heat up so mixture is always boiling.

Have a Heart Suckers

My girls were really touched and especially affected by the stories of children in Haiti that are cold, hungry, looking for parents, and homeless.
While my husband and I donated to Haiti Relief Efforts, the girls wanted to do something themselves but weren't sure what they could do.

Then, we saw these in the cupboard...

Last month, we hosted a Gingerbread House making party for 25 kids at our local family homeless shelter. In the midst of the craziness, I forgot to bring one of the containers of candy canes. So, I planned on making these into heart suckers (as seen on Skip to my Lou and The Idea Room), dipping them in chocolate, adding sprinkles, and giving them out as Valentines. Instead, the girls asked if we could make them up and sell them for $1 each to raise some money for Haiti Relief. Then, they'd have something to donate. I loved the idea!
We went to our local candy shop but they explained that in our state, you can't sell anything in a store that is "homemade". It has to be from a registered food facility.

Sooo.....the girls are selling them on their own. They have a goal to raise $140 (that's how many suckers we have). I am so proud of them and hope they make it!

If you would like to donate directly to Haiti Efforts,
go here or here.

Gumball Flowers

We always have gumballs in the house (thanks to our 6' Wowie Zowie machine) so they're going to turn into colorful "flowers" this Valentines Day.These happy blooms would be perfect for a Valentines Day treat or a Tea Party.
Here are some of the "Valentines" that the girls thought would be appropriate to attach. I'm sure Hallmark will be calling any day...
"I'd always 'chews' you to be my Valentine!"
"If you were a flower I'd eat you."
"Roses are Red, Violets are blue, this flower's a gumball, it's for you to chew."
"Roses are Red, Violets are blue, Flowers are for girls but this one is gum so it's ok for you, too."

...I love kids.

Gumball Flowers
Ingredients:
Large Gumballs (1 inch)
Small Gumballs (8 for each flower)
Sucker Sticks
Royal Icing (recipes here)
green food coloring (optional)
Sprinkles
Wax Paper

Directions: Twist a pointed paring knife into each of the large gumballs to make a small hole. Mix a few drops of green food coloring into royal icing. (Royal icing recipes are here--it's the kind of icing that is very hard when dry). Spoon icing into a cake decorating bag or quart ziploc freezer baggie with a small corner snipped off.
Push sucker stick into each hole (you may have to add a dab of icing if the hole is too big). Pipe out a line of icing around each gumball as shown:

Place gumball on wax paper and push smaller gumballs into the icing to form the flower "petals".

Let dry completely or overnight.

Now, you could stop here, but I thought they needed a little extra sparkle, so after they had dried for an hour (but weren't completely set), I piped out a little circle of icing on the top:

and added sprinkles!

After icing is dry, you can wrap with sucker bags or celophane. Have fun!

Meringue Heart Cookies

With three girly-girls in the house, we love making treats for Valentines Day! These meringue cookies are delicious, low in fat, and will last for 6 weeks if stored in a cool, dry place...I think I'm in love!:)I had made up several treats for an event, and these are the ones the girls kept asking to snack on. I was surprised since they even passed up Rice Krispy treats for these! Definitely thumbs up from the Gourmet Girls.

Meltaway Meringue Heart Cookies (makes 24-30)
Ingredients:
3 large egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. C & H white sugar
red food coloring
crushed candy canes (about 1/4 c.)
Melted chocolate (your favorite kind)
Parchment paper or Silpat mat

Directions:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Whip egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt in mixer until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar and a few drops red food coloring. Beat until stiff peaks form and mixture is smooth and glossy (about 5 minutes).

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or Silpat mat. Put mixture in a pastry bag or gallon ziploc bag with a corner snipped off. Pipe out thick hearts (to make them thicker I ended up drawing one heart then another one on top of it) onto your cookie sheet and sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Bake at 200 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Then, turn off oven and leave meringues in the oven to completely cool (overnight is best). Next, melt your favorite chocolate (I used Peters Burgundy) and dip the bottoms of your cookies. Set on wax paper to dry. When completely set, remove from wax paper and serve! You can also store them in an airtight container for up to 6 weeks.

Beary Much in Love with Hershey!

We are "Beary Sad" to leave Hershey, PA! As my kitchen is getting packed up, we had to have some Hershey Bears cookies with our heart in them since there will be a piece of it ALWAYS right here in Chocolatetown, USA. By the way, we just got home from the Hershey Bears hockey game where they beat Manitoba in Game 3 of the Calder Cup Finals. GO BEARS!! We will miss you, Hershey!

These would also be a great Valentine cookie with a card saying, "I love you Beary Much!" or even a "Thank You Beary Much" gift to someone. The possibilities are endless.:)

I won't have a kitchen for at least a week, ACK! Don't worry, I'll be busy thinking of fun things to make. In the meantime, we have a few fun giveaways and other exciting things to do! See you soon!

To make these "heartfelt" bears:

--Use your favorite gingerbread or sugar cookie dough, cut into bear shapes, and place on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil and sprayed with cooking spray. (Don't forget the foil or your bears won't come off the pan!)

--Using a sharp knife or small cookie cutter, cut out a heart shape on each bear.

--Crush red Life Saver or Jolly Rancher candies in a ziploc freezer bag until they are ground into fine pieces. Sprinkle a small amount of crushed candies in each heart.
--Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes, until edges are barely brown and candy is melted. Cool completely and peel cookies off foil.

--If desired, dip legs in melted chocolate and set on wax paper to dry.

Secret Message Decoder Cookies

GO HERE to get cute free printable "secret message" valentines to go along with these cookies!

I saw these on the DisneyFamily Community website and had to share! She made them for Valentines, but I think they'd be great for a Detective or Science-themed Birthday Party, a Spy Cookie "S" snack or even just to give the kids their Saturday Job list--do you think it would motivate them to get their chores done faster? I'll keep you posted.:)Cookies with a twist! Red candy melted in the center of each cookie acts as a decoder on your handwritten valentines. On white paper simply write your secret message with a light-blue fine point marker. Then, using orange, red, and pink markers, doodle shapes, scribbles, or words over the rest of the paper. Go ahead and doodle right over your secret message because your decoder cookie will only reveal your secret message and everything else will disappear!

Secret Message Decoder Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
5 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
1/4 cup milk
Red, hard, transparent candies/crushed to fine pieces

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar together with mixer. Add vanilla. Add eggs and beat until fluffy. In separate bowl add flour, salt, soda, and baking powder. Stir together. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with milk and stir until dough is smooth. Chill until dough is stiff.
Prepare baking sheet by covering with a sheet of foil and lightly coat with cooking spray. Don't skip this step--you need the foil or the candy will stick to the pan!

On floured surface roll a portion of the dough to 1/4" thick. Cut out with large heart cookie cutter (approx. 4") and place 1" apart on baking sheet. Cut center with a slightly smaller heart cutter and remove dough. Using a small teaspoon carefully fill center with crushed candy. Bake for 10-12 min. or until lightly golden on edges. Cool completely before removing cookies. Store in an airtight container or individual cellophane bags and attach paper valentine.