...and I'll treat you better than you ever had before. I think that's the chorus of a Slackers song. It's Valentine's day mofos! I may be single but I still like to play cupid and spread a little love. It's my personal assault on the holiday industrial complex. In the name of Saint Valentine I'mma make a massackery (massacre+mockery) of V-day being all about couples.

As usual I began combing the interwebs for DIY crafty projects to make/bake and include in my Valentine packages early... Like the beginning of January. I needed things that were both foodie and kid friendly. I made 2 sets of V-day treats. One for my nieces/nephews and another for friends.I found quite a few kid Valentines I liked online.

• Lego jewelery valentines
• Animal valentines
• Mustache valentines
• Funny valentines

In the end I chose (surprise!) the punny (funny+pun) one. As my nieces and nephews get older I am finding it hard to transition the crafts I make them for them into more age appropriate things. Small tchotskes no longer really cut it, so the animal bracelet valentines were out. I wanted something a bit more gender neutral so the Lego jewelery valentines were nixed. That left the mustache and funny valentines... I chose the funny valentines because ALL kids love a good fart joke! I couldn't find mini-whoopie cushions at my local dollar store. So I bought regular sized ones and made do.

FLAVOR BUTTONS

I saw this instructable for not-Altoids online. The whole process was so easy! How could I not take half a day hunched over a counter top and making these little pieces of sweetness? I'm hesitant to call them mints since they don't really have mint flavors...except for one. I chose 2 foodie and 2 kid friendly flavors:

• red licorice
• cola
• mint chocolate chip
• mango

COFFEE LOLLIPOPS

Hard candy... I've been wanting to make gourmet lollies for a while. The first time I burnt the sugar and had to scratch the whole batch. I then took the time to test my candy thermometer and found out it was 50 degrees off! With this mental note in mind I gathered together some sugar and tried it all again.  Sprinkle Bakes has a lot of fun with sugar recipes and this is one of them.





Having a good  candy thermometer is the key! Also, I like to think making hard sugar candy is kind of like BBQing. Low and slow is the way to go. I started my mixture on medium heat and gradually cranked it up to a boil. I was wary of everything boiling over, making a mess, burning or melting my skin off. It takes a bit of time but keeping your eyes on the prize (and the thermometer) is worth it.

Friends' packages included these lollies, some flavor buttons and those crispy chocolate wafer cookies. My momma also didn't raise no fool so I included a hand written note too. Both the friend and kid packages got wrapped up assembly line style and shipped out.

A paper bag... simple and classic!

ME MUM

Who's my greatest love of all? My mother of course! She birthed me. What's a greater gift than that? I love my mom lots and sometimes I want to give her more than a hug. She's a busy lady and it can be hard for her to take the time to do something she wants to do. I spotted a great Valentines day deal on Travelzoo and conspired with my siblings to get it for our mother. The voucher was for a massage with wine and chocolate! The sad thing about online vouchers is there's really no tactile opening experience. So I got out my craft crate and made something for her to open. I've seen similar set ups used for save-the-date/wedding announcements. Kelly over at Studio DIY even took the idea and put it in a box (literally).



I cut out some ID card sized pieces of white card stock. The 1st included a "dear mom we love you lots" message. The 2nd were the details of her massage voucher. Finally the 3rd promised a ride to said spa and dinner after. I strung the cards/tags on the bakers twine and some craft punched holes to make a garland. I taped one end into the envelope and carefully layered it all in. I used some double sided tape to keep the pull-tab of the garland separate to make it easier to pull it out.




That's how I do Valentine's Day. What about you?

The Superbowl... It's a party right? I'm not a sports fan at all. I don't know any of the rules of football. But, I do love hanging out and having tapas! That's what a Superbowl party is right? Snacks=tapas? That's the way I interpret it at least. I hung out with a friend who's an actual football fan for Superbowl and I brought snacks since I couldn't offer any meaningful commentary. I actually tried for a couple minutes... However my friend was not impressed with me enthusiastic "he's happy because he pushed that other guy down!" and "he touched the ball so now he's gonna slap that other guy's butt!" comments. I can wax poetic about many things but football is not one of them.

GREEN SAUCE

My friend Devin makes this wonderful cross between salsa verde and guacamole that I love. I can say it's my fried chicken. I love dips. I love chips. I love avocados. This green sauce is like a trifecta of all three things in one! What's not to love. So for my Superbowl get together I decided to try to make my own version of a green sauce. I think Devin's has tomatillos in it... I didn't go that route. The end result was refreshing and "more-ish."

MORE-ISH (adj)- So delicious that one can't help but eat more, and more, and more....

• cilantro
• parsley
• garlic
• onion
• avocado
• EVOO
• jalapeno
• salt
• pepper
• lime juice

Special tool- food processor. Basically I put all that stuff in the food processor and pulsed it til I got the consistency I wanted. Although in the end I used it as a dip- as the name implies- it's more like a sauce. Loved it! Later today I will make a hasselback potato and pour the leftovers on top!

MEDITERRANEAN TURKEY MEATBALLS

I'm not 100% sure why but I associate meatballs with sports watching. In my mind's eye it's usually old school crockpot meat balls of the Swedish variety. I, of course, couldn't just do that. I had to make it kind-a fancy. Once again I got the recipe from TheKitchn. The dipping sauce is a basic Greek yogurt dip and the meatballs are leaner with the use of ground turkey and lentils as a filling base.













Once mixing the ingredients together you let the flavors meld for 15minutes... also known as preheating your oven time. Shape the meat mixture into spheres and bake at 375 for about 20min.