Valentine's Day plus one

We did go out on Valentine's Day for lunch at a neighborhood bar called Jimmy J's which features typically food for this area -- stuffed cabbage, kielbasi, pierogis etc. We enjoyed our time out so for dinner, I prepared a romantic dinner for two. We always have napkins and generally have candles but it still seemed special. I think after (almost) 34 years, I'm getting this down pat. Since we have an empty nest, most of our meals are actually romantic dinners for two. We had barbequed pork cutlets, baked sweet potatoes and Greek salad but the best was yet to come.....

The dessert was made by my very own candy man! He took cashews and covered them in dark chocolate and then put them into special heart papers. They taste even better than they look!!! Since my candy man is currently not eating sweets, this entire plate was for me. I am happy to report that it is 24 hours later and I still have some left : )

Our plan for Valentine's Day included getting together with my daughters-in-law and their children and baking Valentine's cookies. The weather changed that and instead we made Valentine's-Day-plus-one cookies. I used the actual recipe from Valentine's Day in the past. Here is my youngest grandson Dean watching the decorating that is going on. He can hardly wait until it is his turn to put the sprinkles on the cookies. That's his mom behind him getting the paper bags ready to absorb the excess butter from the cookies.

As you can see, I had plenty of help this year! The granddaughters are getting very good at helping and also very good at absorbing the tradition and continuum which is happening here. Cookie baking is really memory making.

We also made chocolate dipped pretzel rods. Some were white chocolate with milk chocolate drizzles and some the reverse. I want to assure you that they taste good either way. After we finished the baking and cleaning up, we divided the treats into Valentine's-Day-Plus-One loaded with carbs plates and delivered them to our Pastor, Grandmas, Great Grandmas and of course to YiaYia.