Valentine's Day Dessert Swap

This Valentine's Day was filled with spending a lot of time with loved ones, and of course my special someone Mr. P!

On Saturday, after cooking for 8 hours the guests arrived for the Dessert Swap!  I figured everyone wanted to try the desserts, so soup for dinner would be filling but not too filling.

The Menu:
Appetizers:
Cucumber Sandwiches
Shrimp Cocktail
Mini Hotbox
Cream of mushroom soup (even better two days later),
Toscana Soup (like Olive Garden)
Beef and Bean Casserole
Corn Bread
Beer Bread

And for the best meal of the day, everyone brought such great desserts:

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Strawberry Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffles

Vegan Scones

We had craft time, which was great, we made Heart Wreaths!!!!

It was a great time and I had such a great time with my great friends :)

Pink Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

I was on Food Buzz the other day which I was just introduced too...I guess I was living under a rock..and stumbled upon this wonderful recipe:

http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2011/02/01/red-velvet-cheesecake-brownies/

After reading, I realized that I have never made brownies from scratch and should give this recipe a whirl!

I bought a food scale to use for weight watchers..but I used it for better use, measuring out the chocolate!

I used pink food coloring, I don't think you can see a difference! Except for on my finger!



I did a swirl vs. the recipes 8 dollops!!  This was the only pan I had available to use!

Beautiful!

Baked--I did 50 minutes in the oven

Remember to enter my giveaway!!!

A Unique Valentine's Day Craft Giveaway

I worked up the sample of the Valentine's Day Craft for my Valentine's Day Dessert Swap for next Saturday.

I LOVE IT!!!!

It took about two hours to make, but was worth it at the end! How beautiful does it look!

Moose even loved working on the craft!!!

Items Needed:

1 eight inch heart wired wreath
53 12 by 9 inch tulle pieces
1 piece of 30 by 9 inch tulle (for the holder)
Floral tape

I had such a fun time making this craft and I want you too share in the fun too!

Rules for the Giveaway

1. Current followers will get two entries..thank you to my current lovely 21 followers!
2. New followers get one entry. (I get so excited to see new followers)
3. If you re post this on your blog you will get three entries..just provide a comment below and provide the link to your re-post
4. You will get one entry per person for leaving a comment of your favorite valentine's day memory.


Pretty easy right? If you are not crafty and the winner I can also make the wreath for you and send the completed craft out to you!

The Giveaway will close Tuesday at midnight EST.

The package will ship on Thursday!

The Valentine's Day Craft is picked and supplies have been purchased!

During my Valentine's Day Dessert Swap I wanted to make a craft with my ladies.

My mom called stores near our homes and they did not have the quantity that I needed.  However she was able to find the below wreath company that had the heart forms in the quantity that I needed:

http://www.mainewreathco.com/



And I love Maine so this makes it even better.

and I have ordered the Tulle from:

Tullesource.com

In the following colors:

Light Garnet

American Beauty

This weekend I am working on making a sample of the wreath with my mom! 

I am getting so excited..and it is still January!

Valentine's Day Dessert Swap--Packaging Ideas

I am working on getting the boxes together to wrap the desserts in for everyone to take home from the Swap.

I stumbled upon this great web-site:

http://www.brpboxshop.com/

Look at all the great packages they have for wrapping up Valentine's Day sweets!  All the photo's came from there web-site..aren't they just just great!!!



Now these are the one's I am leading towards:





The big question is without the plastic on the top or without.  Now the reason why I am saying no plastic is I was hoping to wrap the boxes with this twine:



Picture from Divinetwine.com



Now the big question is can I do plastic top and use the twine at the same time...is that too much???



Now I was always wondering where I could buy cake boards, and now I have my answer:

Look at these great little boxes for cookies:

And this is great...we used to always make Brownie Pizza's when I was little to bring to get togethers..this would of came in handy!

Now what special things do you bake for Valentine's Day???

Valentine''s Dessert Swap--Craft Ideas Wanted!!!

This year I am hosting a Valentine's Day dessert swap, and I am hoping you have some great Valentine's day Ideas:

It will be six girls, and we are each bringing a unique dessert for this swap.

I am planning on either doing lemon curd cream puffs, raspberry cream cream puffs, or Ricotta filled cream puffs!  maybe I will do all three.

Now this is where I need your help!  I want to do some type of Valentine's day Craft.  I was thinking we could make cards, but the party is only two days before Valentine's day, so I am assuming everyone will have there items already for their special someone.

My mom found these cute ideas on http://www.tipjunkie.com/make-wreath/
That is where the below photos are from!!!





Now this is the one I am leaning more towards, however I am thinking it might be somewhat expensive with all of the fabric:



However I am really open for ideas...do you have any Valentine's Day crafts that are easy, and not to expensive to make???