Marshmallow Hearts

Hello all you Valentine's out there! Hope you've all been extremely loved and blessed this Valentine's Day.   In celebration of v-day this year, I made some goodies for the youth group kids.  About once a month we have them over to our house for food, games and lots of good times.  So I made them this:

 

They are chocolate covered marshmallow hearts and they are delicious.  This was my first rodeo making marshmallows and if I had to sum it up in one word this would be it: sticky.  That aside, they're pretty stinking easy and delectable.  

The kids seemed to like them a lot too.  The process is pretty easy; if you've ever made divinity, marshmallows are divinity's close cousin and just as simple! Beware though, these will definitley more than satiate your sweet tooth, it might just give you a cavity - these babies are sa-weet, but worth the while! 

Chocolate Covered Marshmallows

Adapted slightly from here

Ingredients

powdered sugar, for coating pan

2/3 c. water, divided

3 (1/4 oz.) envelopes unflavored gelatin

1 c. granulated sugar

1 c. light corn syrup

1 tsp. vanilla

Candy melts, almond bark or your favorite chocolate chips

Preparation

Lightly spray the inside of an 9'' x 13'' pan with cooking spray. Generously coat with powdered sugar and set aside.

Pour 1/3 cup of the water into the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and stir briefly to incorporate. Let stand for about 5 minutes, or until the gelatin has softened.

In a saucepan, off the heat, combine the remaining 1/3 cup of water and the granulated sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Place the pan over medium-high heat. Clip a candy thermometer on the inside of the pan, making sure it doesn’t touch the bottom. Cook the mixture without stirring until it reaches 240°.

With your mixer on low speed, very carefully add the hot syrup to the softened gelatin. Add the vanilla and increase the speed to medium-high. The mixture will start out clear, but quickly turns very white. Beat for about 8 minutes, or until the marshmallow gets very thick and sticky, and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, it will look stringy.

Spread the mixture into the prepared pan using a lightly oiled spatula. With wet hands, press the batter evenly into the corners of the pan. Just keep rewetting your hands to help with the stickiness. Set aside for at least 1 hour, or until the mixture is firm and cool.

Run a wet knife around the edge of the cooled pan to loosen the marshmallow. Remove the marshmallow from the pan, onto a sheet of parchment paper.

Dip your small shaped cookie cutter (Mine was a little too large for my liking, I would suggest the smaller, the better) into a shallow bowl of water and then cut the slab of marshmallow into heart shapes.  It helps to dip the heart cutter into the water in between cuts. Repeat this process until the whole slab of marshmallow is cut.

In the top bowl of a double boiler, soften chosen method of coating (choc. chips, candy melts, etc.)  Begin stirring the chocolate until melted to a liquid consistency (if using chocolate chips, I would suggest using a touch of shortening to make it a bit smoother; just add it in the pot and melt along with the chocolate).  Dip one side of the marshmallows into the chocolate.  Lay un-dipped side back on the parchment paper until chocolate is hardened.  Repeat until entire marshmallow is covered in chocolate and serve to the ones you love!

Boy Flowers

Every year millions of flowers are bought for Valentine's day, but if you're a girl like me, you often wonder "What can I get the guy in my life? Obviously flowers are so easy to get me, but what is the boy equivalent to flowers?"  Well I have the answer for you.  Finally, after 23 years of life, I have figured out boy flowers.

Ta-da! I give you boy flowers! Inspiration smacked me straight in the face Friday when I was walking through a local grocery store and saw a similar replica.  I thought, "What a genius idea for Mike!" Then I looked at the price tag - $20.  "Yeesh! No way that would break the V-day gift budget combined with what I already got him".  Then a blinding revelation came over me I could make one similar if not better than theirs and cheaper!  And so I did.

It was fairly simply and customizable because it has all of his favorites! Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in how brilliant I was that I failed to take pictures of the process so I'll break it down for you.

Some sort of boxed item (I chose popcorn but it could be something like snack cakes, etc.)
Something to weight the box down (I had some decorative rock lying around but rice, beans would probably work well too)
tissue paper, 1-2 sheets
hot glue
wooden skewers (lollipop sticks or floral sticks would probably work well too)
CANDY! Lots of candy!

All in all this cost me about half of the grocery store's price.

1. Empty the box of its contents
2. Put weights in the empty box - about 3/4 full
3.  Attach skewers to the back of the candy/goodies you purchsed
4.  Stick skewers into weighted box; adjust height if necessary
(I tried hot glueing the skewers to the side of the box and it was a big fail but hats of to you if you get that to work! You have great hot glueing skills I do not possess!)
5. Insert tissue paper to cover up the skewers that are showing - hot glue in place if necessary
6. Surprise someone you love with all their favorites!

From beginning to finish it took me about 30 minutes! Easy peasy and Mike was SUPER surprised; I've actually never seen him look so shocked! Enjoy all the V-day festivities!

Yet Another Wreath

Well friends, the day is drawing nearer, yes that both beloved and cursed day known as Valentine's Day.  For some it's a great day, some it's a sad day and for others we just don't care.  

I kind of fall into that later category, not because I don't have reason to celebrate, but more so because my husband is so wonderful that I don't need a day to make him pay attention to me, treat me special or give me quality time: he's pretty stinking fantastic at doing that already.  (Yes, cue the sickening awwww's).  All that aside though, I still like to do some decorations for Valentine's day pretty much like all other holidays.

 Voila! Valentine's Day wreath.  I went with just the colors because well, there's a lot of hearts floating around during V-Day and I needed a little cheer without the heart shape.

The close up.  I'll be honest, it was a bit time consuming.  It took me about two nights to do this even with the aid of a circle cutter, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Especially since when I first began it I kept envisioning a wreath that looked like V-day just exploded everywhere. Thankfully it didn't end up like that.

I normally would try to explain to you how I managed to do this, but honestly, this site does a much better job than I would.  

Whether you love, hate, or are indifferent towards Valentine's Day, you should definitely do something special for yourself or someone you love and enjoy it nonetheless!