What's Red, Delicious and Full of Love?

Our Valentine's Day, of course! The morning began with a tradition from my childhood - heart shaped biscuits with raspberry jam. It's always fun to start the day off with a little warm flaky love covered in butter! This year, since I had a previous engagement in the morning, I totally cheated and bought Pilsbury Grands biscuits and cut them out with my trusty heart shaped cookie cutter.

Then this afternoon the cookie cutter did double duty as the kids and I continued another family tradition of making Valentine cookies to take to our neighbors. I cut out and baked, Hannie B and RedDog frosted (amply) and sprinkled. I am definitely going to post my friend Ronalin's sugar cookie recipe in the next week. It has sour cream in it and these cookies are perfect - soft and thick, not too sweet - they let the frosting do all the work.

Time to set the table for the Big Dinner! Little known fact: My mom (The Queen) happens to have the largest dish collection this side of the Mississippi. Wait, I think a bunch of you already knew that. I think I may have to do a post on all her dishes sometime - it WILL amaze.

She loaned me a set for tonight's dinner under the condition I feed her and my dad. Clever how she bribed a meal out of me - but can you blame me? These dishes were just meant to be at our Big Red Valentine's Dinner!

Each place setting got a cracker place card and a box of the the best Valentine sweet ever - conversation hearts - which were fun to read aloud after dinner.

The menu for the night:

(Sorry, this is where the lighting in my pictures goes bad. I'm still learning how to use Edward and haven't had a lesson yet from my brother . . .)

Feast your eyes on the "Raspberry Fluff" - a jello/tapioca/cool whip/frozen raspberry confection that we include as a fruit salad but should really be a dessert.

Warm rolls with a parmesan herbed topping. Mmmm - butter, I love you.

Mixed greens with pear, Gorgonzola and craisins, in a perfect bowl for the picky people who don't like avocados. Can you believe I'm related to people who don't like avocados? It's a crime.

Bless you Mindy for bringing this recipe into our lives. It makes my Hubby weep with joy - red pepper sausage cream sauce over farfalle. I wonder how many blog comments I could get in request for this recipe . . . hmmm.

We topped it all off with this beauty - a fresh strawberry cake topped with whipped cream and sliced berries. Got this recipe from Country Living magazine a few years ago and knew it should be the grand finale for our Valentine's dinner.

After dinner we spent some time on a little project that will send some serious love in the direction of my Uncle Kirk who is in the toughest part of his cancer treatment.

We ended our fantastic night by sharing a familiar scripture with the kids from John 3:16 -

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

What better way to end a day filled with love than by talking about the greatest love of all? Hope your day was full of love, lovely memories and loved ones.