9 Feb 2016

Valentine’s Day

by Eva M | posted in: Crafts | 0

Valentines Day. The day to celebrate love for the special people in your life. Some feel that this should be strictly between a man and woman, but many give gifts to lots of people and pets that they love. I have been giving gifts to my husband, children and now grand children for years. Nothing extravagant, candy, baked goods and a small token of my love for them. Even if you don’t exchange anything, spend time with the ones you love on February 14, and every day. Give them a call. Anything you do will be greatly appreciated.

Here are some fun facts about Valentine’s Day.

There are lots of legends surrounding St. Valentine, however all the stories surrounding him show him as a sympathetic, heroic and most importantly, a romantic figure. Valentine’s greetings were popular dating as far back as the Middle Ages. Written Valentines appear after 1400. St. Valentine sent the first Valentine greeting and signed it…”from your Valentine”.

In Victorian times, it was considered to be bad luck if you put your name on the Valentine. X symbol became synonymous with the kiss in medieval times. People who couldn’t write their names, signed with an X in front of a witness, then kissed the X to show sincerity.

In the Middle Ages young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who would be their Valentine. They would wear the name pinned onto their sleeves for everyone to see. This was the origin of the expression “to where your heart on your sleeve”.

In 1537, England’s King Henry VII officially declared February 14th the holiday of St. Valentine’s Day.

Richard Cadbury produced the 1st box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day in the late 1800’s

More than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine’s Day

73% of Men buy flowers and 27% of women buy them. 15% of women send themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day

The red rose was the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love

Red roses are considered the flower of love because the color red stands for strong romantic feelings

Teachers will receive the most Valentine’s Day cards followed by children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets

220,000 is the average number of wedding proposals on Valentine’s Day per year

Every Valentine’s Day, the Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet lived receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet

9 Feb 2016

Heart Candle Holder

by Eva M | posted in: Crafts | 0

This is so cute. Put it on your table all month to keep the Valentine’s mood going. It’s definitely heart warming.

Supplies

Candle Holder

3 Heart Shaped Doilies similar in size to your candle holder

Red Tissue Paper

Mod Podge

Paint Brush

Candle

Instructions

Cut out the center heart from all 3 doilies. Cut out red tissue paper to sit inside the heart, allowing the scalloped edge to be left open. Brush the Mod Podge all over the tissue heart and press it onto the doily heart. Brush more Mod Podge over the entire back side of the hearts and press in place on the candle holder. For this candle holder, I used 3 doilies and overlapped the edges of the hearts. Depending on the size of your candle holder, you may need more or less doilies and tissue paper.

9 Feb 2016

Valentine’s Cookies

by Eva M | posted in: Cooking, Sweets | 0

These cookies are not only beautiful, but they are so delicious, but so easy for anyone to decorate. Stripes, dots, outline, flowers. Once you start, you’ll be hooked.

I haven’t done to much decorating with a pastry bag and icing, but with a little practice, the cookies come out looking really beautiful. Let me show you what I used and how I decorated the cookies. First thing to remember, they don’t have to be perfect. And, if you make a mistake, or you just don’t like what it looks like, wipe it off and start again. You will have time before the icing hardens.

On the left are the supplies that I used to decorate. Pastry bag, coupler, tips and plastic squeeze bottles. I picked up all these supplies at my local Michael’s.

On the right is a closer look at the tips that I used to decorate these cookies.

The first thing that you must do is practice. See what each one of the tips will do. I practiced going in a straight line, then I went back and forth in the line. I also tried to create a different kind of line. After that, I practiced making stars and small flowers. The way you would make the stars and flowers that I used is to put the tip down on the paper, squeeze out some icing until you have the size you are looking for. At that point, stop squeezing the icing bag and move the tip down then up to break off the icing.

I used Wilton products. If you go on their website, you will see that there are lots of tips and techniques that can be used to make all sorts of elaborate flowers, designs and pictures on cakes and cookies. I practiced on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper, but there is a practice board on the Wilton site that looks great.

The icing that I used is typical Royal Icing. There are two ways that you can make Royal Icing. Either way is fine. I used the meringue powder. Royal icing gets hard pretty quickly, so if you aren’t going to use it all right away, you MUST cover it tightly or put it in a plastic ziploc bag so it will stay soft until you want to use it again.

I divided the icing, keeping half white and the other half red. I used red Wilton Icing color to make the icing really red.

Royal Icing

1 Lb Confectioners Sugar

3 Egg Whites

1/2 tsp Cream of Tarter

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Royal Icing

1 Lb Confectioners Sugar

3 TBSP Meringue Powder

5 TBSP Warm Water

For this one, i used an outline tip for the center, then used the edging tip to go around the outside of the small heart in white icing. Then, using the flower tip, I filled in the middle. For the dots, I used the outlining tip and went down and up with the decorating bag to create dots.

For this one, I made a big heart in red, the edging tip to go inside the red heart, then with the outlining tip, I made a smaller red outline inside the pink cookie. I filled it in with icing that was thinned out, then sprinkled the inside heart with red sugar.

This one was so easy, I outlined the pink heart. Then, I used the flower tip and went all around the edge of the cookie.

For this one, I put a very thin layer of red icing, then I went back over it with a thicker layer of red stripes. Red sugar on top, and its done.

I used a typical Sugar Cookie recipe to make the cookies, and used food coloring for 1/4 of the dough and rolled them out to 1/4 inch thick. I used 2 heart cookie cutters to make the heart shapes, one medium size and one smaller. As you can see, I kept some of the dough white, some red/pink and some multi color. The most important thing is not to cook the cookies to long. Just when they start to turn light brown, take them out.

Rolled Out Sugar Cookies

2 Eggs

2/3 Cup Shortening

2/3 Cup Soft Butter

1 1/2 Cups Sugar

3 1/2 Cups Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

2 tsp Vanilla

Beat eggs in a large mixer bow. Add all remaining ingredients. Mix on low speed until completely combined and dough forms. Flour surface of board and turn out dough onto board. Form a ball and divide in half. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Roll out to 1/4 inch. Cut with cookie cutter. Bake in 375º oven for 7-9 minutes or until golden brown.

31 Jan 2016

Stocking the Freezer

by Eva M | posted in: Daily Happenings | 0

Things at my house get a little crazy sometimes. I work somewhat of a normal Monday through Friday schedule, although it’s not 9-5, I work 2:30 to 11pm. My husband owns a Car Service, so he is in and out at different times every day. What I found to be really helpful, is to fill the freezer with delicious food that we can take out and heat up in a few minutes.

This time, I made beef stew, chicken soup, pasta with almonds, tomato and white bean soup and chili. I froze 4 servings of each in individual freezer containers. I did a little more of the chili because you can use it on so many things, I always like to keep it in the freezer.

All of these foods freeze very well. I defrost them in the microwave, then transfer them to a pot and slow simmer until they are completely warm.

Last weekend, we had quite a snowfall here in the northeast. At my house, we had somewhere around 24″. We were snowed in all day Saturday, leaving us nothing else to do but lay on the couch and watch movies. It was great not having to cook, but just go into the freezer and pick out whatever we wanted.

Give it a try, I guarantee you will be glad you did.

31 Jan 2016

Sjögren’s Syndrome

by Eva M | posted in: Daily Happenings | 0

A few weeks back, I posted this picture of my FitBit and vowed to do 10,000 or more steps every day. I was extremely excited and determined to hit the ground running. However, I didn’t take into consideration that I have Sjögren’s Syndrome. Whenever I tell people that I have this auto immune disease, they always ask “what is that?”. Most people don’t know what it is or how it affects people. This is how the Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation website describes it:

What is Sjögren’s?

Sjögren’s (“SHOW-grins”) is a systemic autoimmune disease that affects the entire body. Along with symptoms of extensive dryness, other serious complications include profound fatigue, chronic pain, major organ involvement, neuropathies and lymphomas.

Sjögren’s is a systemic disease, affecting the entire body. Symptoms may remain steady, worsen, or, uncommonly, go into remission. While some people experience mild discomfort, others suffer debilitating symptoms that greatly impair their functioning. Early diagnosis and proper treatment are important — they may prevent serious complications and greatly improve a patient’s quality of life.

So, because I was not used to doing 10.000 steps per day, it didn’t take long for my Sjögren’s to flare up. When I get a flare, I typically don’t have energy to do my normal day-to-day activities and my joints and muscles ache all over. I have been diagnosed for approximately 7 years and I’m able to manage my symptoms very well. However, there are specific things that will bring on a flare for me. They are, over-doing it, not getting enough rest, stress eating poorly, There are other things that I have read about, but these 4 usually do it for me.

So, what I was able to do was step 5,000 to 6,000 steps per day. Eating is never a problem, I always eat good, fresh food and I was still able to lose 3 pounds this month. Yay for me!!! This week, I will try to step it up to 6,500 – 7,000. Of course, I will eat plenty of fruits, vegetables and lean meat, lots of water and plenty of sleep. With that combination, I should end up just fine.

Author Archives: Eva M