Valentine's Day

Did you do anything special for Valentine's Day?

Here in Japan it has become 'traditional' for women to give gifts to men on Valentine's Day. Homemade chocolates are a common choice for someone you actually love, while shop-bought ones will do for colleagues and other people you feel obliged to give to. Hey! I just realised! H didn't get any chocolate at work this year. Shame, he usually brings it home and shares it with me :-) Anyway, men are then supposed to reciprocate on March 14th, known as White Day, although I don't think a lot of chocolate making goes on then...

Anyway, at K's preschool everyone in the upper classes (all 8 students) were instructed to bring in a little handwritten card and sweet of some kind for each of their classmates. He enjoyed writing them, and later showing me all the cards he had received. He even shared some of his chocolate with me!

Meanwhile, I stitched up a little card for H, from a design found here. I finished it (ie did 90% of it) late the night before. H opened it and said 'Are they hearts? I thought it was a bra at first'. Hmm...



I just looked at the website I got it from again, to get the link, and realised that the hearts aren't actually supposed to be joined together. I also should have left out the top centre stitch to make an actual heart, as opposed to bra, shape. This explains the nagging feeling I had that my card hadn't turned out as good as the ones I had originally seen. Doh.

For Valentine's Day dinner, I made cheese fondue. Fun, easy, yummy, out of the ordinary. I (thought I) was super-organized, getting all the ingredients the day before. It wasn't until after lunch that I realised I didn't have any of those little fuel blocks to cook the fondue with. Another 'Doh'. Collected K from school, drove to the other side of town to buy them, came home... couldn't find the fondue set. I. Have. Looked. Everywhere. Still can't find the darned thing. So it was fondue in a little saucepan cooked on the stove, and eaten with regular forks. Oh well.

Dessert though.

Dessert was good. No 'Doh' moments at all there.

The recipe (find it here) was actually very easy, but please don't tell anyone. The impressiveness-to-ease ratio is very good on this one. I followed the recipe with no changes, but I did make the cakes in advance and then leave them in the fridge until it was time to bake them. Oh, and the recipe said to tip the cakes out of the ramekins to serve them but there was no way I was going to chance that. Eaten straight out of the dish, with cream and strawberries - yum. Reheated in the microwave the next day - also yum. I will be making these again...