Valentines Almanac

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Neapolitan Valentine Treat

 

Today I’d like to share with you a recipe I found on this blog. This is a perfect, delicious shortcake cookie for a Valentine Treat… Enjoy!

What You’ll Need:

– 1 cup of unsalted butter
– 1/2 cup of sugar
– 1 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
– 1/2 teaspoon of Almond Extract
– 1/4 teaspoon of salt
– 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
– Pink or Red food coloring
– 2 1/2 tablespoons of Cocoa Powder
– 1 large egg
– 1 tablespoon of water

Add sugar and butter to a bowl and cream well with a mixer… Then add vanilla extract and almond extract. Mix. Now add the flour and salt, mix on low.

The dough should be a bit crumbly so knead it together to ensure that it doesn’t fall apart. Then separate into three equally divided balls of dough

Place one of the balls of dough in a bowl and add the cocoa powder, use a mixer to blend these together to make the brown colored dough, or you can also knead the cocoa powder and dough together to make this mixture.

Add another portion of dough to a bowl and add a few drops of pink food coloring, blend together with a mixer and you have your pink colored dough!

Take each color of dough and place it between two pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap and roll it to a thickness of about 3/8 inch

Use  a ruler and sharp knife to cut the dough into 3/4 inch wide strips and refrigerate for about 20 minutes. While the dough is refrigerating whisk together the egg and water .

Lay a large piece of wax paper out and spread egg and water mixture on a small strip of the wax paper before placing a strip of brown dough on it. Then repeat with pink and white strips using the egg mixture as a “glue”… continue process till you have a large striped dough pattern. Finally take a heart cookie cutter and cut  hearts out of the pattern.

Pre-Heat oven to 350 degrees and cook for 8-10 minutes and you have yourself a very tasty Valentine treat!

I’m Lovin’… Valentines Day

Yesterday I had a movie night with my amigos, we went out to eat and gathered at my house to watch the classic National Treasure. It was nice to catch up and just chill :] For our movie snacks we had chocolate popcorn (made by a local street vendor in my neighborhood), coke/sprite, and my mommy’s homemade Lemon Bars. Yumm…

Valentines Day is almost in our grasp <3 and to tell you the truth I haven’t thought about it much. I think I might make some goody bags for my sis’ but I need to think about it more this weekend… Hope you get lots of Xs’ and Os’ this year on Valentines Day!

One: Don’t forget your camera to capture the moments :]

Two: Etsy Sailor Playsuit… CUTE!

Three: Red Velevet Cupcakes are to-die-for!

Four: Wear the reddest Lipstick you own <3

Sources: one, two, three, four

Late Night Snack

Let’s face it, it is intrinsic to have late night cravings. Unfortunately for me it is a terrible sweet tooth – which often lands me in the dentists office – but that’s beside the point. My late night snack tonight is 1/2 blonde and 1/2 brownie! Such contrast – such sweet balance – they were made for each other! Just like yin and yang. Ok, maybe I’m over dramatizing this, but I was thrilled to find that my mom had made a pan of blondes when I came home from school today. I waited until Mom and Dad were safely tucked in bed, then I sneaked to the kitchen to get this amazing snack!

Pop Icon: Head Scarves

As of late I have had a certain infatuation with head scarves — you might have seen the “style” article in our most recent Almanac. The pop icon this week, celebrating the handiness and fashion of head scarves, is pop singer Rihanna. She is rocking a polka dotted head scarf tied in a bow with red cascading curls on the Westfield Shopping Centre in London. I managed to dig out a similar polka dotted head scarf for my own representation. Though it was a challenge to volumize my long straight hair, I managed to put it up in a messy beehive doo for the picture. ~ In honor of Rihanna’s red hot hair, Rachel – who was kind enough to help me – spruced mine up with a bit of color as well!

Source:  (Rihanna’s quirky, red hairstyle)