Valentine's Day

February 14th is usually just another day in the Giuliano house because I don't feel like I need a specific day to tell my family that I love them, and I don't feel the need to plaster it all over social media, or this blog for that matter.  So this is how we spent our Valentine's Day, minus all the mush.

This year was a little different in that I picked up a couple small things for John and Roman.  Well I guess they aren't exactly small, coming in at almost 2.5 feet tall, but because they were from Dollarama they count as small.  John was confused as to what could possibly be in such a giant envelope, but Roman was in love with the giant puppy on the card.  I think we listened to "puppy, puppy, puppy" for 10 minutes after he opened it.  We have the cards sitting on top of the entertainment centre in the living room and Roman will still point at it and say "puppy".  Clearly the best Valentine's Day gift ever!  John and Roman also snuck out of the house and picked me up a beautiful bouquet of flowers!  I'm happy to say they are still in tact and that the cat hasn't eaten them all!

It was a standard lunch today, leftovers actually, but I thought Roman would like a hearted shaped brownie for dessert.  He nibbled on it a bit but he enjoyed feeding it to John much better.  Of course I couldn't expect John to eat it all himself so I snagged a couple pieces for myself.

Roman has been napping from 12:30-2pm lately so after his nap we made a batch of Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Waffles for the freezer.  I have totally spoiled this child because as soon as he sees Martin (my mixer, and yes I've named him) he gets super excited.  He absolutely loves to eat the whipped egg whites and of course I can't say no to just a couple fingers full. 

John really wanted to go out for supper, but because Roman wasn't feeling very good we were a little hesitant to take him out.  We ended up biting the bullet and taking Roman out to Boston Pizza with us.  John ordered a salad and a spicy pasta dish which I, for the life of me, can't remember what it was called.  I went with my old stand by and had chicken parmesan with spaghetti bolognaise.  Both of these meals I forgot to take pictures of, so you only get to see Roman's "Bug's & Cheese" and veggies.  It's really just pasta with alfredo sauce but the pasta are in the shapes of bugs.  Roman didn't end up eating much but he had a good time waving at the older fellow that was sitting behind us.  Towards the end of our meal Roman started to fall apart, so we shoveled in the last few bites and headed for home.

Once Roman was asleep, John and I settled in to watch "The Wolf of Wall St." and drink some tea!  It was a great Valentine's Day spent with my family and I couldn't have asked for more.  Although now that I'm typing this I'm just remembering that Tutti Frutti usually has B1G1 frozen yogurt on Valentine's Day.  Definitely dropped the ball on that one...

French Macarons

I think macarons come across as a very intimidating item to bake.  When I first decided I wanted to attempt these a few years back I prepared myself for the battle of a lifetime.  Turns out I had nothing to worry about.  If you can use a stand mixer you can make these cookies!

When I started thinking of fun things to make for Valentine's Day, one of the first things that came to mind were macarons.  There is something so fancy about these beautiful little cookies.  In the spirit of the special day I decided to color the macarons pink and fill them with buttercream frosting.  A red macaron filled with a chocolate ganache would also make a stunning cookie.  These macarons have just the right amount of snap on the outside but are still gooey and delicious on the inside. 

French Macarons
1 cup icing sugar
3/4 cup almond flour*
2 large egg whites
1/4 cup sugar

*If you can't find almond flour you can use ground almonds and force them through a fine mesh strainer to break it down into a flour like consistency.

Sift together icing use and almond flour.  Preheat oven to 325°.  Using a mixer whisk egg whites on medium speed until they start to form soft peaks.  Add in sugar and whisk on high speed until spiff peaks form.  Fold icing sugar and almond flour into the egg whites.  If you want to color your macarons this is the time to add a gel color, folding the color in until it is evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Transfer better to a pastry bag and with a round tip pipe 2 inch rounds 1 inch apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Lightly drop the baking sheets on the counter to release any air bubbles from the cookies.  Let the cookies stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 325° and bake one sheet at a time for 10 minutes, rotating the tray half way through.  Allow cookies to cool on the baking trays for 2-3 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack.  Once the cookies are completely cooled, pipe or spread filling onto the bottom of one cookie and sandwich with another.

Believe it or not, macarons are extremely freezer friendly!  I would suggest baking the cookies and then freezing them before filling them.  Then thaw and fill when they are needed.  Just make sure to store them in a solid container in the freezer as they will crush if something is set on top of them.

Heart Shaped Valentine's Day Brownies

I am the first to admit that Valentine's Day is just another day in the Giuliano house.  I've never been big on Valentine's Day, except in elementary/high school when friends could send each other chocolate because that's obviously amazing.  Flowers are expensive and get eaten by the cat and chocolate makes me fat so John and I usually skip the gifts altogether.  Blasphemous to some I'm sure but it works for us.  Or at least it did until Roman came around. 

For some reason the little turkey makes me want to celebrate even the smallest of "holidays" just for his sake.  On a recent Mom only shopping day I came across some super cute heart shaped tins at Dollarama.  At the time I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them but I knew I wanted to make something for Valentine's Day.  The other day it finally hit me, brownies!!!  Who doesn't love brownies?!

Brownies
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1t vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4t salt
1/4t baking powder

Preheat oven to 350° and grease heart shaped tins.  Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Remove pan from heat a whisk in sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Mix in cocoa powder, flour, salt and baking powder until well combined.  Pour batter into tins and bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes, do not over bake.  You want some of the batter to stick to a toothpick when inserted into the centre.  This way you'll have a delicious gooey brownie!

If you don't have or can't find the heart shaped pans you would also bake this recipe in an 8x8 baking dish, lined with parchment paper, and use cookie cutters to cut shapes from the brownie.  The best part of this option?  You can eat all the "leftover" bits!

I decided to amp up the yum factor a bit with a little bit of buttercream icing but the brownies are delicious even without it.  Hopefully this will be the only brownie I eat from the batch since I'm still recovering from the Christmas food gorging.  I plan to pop the rest of these ad boys into the freezer where they will wait for me until I need a chocolate fix.  So probably later tonight...