Valentine's Day, Delicious!

This Valentine's day, I was inspired by a picture in my Martha Stewart Living magazine.  (Thanks again Kell for the awesome Christmas gift!).  I decided to make Martha's darling peanut butter and jelly cookies for friends and co-workers.  They turned out wonderfully and were as cute as can be.  The process was a little more involved than your run-of-the-mill peanut butter cookie (Each cookie had to be rolled into a ball, flattened into a circle, and indented with the shape of a heart- then, refrigerated for 20 min. before baking. Once in the oven, they had to be removed after 12 minutes so that the heart indentation could be re-shaped and filled with jam, and baked for 8 more minutes).  All in all, however, I enjoyed baking them and had something cute to give out on V-day.

Glenn's grilled masterpiece!

For ourselves, Glenn and I decided to make our own special V-day dinner at home  on the 13th rather than fight the crowds out at a restaurant.  We decided on bone-in Rib Eye on the grill for dinner (it was close to 50 degrees...in February... we had to take advantage!) and commenced shopping.  While we were out, we also found 1in. think pork chops on sale for $2.99/lb and couldn't pass those up, so we grabbed those and proceeded to the next grocery store looking for a sale on Rib Eye. Jackpot!  Delmonico cuts (boneless) were listed for $4.99 each, and when we went back to the meat section, there were bone-in rib eye there too at the same price!!!  So, we quickly snatched up the last 2 and went to check out.  $22.00 was the total.  Wait, what?  "Excuse me, miss, these are on sale for $4.99" to which she replied "no, not those ones" "Well, could you kindly show us the ones that are on sale?  These were the ones that were next to the sale sign".  Glenn followed the check-out clerk to the back and returned 5 minutes later with a triumphant look on his face "It was the managers mistake.  He put the wrong ones out and said we could have them for the listed price!"  We totally lucked out.  We also ended up catching a sale on asparagus, and headed home to do some grilling.

And, who can grill without beer?  My brother Paul is dabbling a bit in beer brewing and had brought us up a bottle to try out. We were saving it for a special occasion and decided that this was it.  I couldn't tell you what kind of beer it was, but within a matter of an hour, it was gone.  My hats off to you bro... the beer was AMAZING! 

Of course, I had to contribute something to the table, so I decided to make a cherry pie.  We bought a pie filling when we were on our mini-moon in Door County this past fall, so it's not a made-from-scratch pie, but I think making the crust from scratch should be what matters most... and that, I did.  I just learned how to make pie crust this summer.  We made 100 rhubarb pies for a fundraiser. That'll teach anyone! However, since then, I have made 3 pies on my own, and the crust has always turned out too thin, too though, or too sticky.  The first time I rolled out a crust onto our counter top I couldn't get it off.  I destroyed it 3 times before bursting into tears and a string of near-profanity. That pie crust was too tough in the end because instead of throwing it away after re-rolling and flowering about 4 times (a serious no-no, I know) I used it anyway and patched it together.  Not my best work, I must say.  The second time, instead of rolling the crust out on the counter-top, I rolled it out on plastic wrap so it could be easily lifted and transferred.  (If you don't know this trick, you should... worked wonders for me!)  But (and there is always a but with crusts) it was much too thin.  I couldn't get it to fit over the entire pie without rolling it almost paper thin, so of course, it tore and once again I was frustrated and angry.  For this valentines day pie crust, I decided to use a recipe given to me as a shower gift from Annie. 

Using all of the tricks I learned and a different pie crust recipe, I only had to roll the dough out once, and it only split after it was baked... It was the best one yet, but still not perfect (looking that is... the crust was delicious!)  The next one will be perfect... right?  So, I guess you could say we had a pretty wonderful day shopping, grilling, baking and of course EATING!  Happy Valentine's day one and all.  I hope your day was as delicious as ours!