Snow in Dallas and Valentine's day weekend

Last week was so much fun. It snowed in Dallas - about 8 inches. Now we hardly get snow here and when we do its about 1/2 inch so this was snowball fight / snow mans and endless snow pictures day. I especially love the trees, they look like they are swathed in Silver. Thanks to snow Friday was a day off and that set the theme for the weekend.

Thursday night, while watching the snow fall, I made cupcakes with a friend. Nothing makes me happier than the sight of freshly baked cupcakes (not to mention the pound of icing I ate while teaching her to ice). Here is a pic. These are pineapple cupcakes with simple vanilla buttercream. 

Now I am not big on Valentines day - not that I don't love the idea and love the 'love is in the air' feeling  - but because it sets up such high expectations for the day! My husband and I tend to buy gifts and do things year round but on V-day we run out of ideas. That being said, there are some things which you can make and eat guilt free only some days of the year. One of them is chocolates. I enrolled in a 'Chocolates for your Valentine' class for the 13th. I knew nothing would make me happier than 3 hours with chocolate so I made this his 'gift' to me :) It was a fun and informative class, not that I plan to make candy any time soon. Melting, tasting, stirring and dunking truffles in a 5 pound bowl of chocolate was pure bliss. We got a box to bring back home - here is a pic. There are white chocolate hazelnut truffles, white chocolate rochers, chocolate covered cherries, Gianduja chocolate truffles and chocolate covered soft caramels.

Sunday - the actual day we had invited friends over for dinner. I had some of my husbands favorites, a few of mine and I know my friend loves chocolate! Here is the spread. We started with mudslides, then cutlets for an appetizer. Main course was Paneer Makhanwala, Baby potatoes in tomato sauce, Chickpea salad, Cucumber raita, Mixed Vegetable Pulao and ready made garlic naans and onion kulchas. Dessert was Chocolate Mousse with whipped cream and raspberry puree. 

The spillover from V-day? These chocolate covered strawberries made with some dark Callebaut chocolate which I enjoyed till yesterday!