First Friday in February

Tonight is our Valentine Day Dinner Party for our friends from choir.  We have been working on it for about a week and I am pretty pleased with the results.  You can see what we have done here and here.

My individual conversation heart cheesecakes turned out lovely.....Thank you Hungry Happenings for the great idea!

 

Then Frank got busy painting the phrases on each of them.  I had bought some writeable frosting thinking perhaps that would make it easier for him but it didn't work.  Then we got some candy piping but that didn't work either.  Then we tried some melted jam, no such luck.  In the end, we painted it on using red food dye.

 

 

I got to work prepping as much of the food as I could ahead of time so that our work would be minimal when our guests are here.

 

 

I got the idea for these hearts made from beets on pinterest.  I used my spicy pickled beets that I canned earlier this year.  I will use these on the salad I am making.

 

 

I got my Oysters Rockefeller ready to go.  These are adapted from a recipe I found on allrecipes. I made the mashed potatoes and put them into a casserole to be reheated at dinner time. Made the Tomato Bisque so it only needs to be rewarmed.  The asparagus is in the steamer pan waiting to be steamed and the steaks are seasoned and ready to go.

 

Then came the fun part, decorating and setting the table.  I am very pleased with how lovely it turned out.

 

 

I took some close ups of individual settings so you can get an idea of how each looked.

 

 

And, of course, I am still very excited over my dollar store find.

 

 

I will be posting recipes and photos of the completed dishes over the weekend.  I look forward to sharing them with you.