Valentine's Day! (Finally)

Warning! This post is super image heavy!
Also, sorry the pictures aren't great. You try taking pictures while cooking a feast!

It's been almost a week since Vday, so I'll (try to) keep this short.

Chris is usually the "doer" between the two of us. He's good at planning what we're going to do for such an occasion. This year, I wanted to do something for him, so I planned a picnic. There was even a picnic basket. Unfortunately, it rained and we didn't really want to sit in wet grass, so we picnic-ed in my livingroom floor.

I made homemade chicken salad sandwiches on croissants (those weren't homemade) with lettuce and tomato. I love chicken salad but I rarely make it. So when I do, it's one of Chris' favorite things. I make a sweet version with grapes. I even slice the grapes individually; it's very involved, but very worth it.
Chopping the chicken, pre-salad.
All done! Yuuuuuummmmm!

I also got some goat cheese, jalapeno havarti- his favorite, wheat thins, grapes, and apple chips as side dishes.
Yes, that is a giant Easter teacup as a bowl for the grapes.

Chris insisted on a picture of me with all my hard work.

Then there was the cake. Now, I am very excited about this cake. Let me tell you about it.
I made an angel food cake from a box, which was supersupereasy, by the way.

Then I heated a bag of frozen raspberries in a small saucepan with about 3 tablespoons of sugar until they were mostly liquid and boiling like crazy. Then I let them cool a bit.

After the cake was cool, I cut the top inch and a half off the cake and set it aside. With my fingers, I scooped and pinched out a little "moat." I used the pieces I removed from the moat to fill in the hole in the middle.Then in went the raspberries! Then I carefully put the top of the cake back on, and made a really simple topping/frosting. I used my mixer and creamed 8oz of cream cheese, then added a big tub of whipped topping and about 3/4 of a cup of confectioner's sugar. Oh! And a little vanilla. Always add vanilla.

I wasn't really all that careful in my frosting. I just tried to get most of it on the cake. I like to put it all on top to start with then slowly work it down the sides. This topping was really easy to work with because it was so light and creamy since it's mostly cool whip anyway.

I threw a few fresh raspberries on the top. I spent nearly $4 on fresh raspberries, but when I got them home I realized that they were mostly molded. These were the only ones that were salvageable.
I call this masterpiece a "Bleeding Angel Cake." Why? Well, just look at what it looks like when you cut it!

If you attempt this cake, you should keep in mind that it does need to go in the fridge, since it has cream cheese and whipped cream in the frosting. Also, we learned that this is NOT a two person type of cake. It needs to be shared! A week later and we have over half left. The good news is that it's still just as tasty.

As for the presents, Chris got me this:
My very favorite print from The Black Apple. I'm getting quite the itchy "add to cart" finger because of it. I really think it needs a friend. But two is a weird number. I like things in threes, so I'm having a dilemma about that. We'll see. He also gave me a box of chocolates and a mini planter kit for outside my door. It came with soil, the planter and flower seends. It will be something for my gnomes to look after!

For Chris, I (of course) counted all the food as part of my present but since he's been reading biographies lately (I got him two Alan Alda books for Christmas), I got him Barack Obama's first book.

All in all, it was a very nice Valentine's Day. Did I mention how good that cake was? I'm thinking of doing it with peaches next time. Mmmmm......

Have a happy weekend, everybody. I'm going home and will come back with clean clothes and new contacts and glasses! Yay for vision! See you next week.