B's First Valentines Day

Growing up, Valentines Day meant chocolate from Dad and a heart shaped meatloaf.  Since I've been married though, it really hasn't been that special.  We kind of just skip over it.  I mean our anniversary is right there, so any Valentines day type stuff is saved until then.  This year though, both hubby and I, had the same idea and actually made it special.

I made an extra special cheesecake (at the bottom of the post)  and he came in at midnight with two boxes of chocolates.  While this doesn't seem special to most people, it was very special to me.  We have kinda had a "no gifts" rule for most of our marriage.  Sounds silly, but that is how it is.  For Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries.  

This year, however, is different.  Not only did I get something for Valentines day, but he also tried to do a surprise "outing" for my birthday (of course, as you might have read, we were a house of sick people for that, so it didn't happen)  My hubby is just the best there ever was.

 Auntie Haleigh came over the week before and helped me out with painting Bryan's feet to make some valentines.  (I haven't actually given these out completely yet, so if you get one in the next week or so, act surprised.)

 I also made some cream cheese mints and put them in little jars for my nieces and nephews.  They may have tasted good, but they weren't as solid as I was hopping.

On to the best part.  The cheesecake!

I was so excited to do this.  I had found the heart recipe here.  It wasn't used for a cheesecake, but I figured the method would work.  Now the cheesecake part is with my new favorite recipe, found here.  It uses whipping cream instead of sour cream like my mom makes.  The picture is before it was  baked.  Of course I forgot to take an after picture, but basically, there was a huge crack in it.  That is because, unlike what the woman with the cheesecake recipe says, I did not water bath it.  I figured the little crack is no big deal, and maybe it wont crack because the hearts will help stick it together.

WRONG!

Not only did the hearts not hold it together, but actually made the crack bigger.  It spiraled all alongside the two middle rings.  Now, I have to do it again, to see if the water bath actually works.  Sure did taste good.  Especially with the leftover raspberry sauce.

Now, I just need to work on making Valentines Day more special for next year.