Valentine’s Day is a family day at our house. At least it has been for the last sixteen years. We’ll see if the teenagers will change things up this year. But I also way cook a fun Valentine dinner for the whole family. There’s nothing sacred about February 14 (sorry to burst your bubble) that Mr. Hedin and I need to run out to an expensive dinner on that exact day.

I’ve done heart shaped make-your-own pizza, steaks, and plain old red sauce pasta. Recently I discovered that you can cook pasta in beet water and have it turn out red/pink-ish. It’s not perfectly even color - but it’s all natural and you can pop the beets in to the pasta sauce too! I think it’s a cool thing for younger kids to se happen. My teenagers did think it was cool. I got a shrug, but I’ll take a shrug.

The trick to getting the pasta to cook and the beets to be done is to start the beets early when you put the water in the pan. And then to get the color to stick, turn the water off when the pasta is basically done (but not crunchy) and let it rest all together. Then when you go back and drain the pasta - keeping some water! - the pasta is a lovely little red shade.

While the pasta sits, you can get the breadsticks going and tell one of your kids to mix up a green salad.

Heart throb Pasta

With love-ly bread sticks

Serves 4

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 sweet onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbs olive oil

2 beets

½ lb pasta

½ cup parmesan cheese

1 package crescent dough

STEP 1

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Slice the beets in half and add them to the water as it begins to boil.  When the water has come to a boil, add the pasta.

STEP 2

When the pasta is nearly cooked, turn the heat off and let rest for 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

STEP 3

Unroll the package of crescent dough and press together all of the seams.  Slice the dough into strips.  Twist the dough and form it into a heart.  Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

STEP 4

Heat a skillet with the olive oil.  Cook the peppers, onion, and garlic over medium heat until softened.  Zest in lemon juice and toss with cooked beets. 

STEP 5

Drain the pasta – reserving at least one cup of pasta water – and toss the pasta with the peppers.  Add the pasta water, a little at a time, and toss until a sauce has formed.  Remove from heat and sprinkle parmesan on top. 

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Thanks to our friend Taylor Swift, this classic cocktail made a return to the scene last year. Some of us are old enough to have had the cocktail the first time around when Sex and the City made it a hit. Some of us lamented the demise of it when we decided that Sex and the City was passè. Thank goodness it was made cool again.

And made cool in time for Valentine’s Day! It’s the perfect drink to shake up this holiday. Especially if you can garnish it with a heart shaped strawberry. I mean, can you even?

Classic Cosmopolitan

makes 2

4 ounces vodka

2 ounces cranberry juice

1/2 ounce cointreau

juice of 1/2 lime

STEP 1

In a cocktail shaker, combine vodka, juice, cointreau and lime. Add ice and shake well.

STEP 2

Strain into a coupe and serve immediately.

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This drink is steeped in controversy, mostly because my friend and I have a different story of the nature of this popular drink - if it’s made with cognac or gin, like I think. At the Savoy the recipe calls for gin, in Paris it’s cognac - but both are a win!

In a shaker stir together lemon and sugar - add gin and ice & shake with vigor. Strain into a glass and top with champagne. This Valentine’s Day will be anything but plain!

Here’s a snapshot of the history

1867 Charles Dickens visits Boston and drinks “Champagne Cups with Tom Gin” (a Champagne Cup is champagne, sugar and lemon over ice)

1915 Harry’s New York Bar in Paris claims to create the drink and names it for the French 75mm field gun because of the kick.

1918 Arnaud’s in New Orleans opens and features the French 75 - made with cognac - on it’s cocktail menu

1927 The French 75 appears in print in a New York humor magazine made with gin.

1930 the Savoy publishes a recipe made with gin

1932 “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks” insists the drink be made with cognac

French 75

3/4 ounce lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

2 ounces gin (or VSOP Cognac)

2 ounces champagne

In a cocktail shaker, stir together lemon juice and sugar. Fill the shaker with ice and pour in the gin. Shake well. Strain into a champagne glass and top with champagne. Garnish with a lemon twist.

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When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, That’s Amore!

Is pesto gorgonzola a thing in your house? If not, it should be! Pesto Gorgonzola is A T.H.I.N.G. in our house. My mom used to make it all the time for parties. It’s the ultimate simple appetizer and if you don’t know about it - here’s a link where I made it for an appetizer. You need to have this in your tool kit.

Is make-your-own pizza the best thing ever? It’s definitely my children’s favorite dinner which is probably why we end up making it for Valentine’s Day almost every year. We shape the dough into hearts if we’re feeling cheeky. The kids like theirs with pepperoni and black olives - but I only like when it’s delivery. If I’m making my own, I want something more interesting. That’s when I thought… Pesto Gorgonzola pizza! It’s amazing. I added bacon (because, bacon) and green onions to spice things up.

I can’t tell you how good this pizza is. It’s a super indulgent dinner - or a delish appetizer.

You can absolutely make your own dough - the one here is a 30 minute dough - or just buy it done already. It’s super simple either way. You do you.

PESTO GORGONZOLA PIZZA

makes four small pizzas

For the pizza dough

1 package active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup very warm water

2 ½ cups flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup pesto

1 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese

4 strips cooked bacon

4 sliced green onions

STEP 1

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine yeast, sugar, and water.  Let sit 10 minutes until foamy.  Stir flour and salt together and add yeast mixture and olive oil to dry ingredients.  Combine until smooth dough has formed.  Let rest for five minutes.

1 package active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup very warm water

2 ½ cups flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

STEP 2

Divide the dough into four equal portions. Shape, gently, into flat circles. Top with pesto, cheese, bacon and green onions. Pop into the oven and bake 10-12 minutes until the crust is brown and the pesto is bubbly.

Bon Appetit!

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If I ate a sugar cookie while drinking a Manhattan I would literally go into a sugar coma. I haven’t had that much sugar in a really long time - but I cannot deny it is a dream of mine to eat sugar cookies and drink cocktails. If I had a restaurant, it would serve sugar cookies and boozy drinks - preferably vintage cocktails and champagne. Can you even? Wouldn’t that be the best? What would we name our restaurant? Should we serve charcuterie boards as well? Would that be the most bougie/basic thing ever? Probably.

Until I open my bougie/basic cookie bar (do we name it The Cookie Bar?!?!) I will have to settle for making my own. It’s not that big of a stretch. I make cookies for every holiday and send them around to friends. And there’s no denying I like a good cocktail.

For Valentines’s Day I paired up this natural (?) duo with a Manhattan and sugar cookies. My sugar cookies have become famous in the neighborhood. When everyone else “boo-s” with candy at Halloween, my kids “boo” with sugar cookies. The truth of my sugar cookies is that they are really a quick knock off of Jenny Cookies recipe. Her recipe has things like “refrigerate the dough” and “add the flour a little at a time.” I don’t have the patience for either of those things. Because her recipe is so easy to remember, it’s become mine too.

SUGAR COOKIES

makes 2 dozen

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter (room temperature or slightly warmer)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

STEP 1

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the flour and the baking powder. Set aside.

STEP 2

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until soft and totally incorporated. It’s important you don’t see ‘chunks’ of butter.

STEP 3

Add the eggs and vanilla and combine totally.

STEP 4

Add the flour mixture and combine on low speed until it looks ‘crumbly.’ Then turn up the mixer speed and beat until the dough forms a ball. It legitimately will form a ball and you’ll panic for a minute that you’ve ruined everything and why is it so crumbly, and then it just works.

STEP 5

Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch depth. I use rolling pin with guides on it so I know I’m at the same depth all the way around. If the cookies end up being different depths, you will end up with some cooked and some still raw.

STEP 6

Bake 6-8 minutes until just set. Let cool on the cookie sheet 5-10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before frosting.

The perfect Manhattan is not super hard. But there are lots of opinions on how to make the perfect Manhattan - even saying that is a problem because there’s a variation of Manhattan called “Perfect Manhattan.” {eyeroll}

I turned to my own personal cocktail expert - my friend Eric - who has strong opinions on the subject of cocktails for his opinion on what we would call the perfect Manhattan - the history of the drink seemed like a good place to start.

There’s no exact place the cocktail was invented - the only thing the stories all agree with is that it was developed in the 1880’s in NYC. One story is that it was created for the mother of Winston Churchill before he was born (the timeline doesn’t work) but I’m here for that story. It’s great.

The original drink was made with “American whiskey”, French vermouth and 3-4 dashes of bitters. The “American whiskey” is the critical part. That’s what we would call rye today. It’s not bourbon. You can make this with bourbon, but it’s a different drink. Eric says it sweeter, I say “it’s not as delicious.” Some early versions have a few dashes of gum syrup as well. Gum syrup (or gimme syrup) is basically a simple syrup but with gum arabic dissolved in it as well as sugar. Since that’s just a thickener/stabilizer, we can assume it had nothing to do with adding flavor so really, just a few dashes of simple syrup.

The recipe gets slightly more complicated during prohibition when American whiskey becomes a challenge to get in NYC but Canadian whiskey isn’t the same challenge (geography). Some recipes still use Canadian whiskey because of this hiccup in history.

Before I give you the recipe for a perfect (not Perfect) Manhattan, let me first say that Eric is dying right now that I made my Manhattans on the rocks. He would make them up. Only. And he’s going to call me for sure when he sees these pictures and tell me how wrong it is. So let me say - the correct way is served up like a Martini. But if you’re like me and you drink a neat drink WWAAAYYY too fast, then on the rocks is a liver saver.

Don’t worry, I didn’t shake it - I still stirred it which is the proper way to serve a Manhattan. It’s another controversy, but it’s not to be debated here. Stir it. Don’t shake it.

A PERFECT MANHATTAN

2 ounces Pikesville Rye

1 ounce Carpano Antica sweet vermouth

2-3 dashes Angostura bitters

luxardo cherries

In a cocktail pitcher filled with ice, combine the ingredients. Stir gently with a swizzle or bougie glass stir stick. Strain into glasses immediately (so it doesn’t dilute) and serve with a cherry for garnish.

While I wait to open my bougie/basic Cookie Bar, I made these for girlfriends this holiday since we can’t see each other. It’s a “happy hour” I can deliver and I’m wrapping the whole thing in the “That’s Amore” dishtowel. Aren’t they fun? I made them. If you want one, let me know. I’ll send you one too.

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Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. It’s cheesy and ridiculous and totally unnecessary - which is why it’s the best! I do this one up big - a fun breakfast, a big family dinner, and themed lunches that are totally quirky. I cut the kids sandwiches into hearts, I draw on mandarin oranges, and I cut hearts out of colored paper and stuff their lunch boxes so they literally explode when they open their lunch.

You can’t celebrate all day if you don’t start early in the morning! This is a super simple breakfast that you can pull off on a school day - swap out waffle mix if you don’t want to make them from scratch - the secret is in adding freeze dried strawberries to the batter. They’ll soften slightly in the batter and totally soften when they are cooked.

You can use fresh berries, but I found that the freeze dried berries keep their flavor better when the waffles are cooked. The fresh berries mush and cook more quickly which adds a cool pink color, but lacks the punch I’m going for here.

STRAWBERRY WAFFLES WITH BERRY SAUCE

2 cups milk

1/2 cup melted butter

2 eggs

1 cup freeze dried strawberries

2 cups flour

2 tbs sugar

1 tbs baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine together dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, which together milk, melted butter and eggs. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined - there will be a few lumps.

Then add the strawberries and stir until they are incorporated into the batter. Let the batter rest 3-5 minutes while the waffle maker heats up.

BERRY SAUCE

1/2 cup strawberries

1/2 cup raspberries

2 tbs orange juice

1 tbs sugar

1 tbs cointreau (optional)

In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring the a boil. As soon as it boils, turn the heat down and let it simmer until it begins to thicken up. Smash the berries with a fork to push out the juices and break them down. Serve warm over the waffles.

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There are so many options for how to spend Valentine’s Day, but a fun way to celebrate with all of your friends is with a simple cocktail party - after all, Valentine’s Day is on a Thursday this year! Instead of celebrating just as couples, invite everyone over for drinks and small bites and celebrate together. This is especially great if some of your group is ‘coupled up’ and some of your group isn’t. And the planner-ahead-ers can pop over before their dinner reservation!

I have found when you’re hosting a party that the best thing you can do for appetizers is pick three good ones and go ALL IN! So be prepared to make tons of them because no one will dig into a partially empty buffet. I usually make one batch of each of these per every 10 people. But if you are cheese lovers, then maybe add a little more.

BAKED CAMEMBERT

1 wheel of camembert cheese

10 sprigs rosemary

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2 tablespoons honey

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place a bed of rosemary sprigs on a baking sheet and place the unwrapped wheel of cheese on top.

Bake 30-35 minutes until the cheese browns on top. Remove from the oven and let cool 5 minutes.

Move the cheese to a serving dish and discard the cooked rosemary branches. Drizzle the top with honey and sprinkle with walnuts.

Serve with slices of bread or crackers.

I found all of these serving platters at Anko - my new favorite obsession because everything is darling and really well priced. I picked up these pink platters because they’re pink but not PINK. I was friends with a guy who used to call PINK menopause pink because when he was growing up in the south, every woman around 50 years old remodeled her kitchen and added those pink appliances that were so hot for a while. It was the ‘60’s after all. Ever since then I have been super picky about my color pink. I DO NOT WANT menopause pink in my life.

These are not. These are awesome. There are dinner plates and bowls too.

PESTO GORGONZOLA

Undoubtably the simplest appetizer you will ever make. Two ingredients; ten minutes; served hot or cold!

1/2 cup pesto

1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese

1 baguette, sliced

In bowl, mix together the pesto and gorgonzola until evenly mixed. Spread on the top of toasted bread. Toast again for 2-3 minutes in a broiler - or serve cold. Delicious either way.

CANDY COCKTAIL

1 packet grape poprocks

slice of lemon

1 tablespoon chambord

champagne

Rub the edge of a champagne coupe with the slice of lemon and rim with poprocks. Pour in chambord and top with champagne. Serve quickly!

I love combining new things with my collection of vintage barware. These champagne coupes are from the 1950’s and I adore them. I use them all the time because there is literally never a time when gold rimmed champagne coupes aren’t appropriate. If you can find some yourself, I highly encourage you to grab them! I set them on top of a marble board from Anko. I like to have everything grouped together - the marble is a great landing place for glassware ESPECIALLY if you have marble countertops. The slab creates a spot that’s unique but won’t damage your real marble counters in the event anyone spills.

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Pin these for later!

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There is not only one good way to spend Valentine’s Day but I think this is the best way - with your family at home. This is the best way for loads of reasons: 1. Going out for Valentine’s Day is expensive. 2. Most restaurants have a prix fix menu, servers that are grumpy, and are overly busy. 3. Your kids will feel super special if you spend this day with them instead of out on a date. 4. You can go out on a date tomorrow night when everything is back to normal and you can get a seat at a restaurant.

For our family game night I made a fun dinner everyone will eat - but also made it a little bit cheeky and really leaned into the ‘valentine’ theme. Kids love it. And, let’s be honest, I love it too.

Our family’s new favorite game is this hilarious combination of pictionary and being blindfolded - it’s called Googly Eyes. It is hilarious! You roll to land on what color glasses you’ll wear while you attempt to draw something as simple as popcorn. The glasses make it surprisingly challenging. Unless you are Pearl and I - we are a dream team.

HEARTTHROB PASTA

serves 4

STEP 1

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Slice the beets in half and add them to the water as it begins to boil.  When the water has come to a boil, add the pasta.

STEP 2

When the pasta is nearly cooked, turn the heat off and let rest for 30 minutes.  

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

STEP 3

Unroll the package of crescent dough and press together all of the seams.  Slice the dough into strips.  Twist the dough and form it into a heart.  

Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

STEP 4

Heat a skillet with the olive oil.  Cook the peppers, onion, and garlic over medium heat until softened. Remove the beets from the pasta, remove the skin with a paper towel (by rubbing it off), chop them and add them to the skillet.

STEP 5

Drain the pasta – reserving at least one cup of pasta water – and toss the pasta with the peppers.  Add the pasta water and toss until a sauce has formed.  Remove from heat and sprinkle parmesan on top.  

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 sweet onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbs olive oil

2 beets

½ lb pasta

½ cup parmesan cheese

1 package crescent dough

CUPID SPRITZ

1 ounce pomegranate juice

1 ounce vodka

DRY Sparkling Lavender

In a glass filled with ice, layer vodka and pomegranate juice. Top with DRY Sparkling and serve! For those without booze, just skip the vodka and don’t forget to garnish with a cherry.

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THIS IS A SPONSORED POST. ALEXANDRA HEDIN HAS RECEIVED PAYMENT OR PRODUCTS IN EXCHANGE FOR PROMOTING. ALL OPINIONS STATED ARE MY OWN AND I ONLY PROMOTE PRODUCTS AND COMPANIES I LOVE.

All month Jordan of Oh Happy Day has been posting the most hilarious "Anti-Valentine" Valentine ideas.  Every time I'm scrolling through them I find myself giggling at her hilarious un-valentine sentiments, like "I need space" or "The magic is gone."

So when I started making one of my favorite cocktails - a Negroni - into something kind of fun for Valentines day, I realized the bitterness of the aperol lent itself perfectly to an anti-valentine cocktail!  

SHOT THROUGH THE HEART

makes 4

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake aperol and gin together.  Strain into four cocktail glasses, dividing the gin mixture equally.  Top with Blood Orange DRY Sparkling and serve while it's cold. Cin Cin. 

2 ounces Aperol 

4 ounces gin

Blood Orange DRY Sparkling

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In the event you forgot to get a dinner reservation for Valentine's Day - or if you're like me - you don't want to waste a perfectly good evening out on a prix fix menu and overly crowded restaurants. - let's eat in!

I have become a master of the "indoor steak" technique over the last few years for a number of reasons, but mostly because it is so freaking easy!  SO EASY!  It's how restaurants do their steaks - there aren't grills in most restaurants - so they skillet sear and broil them too.  It keeps in the moisture (worst word ever) and creates the deliciously crispy crust on the outside.

The video will show you how easy it is to cook steak in the oven + a bonus cocktail and a side dish you can make in minutes.  (Also, my cute husband is at the end)

Steak au Poivre

serves 4

4 NY Strip steaks

4 tbs crushed peppercorns

2 tbs butter

2 shallot, chopped

½ cup cognac

½ cup beef stock

3 large russet potatoes, sliced in rounds

2 tbs olive oil

2 tsp flake salt

STEP 1

Preheat the broiler to 500 degrees. Heat a cast iron skillet over high heat until the pan is smoking hot.  Pat the steaks dry and push each one into the peppercorns. 

STEP 2

Pop the steaks on the hot skillet.  Sear 3 minutes each side until browned.

STEP 3

Toss potatoes in olive oil and salt.  Spread out on a baking sheet and pop in the lowest rack in the oven for 5 minutes.  Check and flip as needed to brown them but not burn them.

STEP 4

Top each steak with ½ tbs butter and pop the pan into the oven.  Cook 5-8 minutes until meat thermometer reads 145 degrees. Remove from the oven and let rest covered on a plate with foil for 5 minutes.

STEP 5

Place pan on a high burner and pour in shallots – cook quickly.  Add cognac & stock and whisk.  Season with salt.  Cook to reduce by 1/2.  Plate steaks and top with sauce.

NOTES

-       Traditionally this is cooked with heavy cream.  That didn’t seem needed with this gorgeous steak but if you want to add ½ cup cream with the sherry, it’s delicious.

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I don't think you need me to tell you how to make it romantic at home.  But I will remind you that music helps.  A lot.  Have music.  

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