Heart-shaped Lasagna

I was inspired by an ad that came in the mail and an online article about heart-shaped lasagna.  Even though two articles cautioned against trying this at home, I wanted to attempt it.

My large heart-shaped pan did not arrive in time for valentine's day.  So I decided to make individual lasagnas.

I used my own easy lasagna recipe.

The only trick to making heart-shaped lasagna is to cut the sheets of pasta to fit the pan.  I discovered that I had a heart-shaped cookie cutter just smaller than my pan.  That was a life saver!

I layered each one like a regular lasagna.

 

 

After baking the lasagnas, I topped them with cheese and put them under the broiler.  To get the cheese in a heart shape, I used the cookie cutter as a template.  I added sauce around the outside of the cookie cutter to keep the cheese from spreading.

I put the lasagna in the oven and crossed my fingers.

It was the perfect day to wear my new apron that was a gift from my in-laws.

Happy Day of Love and Friendship!

Individual Valentine Tarts

Every year I try to think of fun food to make for valentine's day.  This year a friend gave me a set of heart-shaped spring form pans, so that was my inspiration.

I made a half batch of my favorite sugar cookie dough recipe.  I baked it in the spring form pans until golden.  Since it's cookie dough, it puffed up.  Before it cooled I used a spoon to press down on the center to make a well for the filling.

I filled one with Trader Joe's lemon curd and topped it with blueberries.  The other one I filled with Nutella and topped with raspberries.  I'm not sure which is tastier!

With the extra dough, I made giant cookie pops.  I rolled the dough thick and inserted a cookie stick before I baked it.

They will make a sweet gift.

Valentine Pops

I made a big batch of chocolate suckers to give to my colleagues, my son's preschool classmates and teachers, and our favorite babysitter.  I like using a thinner chocolate for suckers so it settles nicely into the mold.  I used 2/3 Ghirardelli melts and 1/3 Wilton melts.

I found valentine buckets and shred at the One Spot at Target.  I found the milk bottle and ribbon at Joann's.  I think they turned out cute!