Le jour de la Saint-Valentin

Happy Valentine's Day! Here we're celebrating with snow, flowers, biscuits and hearts... what else? (See the final photo in this post from 2010 which shows another snowy Valentine's Day in the south of France).Ben gave me the campanula, complete with a specially-made heart on a stick - not just any stick either, as he made it at work and used a waste pipette, so it's a true scientist's heart! Spot the grubby plate - no staged photography here (today, anyway...).

Son 2 made and decorated the biscuits yesterday. He is not giving a Valentine to the girl of his heart, as it would be embarassing (complex circumstances are involved). So he's taken out his romantic attentions on the rest of the family, badgering me and Ben to know what we would be giving each other!

I made Ben this heart card, with a design based somewhat on one I saw on Carolyn's blog - I did ask first! I wanted to link to Carolyn (her blog is Mess, Muddles and Fun) but something on my computer is going crazy and not letting me highlight, so I can't, sorry!

I'll leave you with a last glimpse of Son 2's biscuits (made with a Christmas present Cookie Press) and the recipe for very easy shortbread which I promised Serenata. As I said yesterday, this came originally from Sumea who got it from her Scottish friend Betty, so it's a lovely, practical way of sharing some more love about on Valentine's Day:

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9oz plain flour

4oz cornflour (I use polenta for more texture, it depends on what you like)

4 oz caster sugar

8 oz butter

pinch of salt

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Melt the butter slowly. Put all the ingredients together into a bowl, add the melted butter and knead together. Press into a tin or flan dish and bake at 160° for about 50 minutes (much less time in our fan oven) until pale gold. When it comes out, prick it with a fork for decoration, cut your portions with a knife and sprinkle with sugar. Leave to cool in the tin. Remove before it gets completely cold (i.e. don't leave it until the next day!)

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So, so easy - I use it as a 'panic' recipe when I realise I've got nothing else to feed the family and I don't have time to bake anything more complex! I hope Serenata's dad enjoys it...