Well, this is really late, but I still thought I’d share a few recipes I used for my family over the Valentine’s weekend. It’s really fun for me to use the holidays as an excuse to spoil them and try out some new recipes. I found this first recipe in a Food and Wine Magazine Cookbook – a compilation of recipes from their magazine from 2006. This cookbook was just sitting amongst a few other recipes at my dad’s house in Texas. Being fairly certain that he was not actually using this cookbook to feed himself, I decided to bring it home and add it to my collection! Here is a recipe for a wonderful way to eat your citrus fruits. I added honey to the recipe, because my taste testers said that it wasn’t sweet enough. You could add stevia or agave, too – if you want to stick with natural sweeteners. I always sprinkle stevia on their breakfast grapefruit instead of sugar!

2 grapefruits
2 oranges
2 tangerines or clementines
1 Tbsp honey
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp finely grated lime zest
3/4 cup sliced almonds
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp canola oil
pinch of salt

Using a sharp knife, peel the grapefruits, oranges, and tangerines, removing all white pith. Cut in between membranes to release sections into bowl. (That’s the hard part!) Gently stir in the lime zest, honey, and cinnamon. Spoon mixture into 4 individual ramekins. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

In a small bowl, toss the almonds with the brown sugar, oil, and salt. Sprinkle over each filled ramekin. Broil for 2-3 minutes, rotating ramekins until almonds are golden brown. Serve immediately.

These muffins are from Mollie Katzen’s Sunlight Cafe Cookbook – I just substitute the flour, and this time I used this cute cast iron heart mold that I received as a wedding gift from my friend Kelly. (That’s you, Mrs. Witt.)

2 1/3 cups GF flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
6-8 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups milk
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 stick butter

Combine flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, baking powder in bowl. In a second bowl, beat together ricotta, eggs, milk, and vanilla. Melt butter and add the ricotta mixture and butter to the dry ingredients. Stir until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Spoon batter into muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes @ 350 degrees.

And, I’ve been looking for a way to easily make hot chocolate without using the store bought packets with their long lists of semi-recognizable-corn-syrup-solids-whatever-that-is ingredients. Well, there are many ways to do this, but here’s an easy one that I found online, and that the kids have been enjoying. They woke up to new mugs filled with chocolates which were quickly dumped out so they could be filled with this warm goodness on heart day morning!

Homemade Creamy Hot Chocolate

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup sugar
1 pinch salt
1/3 cup boiling water
3 1/2 cups milk
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup half and half cream

Place sugar, salt, and cocoa in bottom of a saucepan and stir together. Add boiling water and stir until thoroughly combined. Bring this mixture to an easy boil and stir while simmering for about 2 minutes. Stir in milk and heat until very hot. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Divide between mugs, and add cream to cool and add richness!