Valentines through the Years

My husband and I have been together 13 Valentines now. I will never forget our very first Valentines Day. It was amazing! He went BIG in every way. A BIG card - A BIG teddy bear. A BIG box of candy. A beautiful diamond necklace. A wonderful night out on the town. Everything about our first V-Day together was so much fun!

Not a whole lot has changed over the years - he knows that I love Valentines Day. He always makes it special for me. Over the years I have gotten many bottles of perfume - all my favorites - Passion, Obsession, Eternity, Beautiful. He knows what I love and he always makes it a point to see which perfume is needed the most during Christmas or my birthday and Valentines Day. This year at Christmas he bought me a bottle of every one of my favorite perfumes - so I wasn't surprised that this Valentines Day - perfume was not on the list (whew!)

I have gotten stuffed animals over the years - cute white dogs holding hearts, teddy bears, one year he even bought me several Webkinz when I was really into those.

Jewelry - diamond earrings, necklace - (still waiting on that great big HUGE diamond, tho! :-)

The most unusually sweet Valentines Day? Every thing came from a Christian bookstore - he bought me a purple bible, a pretty bookmark, a card and a magnet and then I still got my romantic bottle of perfume, Eternity, how appropriate.

He knows me well - this year for Valentines Day - a STARBUCKS card, a big box of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and a cute card that sings "My Girl". I love Starbucks! We plan to go to the movies to see The Vow.

I never know what he is going to come up with each year - I know it will always be something I am going to love.  I love my Valentine - he is the sweetest man I have ever known. I am a lucky girl.

♥Happy Valentines Day♥

Patty Cake Patty Cake - Cake Mix & Diet Pepsi

I've seen recipes where you can add your cola of choice to a box of brownie mix. I have also heard that Weight Watchers says you can make a cake using diet cola and your favorite cake mix. Today I decided to put it to the test. The only cake mix I had in my pantry was German Chocolate. I always have either Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi in the fridge. Simple enough - no eggs, no oil - just 12 ounces of Diet Pepsi - add to the mix - stir stir stir. ( I am not motivated enough to drag out my mixer, put it all together and then have to clean it up - put away again:-()

I made mine using 2 layer cake pans. Once out of the oven - I decided at the last minute to put a layer of Nutella on one of the cake layers while it was still hot. I LOVE Nutella. I let them cool just a bit before putting the layers together. I sprinkled powdered sugar all over the top layer and then cut into it while still warm.

It was amazing! It was so gooey inside with the Nutella melting into the bottom layer - I think the next time I make it I will add some caramel sauce to it. That will really set it off. I don't think this would meet Weight Watcher approval, but then I don't do WW - so no problem for me!

So - now I know - any flavor cake mix - diet coke/pepsi - Nutella, caramel or chocolate sauce - or any other favorite topping - and a yummy quickie cake is born.