A Valentine Dinner

I always try to make a heart-themed dinner for Valentine's Day, but the day almost escaped me this year. Somewhere between 4:30 and 5:00 this afternoon I realized what day it was, and that I needed to get busy.

My usual approach is to make a heart-shaped meatloaf, but we were all out of raw ground beef. So I thought a bit and came up with this menu:

Shepherd's Pie
Tossed Salad
Berry Cobbler a la Mode

The Shepherd's Pie is made with leftover beef roast, leftover potatoes (turned into mashed potatoes for the top "crust"), carrots, peas, and gravy from leftover stock. At the last minute I sprinkled paprika through a heart cookie cutter to garnish the top.

For the tossed salad, I added artichoke hearts and sliced beets cut into hearts with a tiny cookie cutter.

The berry cobbler was made with raspberries, the only fruit I had in the freezer. I baked it in my heart pan, and then we used up the last few tablespoons of vanilla ice cream in the freezer.

I also dropped a few drops of red food coloring into our water pitcher to make every bit of our meal festive.

I decorated the other family members' place settings with a red heart topped with a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup (their favorite).