It all started innocently. A dear friend came over to bake and decompress. She is far more talented in the land of dough, so she did the honors:

In my desperate search for a heart cookie cutter, I came across a few other shapes that I simply could not bear to abandon mere days before the retail holiday of affection.

Thus, love lobsters. (These cookies are also courtesy of Deb at Smitten Kitchen — the coconut shortbread cookies posted recently.)

My valentine and I (and Boh) managed an afternoon walk to celebrate. The ground was frozen, but the sun was shining.

For dinner, I turned to Deb again — this stuffed cabbage recipe had caught my eye. There are lots of leftovers, and all parties are excited about that. My only hot tip? Next time, I’m going to use cooked rice, as the half cup mixed into the filling seemed to take forever to cook. (As in, many jokes were cracked about our romantic three course meal — the first two courses being delicious rolls of cabbage and filling, with slightly underdone rice.)

I rarely remember to take pictures before we eat — while I was packaging leftovers, I realized I wanted to document this meal, so I dumped the container back into the pot…splitting open a few of the rolls. Trust me when I say this can/did look prettier, and that it was delicious, homey and hearty.

Time to get some work done on this Sunday afternoon — hoping to have some knitting to share very soon…