Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine's Day: A Tribute to D.




Ah, Valentine's Day. D. and I aren't huge fans of it. The expense, the crowds, the horrific jewelry store commercials all add up to something that feels very forced to us. As D. pointed out once upon a time, it's important to cherish each other the other 364 days, too.

Whether or not you love this holiday, I hope that everyone takes the time to cherish and appreciate their loved ones. Be it a parent, a best friend, or a significant other, we're not whole without those in our lives who love us unconditionally. The ones who cheer us on and aren't too hard on us. The ones who are always there, no matter what. I knew D. was the real thing when I was at my lowest... and he stuck with me.

I can't say it as eloquently as Shauna does over at Gluten-free Girl, so I'll leave it at this: just think about what loves means and who the important people are in your life.

D. and I met in college, so we did a lot of growing up together. By the time our wedding rolled around, we were nearing 10 years of togetherness and all of the battle scars that come with it. Today, we're better than ever. He's the unfailing good in my life. He's thoughtful, kind, courageous, selfless, and wickedly funny. The man can hardly remember what he did last Tuesday, but he'll remember an offhand comment and BAM! turns it into the best Christmas/birthday/random present ever. My biggest cheerleader, he has a way of reminding me in my dark, ranty moments that life really isn't that bad. Thanks to him, I see the good in life more often than I would on my own.

I bring a lot of chaos in my life with my billions of extracurricular activities, sudden career changes, and general inability to say no to something fun or challenging. If it wasn't for D., I wouldn't understand the beauty of a simple Sunday morning with him, Bear, and a bowl of oatmeal. I'd just blast through life without stopping to appreciate anything, let alone the little things.

To celebrate his awesomeness, I thought I'd tell y'all about our wedding favors. Remember that D. is a master of domesticity? Well, it wasn't any different when we were planning our matrimonial festivities. One of us had to have our act together and it was him. We debated on whether or not to have wedding favors, but decided that we'll have really simple ones. He baked cookies with the help of our best man and groomsmen and I made tags for store-bought tea bags.

Points to anyone who figures out where the teabag-tag's line comes from.

The bags came from Twig & Thistle's Valentine's Day Brownie Bags (updated for 2011!). We made our own version of the design on PowerPoint and printed them out on our inkjet printer. The teabag-tags were made on PowerPoint and punched out with a tag-shaped punch. We also added small cuts into the cookie bags, slipped a seating tag into the cuts, and the favors doubled as our seating chart.

Note: the bags are a little hard to find, but look for "craft brown" paper bags. Twig & Thistle has an Etsy shop that carries them. Also, they can be found in restaurant-supply and industrial-supply websites, but you'll have to buy them in bulk.

Last, but certainly not least, D.'s ass-kicking recipe for chocolate chip cookies. He said the recipe's based on the recipe found on the side of a bag of chocolate chips, but he forgot the brand. He also likes to use extra chocolate chips, so one 12 oz. package is technically enough.

D.'s Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Inspired by a bag of chocolate chips, brand unknown)

2 cup plus 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 12 oz. package of semisweet chocolate chips or increase to roughly 15 oz. (it comes out to about 1 1/4 packages of chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sift flour with baking soda and salt. Separately, cream butter with sugar and brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix until batter is smooth and completely combined. Stir in chocolate pieces. Using a small cookie scoop (or heaping teaspoon), place scoops of dough 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 12 minutes or until golden. Remove to wire rack to cool.

Makes 3-4 dozen cookies.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

20 bites:

caninecologne said...

What a nice story about your wedding favors and your husband...thanks for sharing! :)

happy valentine's!

haha - the word ver is:
Peell

Jun Belen said...

Hooray for our cheerleaders!! Life would be dark and full of our rants if it weren't for the people who make us see the glass half full. I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day either... why cram all the love and romance in a singe day, right? But I hope you had a lovely day with D. and Bear and those delicious chocolate chip cookies!

Amber said...

Awww! A post for D. That's the sweetest. Love your wedding favors!

I really like your writing in this story. Happy Valentine's Day, friend!

Kim in the Kitchen said...

Awww...so sweet. Do I get bonus points even if you told me the answer long ago?

Mary said...

That's so cute! What a nice tribute! I laughed at the tea tag before I even saw your line about "bonus points". :)

Aimee said...

marie i loved this post! i am so glad that you guys have such a solid relationship - and friendship! the most important part... yay for unconditional love and encouragement!

i also love, love your favors. so perfect. i am inclined to have a crush on your husband now because he chose to spend hours before his wedding baking cookies.

in my version of heaven at the same time you were somewhere drinking a beer.

happy v day! xo

laura said...

I love the tea bag label, where did you get it?

Anonymous said...

A.) Thank you again for the Twitter shoutout. :)

B.) The hubs and I were together for over eight years (and had known each other for ten) by the time we got married--it's nice to see another couple with similar history! That said, I can't picture my husband baking cookies prior to the wedding (though he did do his share of wedding tasks, I will say)--your favors are/were so sweet and thoughtful.

Happy Valentine's!

kirbie said...

Aw, what a sweet post!

vietfoodrecipes said...

Simply sweet!

Damaris said...

Very sweet. I love the bag and the sentiments as well.

moowiesqrd said...

No worries! Loved your post on Meyer lemons. Totally know what you mean when meeting another couple with the same history.

moowiesqrd said...

Hi Laura... we made the labels by creating a template on PowerPoint. After printing it out on Neenah cardstock, we punched them out with a tag-shaped punch. It's pretty easy and very inexpensive.

moowiesqrd said...

Hahahaha... actually, I was drinking scotch. My bachelorette was the night these cookies were baked. Not the night before, but two nights before. I had a blast, but it was not wise to be hungover the day of our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner!

moowiesqrd said...

So glad you did! A lot of people at our wedding didn't. ;) Our best man applauded my restraint at the amount of Star Trek references.

moowiesqrd said...

Hahahaha... yes, you do! ;)

moowiesqrd said...

Thanks, Amber! The writing's a work in progress. ;)

moowiesqrd said...

I totally agree... why cram all of the love and romance into one day? Hope you had a great day with your D. and Stanford!

moowiesqrd said...

Thanks, CC!

moowiesqrd said...

Thanks Kirbie!

20 bites