By Mary Ellen Psaltis
Everyone gets to be a sweetie on Valentine’s Day. Celebrate with a sprinkle or two of sweet delights. If you are short on baking time or talent, do the next best thing – walk around Bayview Thriftway’s dessert aisles and discover all sorts of enticing ways to satisfy the sweet tooth of your Valentine (and yours, too.) If you can imagine what you want… it’s probably already wrapped and waiting for you.
Here are a few suggestions:
Peek at the petit fours.
These are delicate cake squares encased in glossy frosting. Topped with tiny rosebuds or hearts, they make tempting treats.
Find the fudge.
Shelly Brown, Deli/Bakery Manager, finally procured the fudge-making machine of her dreams. It’s a big kettle that makes a whopping thirty-six pounds of fudge per batch. With flavors galore and plenty of recipes to mix and match, you’ll find new creations each month. February features Pretty Nutty in Pink. “It’s all really fun,” says Brown. Be sure to notice their new display area where you will see cupcakes consisting entirely of fudge. They are sure to go down easily, especially with a cup of hot coffee. Small boxes of pre-wrapped fudge are accompanied by a plastic knife (so you don’t eat it all in one bite.)
Collect the cookies.
Main Street Cookie Co. frosts some of their sugar cookies a happy pink. Udi’s makes snickerdoodles and oatmeal raisin cookies without gluten. There are even cookies without wheat. Too Good Gourmet packages almond tea and chocolate fudge cookies in pearl-handled purses – cute as can be.
Savor the Silk.
Seattle’s Alaska Silk, a gluten-free mixture of butter, sugar, and pasteurized eggs, is the basis for scrumptious chocolate (dark and white) goodies like Pecan Turtles and Salted Caramel Crunch. They have sizes that are perfect for sharing with one other lucky person.
Consider a cake.
Storman’s bakery (located within Ralph’s) will be happy to personalize a sheet cake for your Valentine event. Olympia’s Bearded Lady has cakes in the cooler section, boxed and ready to go. Just Desserts can supply a carrot cake or pumpkin spice.
Choose a cheesecake.
Chuckanut Bay’s Fabulous Four cheese cake gives you four different flavors in one cake: ¼ each signature New York, Chocolate Truffle, Very Berry and White Chocolate Raspberry.
Delight in a donut.
Freshly delivered Twister donuts could certainly fulfill the sweet tooth for many. Taste one yourself.
Crave the crunch.
The Sisters Baking Company has several varieties of granola-type snacks including Rain City Crunch. Tasting is believing.
Imagine Ice Cream.
Even in winter, Olympia Mountain Ice Cream or gelato is a treat. Coconut is popular year-round.
Better your Breakfast. Wagner’s European Bakery and Café bakes a perennial favorite – rolled cinnamon bread. For a breakfast fit for a Queen (or other royalty) use this bread for French toast.
Search for Savories.
Take home Bagel Brothers bagels, then toast and slather then with butter, cream cheese and jam – or any combination of those. The store alsomstocks an abundance of crackers, quality cheeses and nuts to balance out your sugar.
At Bayview I found brownies, pecan brittle, wine and flowers. Have fun exploring and then picking out just the right treats for all the Valentine’s in your life.
Would you rather whip up something yourself?
Become a cake pop expert with the help of the Spring Cake Pop kit. Everything you need for a fun afternoon.
Relive a childhood memory (or create a new one) with Monsieur Bon-Bon’s Secret “Fooj” recipe. When I was 9 years old I made my first batch of this excellent fudge. It’s at the end of Ian Fleming’s book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the story of a family with a magical car. I still remember dropping a spoonful of the hot liquid into a cup of cold water waiting to see if it turned into a soft ball – meaning it was ready for the next step. The resulting pan of fudge is totally smooth (not grainy) and truly good. As the recipe suggests, as soon as it’s cool – DEVOUR! (eat up gleefully). All ingredients are available inside the Bayview.
Monsieur Bon-Bon’s Secret “Fooj”
1 pound granulated sugar (2 cups)
1 small can evaporated milk
¼ pound finest butter
1-tablespoon water
1-tablespoon corn syrup
4 tablespoons unsweetened chocolate (2 squares)
Put the ingredients into a saucepan. Melt slowly on a low gas until the mixture thickens slightly and is absolutely smooth. Turn up gas and boil very quickly until it forms into a soft ball when a sample is dropped into cold water. Remove from heat and beat well with a wooden spoon.
Pour the whole mixture into a flat, greased pan, mark in squares and leave to set.
When cold, DEVOUR!
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Eat Well – Be Well
