Happy Valentines day

 Good morning, I hope you are having a nice Valentines Day.  Mr H and I agreed years ago that we didn't do Valentines.  We would usually have a nice dinner in the house but that would be it, so you can imagine my surprise this morning  when....

He knows me too well!  I love fizzy sweeties and always fancy one of the Ness tweed handbags (they're a bit above me price wise!) a brooch is just the thing!

So no pressure on me to find something romantic for him.  I could always try some more chocolates, I  made some salt caramel chocs last week for my friends birthday with a little bit of success and lots of squashed chocolates!

 Step one, melt your chocolate and paint your moulds, I used ice cube trays.

Step 2, make your caramel and once it cools add the salt, pour into the moulds when it is cooler.  The first batch had set too firmly as R woke up with ear ache and took a while to settle back to sleep.  The second batch was gooier and poured beautifully.

step 3, tip out gently onto a plate, ta da! or if you are me, wiggle the mould furiously, say a few choice words as the chocolate cracks into pieces!

Luckily there were enough whole ones to make a box of choc's for my friend and I ended up eating all the squashed ones.  A hard job but someone has to do it! ;-)  I think I may have made the chocolate in the moulds too thin as they were very delicate.  

I'm not sure I would make these ones again, the caramel had a burnt sugar taste which went well with the dark chocolate but I didn't like the salt at all.  The grains seemed to have sunk to the bottom of the bowl so only a few made it into the chocs, which I think was probably a good thing.  We'll see if my friend is still talking to me later today!

Last pic was a wee surprise too,

Not from Mr H this time, but a wee thank you for looking after another friends children while she went through the stress of moving house - rather her than me is all I can say, 1 year on and most of our things are still in boxes.

Have a great day, I hope your significant other is good to you!