Tiny Candy Hearts and Mini Meatballs

I spent at least two hours this afternoon making bite-sized meatballs in marinara sauce, to be served at our Valentine party on Saturday. I went grocery shopping this afternoon, intending to buy those frozen, pre-made meatballs. I found the large-size frozen meatballs, but they didn't have the bite-sized ones. I picked up the bag of regular sized meatballs and read the label. Jeez.....

Plus, I kept seeing my Aunt Dolly's face in front of me. You're buying frozen meatballs? Frozen? FROZEN???? I couldn't do it. Back went the package of meatballs. I headed to the meat counter and bought five pounds of the best ground round. Then I went to the canned tomatoes and looked for Progresso.

And what do I have now? A pot of super-delicious bite-sized meatballs in the best pot of marinara sauce I've ever made. All ready for the party...... the meatballs will be soaking up all that sauce between now and Saturday and they'll taste even better than they do now.

That is, if I can keep my husband out of the pot. He came home late this afternoon and I told him to take two if he wanted to taste. Two turned into four... four turned into seven... I think he's had about 10 of them. "And that," said I, "is dinner.... because I'm not cooking anything else tonight."

As for the little-bitty candy hearts..... I decided to buy a couple of bags of those little heart-shaped Valentine mints, the ones with the two and three-word messages on them. When we had our Halloween party, I filled up a pretty cellophane bag with candy corn and everyone had fun guessing how many candy corns were in the bag. So I did the same thing with the little hearts. Prizes for the winners... one prize for the man who gets closest to the number, another prize for the woman who gets closest. And, of course--- the person whose guess is furthest from the correct number gets the bag of candy hearts. (A sweet consolation prize.)

I'm also having the "What Kind of Shoe Are You?" quiz for everyone, so that should be fun. Between the potluck dinner, the shoe quiz, guessing the heart-mints, and Charades, everyone should be very busy. Oh... I've also got the Victorian "crackers" ready for opening after Charades. And Mardi Gras-type heart necklaces for all of the ladies... and huge red heart balloons for each couple.... and the Valentine gift bags for each person. Lots of fun things for this party.

Got to stop typing... my husband is on his way towards the kitchen...