Thank Goodness for Valentine's Day

My tune about the big V-Day has changed slightly, and this has nothing to do with having gotten married. I now fully embrace it for a holiday on (and around) which I am 'allowed' (not as if I'm not allowed on other days, but I try and refrain) to make any and every dessert (especially chocolate ones) that I deem necessary. This year, at least two fell into that category.

And what is one to do when you have two desserts and only one recognized "eat all the chocolate you want" holiday? Of course! Invite people over the day before to share in at least one of them, thereby legitimizing said aforementioned extraneous (though no desserts in this house are extraneous) desserts.

I had no problems finding some delicious-looking choices for this year's big day... narrowing down the selection was my real issue. But in the end, I think we did just fine:

To finish off our fun pre-V-Day dinner party, we all enjoyed Martha's one-bowl chocolate cupcakes dipped in chocolate glaze.

These really did require only one-bowl and were as moist and chocolatey as one could ask for. Plus, now that I know about dipping cupcakes into the glaze, there's about a 99.99% chance I may never frost a cupcake any other way.

And our second V-Day weekend dessert, Pioneer Woman's Baked Fudge. Not only did these deliver that perfect sweet finish to our special meal, they are a bloggers dream because really, the name says it all.

Oh - and I should mention, both of these desserts are as easy to make as they seem, absolutely no strings attached. If I did it, you can too.